Congratulations, Lauren!

Just look at her! Indomitable. Ready to take on the world! While I was in France . . . my beautiful niece Lauren Elizabeth Hope Cable graduated from Quinnipiac University in Connecticut. Lauren is the daughter of my sister Donna and of her husband Wayne. She has an older brother Sean who has also appeared on Vultus Christi. Uncle Mark sends Lauren a very special blessing . . . and this magnificent text of Cardinal Newman to light her future path:

God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some
work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission -- I
may never know it in this life but I shall be told it in the next. I am a
link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created
me for naught. I shall do good, I shall do His work. I shall be an angel of
peace, a preacher of truth in my own place while not intending it if I do
but keep His commandments. Therefore I will trust Him. Whatever I am, I can
never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him; in
perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him. If I am in sorrow, my sorrow may
serve Him. He does nothing in vain. He knows what He is about. He may take
away my friends. He may throw me among strangers. He may make me feel
desolate, make my spirits sink, hide my future from me -- still He knows
what He is about.