The After Dinner Scholar

Graduation 2023-Senior Address by Miss Emma Hermanson

Each year the Wyoming Catholic College senior class chooses one of its members to deliver a speech at graduation. The Class of 2023 chose Miss Emma Hermanson.

Before coming to Wyoming Catholic College, Emma Hermanson spent her high school years at a classical school in Colorado. At Wyoming Catholic, her favorite part of the curriculum was the humanities track, feeding her abiding love of literature. After graduation, Emma will be getting married and beginning her work as a high school literature and writing teacher in the fall.

Here is what Emma had to say at graduation.

For information on The 2023 Wyoming School of Catholic Thought click here.

Graduation 2023: The President’s Address by Dr. Glenn Arbery

This past Saturday, May 13 began what we’ve come to call our graduation triduum, three days of celebrating the achievements of ther Wyoming Catholic College Class of 2023.

Graduation weekend begins with the senior dinner on Saturday evening—seniors, faculty, and staff only. Monday was Commencement. And Sunday, after Baccalaureate Mass we held The President’s Dinner at which college president, Dr. Glenn Arbery, addressed seniors their parents, families, and friends along with the faculty and staff.

Here’s what Dr. Arbery had to say.

Much Ado About Much Ado with Dr. Tiffany Schubert

BENEDICK                                But it is certain I am loved of all ladies, only you excepted: and I would I could find in my heart that I had not a hard heart; for, truly, I love none.

BEATRICE A dear happiness to women: they would else have been troubled with a pernicious suitor. I thank God and my cold blood, I am of your humour for that: I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man swear he loves me.

BENEDICK God keep your ladyship still in that mind! so some gentleman or other shall 'scape a predestinate scratched face.

William Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing” has it all: heroes, villains, loyalty and betrayal, hatred and love, serious crime and silly sidelights. At one point it veers dangerously close to utter tragedy only to come right again with true love conquering even the coldest hearts.

I asked Dr. Tiffany Schubert to begin giving us an overview of the play.

Sacred Music and Renewal with Mr. Paul Jernberg

There was a time not too long ago when every church had a church choir. Ordinary people knew how to sing parts and often tackled difficult pieces of music with wonderful results.

At Wyoming Catholic College, the choir loft in our oratory and, during special masses such as our upcoming graduation mass, the choir loft at Holy Rosary Church here in Lander are crowded places. Our students love to sing.

And this spring semester they have the added inspiration of a new choir director, our Composer in Residence, Paul Jernberg. Mr. Jernberg is also the founder and director of the Magnificat Institute of Sacred Music.

St. Thomas on Providence with Dr. Michael Bolin

“We know,” St. Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome, “that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose.”

Those words from St. Paul can and should comfort us. Nothing happens in our lives or our world that God does not intend to bring about good for His children. His providential care surrounds us. On the other hand, terrible things happen in our lives and in the world around us. Does God will evil? Allow evil? Maybe evil is not what we think it is?

Dr. Michael Bolin has been reading St. Thomas Aquinas’ Compendium Theologiae with our Wyoming Catholic College sophomores considering, among other things, that “all things are governed by divine providence.”

Political Rhetoric and the Common Good with Dr. Virginia Arbery

In almost every walk of life and vocation, the ability to express yourself orally with clarity, precision, and persuasiveness are vital. That’s obvious for priests, teachers, salespeople, politicians, and lawyers, but consider that engineers, managers, administrators, builders, doctors, at-home moms, and…well, you name it… make presentations and proposals to individuals and groups.

This semester Dr. Virginia Arbery and Dr. Tonkowich each have two sections of sophomores for Trivium 202 and sat down for this conversation.

Gerard Manley Hopkins’ ”Spring” with Dr. Glenn Arbery

Fr. Gerard Manley Hopkins, S.J. (1844-1889) is considered to be one of the greatest poets of the Victorian Era though, oddly, the Victorian Era never read Hopkins. While, imitating his father, he wrote poetry while growing up, he burned his early poems when he decided to become—of all things—a Roman Catholic priest, having been raised High Church Anglican and he wrote no poetry for years.

His later poetry, the poems we have today, were only published thirty years after his death.

Wyoming Catholic College President, Dr. Glenn Arbery suggested Hopkins' poem "Spring" would be a good one to consider during this Octave of Easter.

Jesus Condemned Commentary by St. Augustine read by Dr. Jim Tonkowich

St. Augustine of Hippo who lived AD 354 – 430 delivered 124 lectures moving verse-by-verse through the entire the Gospel of John. This being Holy Week, here is lecture 116 in which Augustine discussed Jesus’ final condemnation by Pontius Pilate in John 19:1-16.

This is what St. Augustine had to say.

The text is copyrighted by d by the Christian Classics Ethereal Library.

Sacred Signs with Dr. Kent Lasnoski

Papal biographer and scholar George Weigel is fond of saying that for Catholics, “stuff matters.” Stuff like our physical bodies, bread, wine, water, incense, candles, bells, linen, altars, and ashes. Catholic Christianity is deeply incarnational, rooted firmly in God’s good Creation. And that rooting shows itself most clearly when we worship, that is, in the liturgy of the Mass.

Fr. Romano Guardini was one of the towering Catholic intellectuals of the twentieth century who for all his erudition, wrote a simple little book entitled Sacred Signs in which he gently and simply explained this connection between  material and the inner world of the spirit.

The book is a favorite of theologian Dr. Kent Lasnoski and a wonderful book to read during these last weeks of Lent.

Outdoor Week with Dr. Tom Zimmer

This week the Wyoming Catholic College campus is deserted. Our dorms are empty. The kitchen and dining hall are silent. It’s Spring Outdoor week.

A Wyoming Catholic College education begins with three weeks backpacking in the mountains of Wyoming. After that, they spend an additional seven weeks in the backcountry, a week at a time during our fall and spring Outdoor Weeks.

Why? Dr. Tom Zimmer, Assistant Professor of Leadership and Outdoor Education and Director of the college's Experiential Leadership Program and COR Expeditions answers that question.