February 15, 2024
Love was in the air at St. John’s University as alumni couples whose love stories began on campus returned for the annual Blessing of the Couples Mass and reception.
Held on February 10 in St. Thomas More Church on the Queens, NY, campus, the Mass was celebrated by University President Rev. Brian J. Shanley, O.P. The homilist was Deacon Rachid Murad ’94SVC. After the couples renewed their vows, a reception was held in the narthex.
Sara Hunt Munoz, Ed.D., Senior Director, Alumni Engagement, Office of Alumni Relations, who joined the University last September, was attending the annual celebration for the first time.
“The Blessing of the Couples Mass is a long-standing St. John’s tradition that brings alumni couples back to campus to celebrate the strength and beauty that comes from a lifelong partnership,” she observed. “The event allows everyone to reflect on the importance of nurturing relationships and cherishing the commitments we’ve made.”
Norman Jardine ’69C, ’73MBA and Joan Dukes ’68Ed, ’71G were friends as members of the Glee Club during their undergraduate years at St. John’s, and reconnected years later. “We met in November of 1965,” Ms. Dukes recalled. “I was an alto and he was a bass.”
The two reconnected about 20 years later at a meeting for singles at the Church of St. Aidan in Williston Park, NY. “It was such a small world,” she commented. “We talked a little bit, and when the night ended, I told him if he wanted to talk some more, he could give me a call,” she smiled. “An angel on my shoulder told me this was the man I was going to marry.”
Mr. Jardine remarked that the couple enjoy returning to St. John’s for events like Blessing of the Couples, and Lessons and Carols, which is dear to both of them. “We just love supporting St. John’s, and tonight’s event was very moving,” Ms. Dukes added.
Sean Strockyj, Esq. ’02L and Kirandeeo Madra, Esq. ’02L met as students at the School of Law, became friends, and reconnected years after graduating. “We met in the Fall of 1999 during our first semester. We were seated next to each other. He kept staring at me, and I told him to do his work,” she joked.
“We developed a nice friendship that lasted throughout the years,” he observed, noting that they reconnected fully when they bumped into each other in a courtroom. The pair developed a relationship and were married on the heels of Hurricane Sandy, “which was a challenge,” Mr. Strockyj laughed.
This was their first Blessing of the Couples. “I always said, ‘We have to go to this and we finally made it,’” Mr. Strockyj said.
During his homily, Deacon Murad noted the decline of sacramental marriages over the last 50 years. “The decline of marriage is not a Catholic problem or a Christian problem—it’s a societal problem,” he stressed.
“As a society, we are in a crisis of marriage because it is through marriage we begin the preliminary stages of social order, which is directly linked to family.” He added that with the decline of family, society is beginning to lose its moral compass “because God is no longer the foundation of the sacrament of holy matrimony.”
Marriage, Deacon Murad observed, is joy, peace, gentleness, patience, and self-control, “which are all the fruits of the Holy Spirit.”
The institution becomes more work when a society that promotes technology, greed, and sex sees no value in it, he noted. He added we are experiencing a poverty of spirit and morality as a country.
Deacon Murad told the congregation that it is their responsibility to evangelize to their communities about the importance of marriage. “We can plant a seed with those we encounter about the spiritual value of marriage. Marriage gives life to the family.”