Testimonials
Alumni Profiles
Dave '83 and Kathy (Hochreiter '84) St. Pierre
Dave: Dave works in residential window and door sales for the Granite State Glass Company, Belmont, NH.
Kathy: Kathy raises and homeschools their nine children: John, Maria, Paul, Theresa, Joseph, Katrina, Jacinta, David, and Christina. Kathy is also active in the local Catholic homeschool group and has taught Confirmation in her parish. She is secretary for Serra of New Hampshire which is a lay group that supports vocations to the priesthood and religious life.
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"We have special fondness for Magdalen College for the three people it brought together: Dave, Kathy, and Jesus Christ. While the education affected many aspects of our lives, it first helped to show us the value and strength of friendship based on common beliefs and principles as well as mutual love. It showed us how God is a necessary component to every relationship and it is when we love Him first that our love for each other blossoms.
"Studying the teachings of the Church, especially Pope John Paul II, helped us to have a clear understanding of God‘s plan for marriage and family life and eventually to embrace this vision in our own family. The intellectual formation from Magdalen College's unique approach to the liberal arts has helped our marriage over the years. The objective thinking, so necessary to the pursuit of Truth, has helped us to be fair with each other and even with ourselves when humility is called for. It taught us to look at things from a point of view outside of ourselves, which helps us to judge situations accurately and make decisions for our family that achieves the goals we have in mind.
"In addition to the academics at the College, our lives were filled with a rich liturgical life, discovering fun without television, and making true and lasting friendships. We wanted to foster this in our children at a young age, so we decided to homeschool; we have found this to be the perfect venue for building our family's unity and for passing on what we received at Magdalen. To this end, we encouraged our oldest son to attend the College which has put the finishing touches to the education we have tried to give him all along. To live life well in all its aspects is a great gift to give back to God!"
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Sister Maximilian Marie Garretson, O.P. '99
Work: Loretta Garretson graduated from Magdalen College in 1999. After a few years working as a Director of Religious Education, she discerned her vocation to the religious life.
Religious Vocation: Loretta entered the Sister of Mary Mother of the Eucharist in Ann Arbor, MI in 2001. She received the name Sister Maximilian Marie in 2002.
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"Magdalen College – These were four very important years of my life in regards to my vocation to consecrated Religious Life. It is curious, how this lay–governed, lay–administered Catholic institution responding to the Second Vatican Council‘s teaching about the lay vocation and lay apostolate, opens so many souls to Consecrated Religious Life and the ordained Priesthood. How does this happen? Interestingly enough, this zeal to be a lay apostle for Holy Mother Church was the first step to my vocation as a consecrated Religious Sister. At Magdalen College, I began to understand the importance of the laity in the Church and I welcomed the challenge to holiness. This reality was the first step in walking in the right direction.
"Prior to attending Magdalen College I was living a typical Catholic–American life. My natural, sincere search for happiness merged with a cultural inclination to live in my head, exclude reality, and fosters a distaste for sacrifice. Yet, in my restlessness, I became attracted and enchanted by the truth of my Catholic Faith. At Magdalen College I delved into its truths and the nature of the human person. Through these studies and the relationships which surrounded me, I began to put words to experiences of past emptiness and recognized partial truths I had taken as absolutes. I began to distinguish true happiness from the fictional: the 'all glamour and fun' plastered on billboards and magazine racks; superficial sensuality blaring over the radio; and the seductive autonomy and false sexuality preaching 'happiness' from the movie and television screen. I recognized the evidence of its impact in the very way I spoke, thought, and lived.
"At Magdalen, faculty, staff, and students taught me sincere self–giving, sacrificial love, and the innate dignity of the human person calling forth authentic love and happiness. The reality of community and the social nature of man flew in the face of the culture of individualism I was formed by. Living in a culture where there is no one to turn to, no authority, I had looked only to myself and formed the habit of self–centeredness — "in myself, by myself, for myself." I was left with a narrow universe of "Me, Myself, & I" resulting in a loss of real relationship with another and real happiness. The innate tension between my world view and my nature to love and be loved in this world of isolation drew me to such a unique school not for the sole purpose of career or monetary success...but how to learn to love and love to live."
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