Martin Marty
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Martin Marty at Eastern Mennonite, 2004
A commencement address about disponsibilite, spiritual availability, making room for others, stewardship, gratitude, and carrying presence into vocation.
Speech arc
- 01Eastern Mennonite University
Opening move
- 02Class of 2004
Speech beat
- 03Disponsibilite
Speech beat
- 04Availability
Speech beat
- 05Make room
Speech beat
- 06Mutual presence
Speech beat
- 07Stewardship
Speech beat
- 08Humanize the Earth
Final charge
Memory: One strange word carries the whole charge
Marty asks graduates to remember disponsibilite, using an unusual word as a commencement-day mnemonic for openness.
Mnemonic
The word is meant to stick when most ceremony advice fades.
Tradition
Marty places it beside untranslatable religious and philosophical terms that open meaning.
Practice
The word becomes less a definition than a way to live after graduation.
Marty asks graduates to remember disponsibilite, using an unusual word as a commencement-day mnemonic for openness.
Availability: Presence means making room for another person
Drawing on Gabriel Marcel, the speech defines availability as giving not only attention but selfhood in mutual presence.
Opposite
Unavailability is self-preoccupation, holding back, and shut-in-ness.
Gift
Availability opens a line of credit to another person before results are guaranteed.
Depth
The speech treats availability as spiritual posture, not social politeness alone.
Drawing on Gabriel Marcel, the speech defines availability as giving not only attention but selfhood in mutual presence.
Formation: Education is remembered through faithful presences
Family, churches, friends, classmates, staff, and faculty are honored as people whose availability formed the graduates.
Gratitude
The address looks back at hidden acts of patience and presence behind the diploma.
Community
Education becomes a network of people who made room for growth.
Inheritance
Graduates receive availability so they can practice it for others.
Family, churches, friends, classmates, staff, and faculty are honored as people whose availability formed the graduates.
• Key takeaways •
Remember the word
Connects to availability.
Make room for others
Connects to stewardship.
Give what you are
Connects to gratitude.
Practice stewardship
Connects to vocation.
Humanize the Earth
Connects to faith.
Closing charge
Marty carries the idea into work, friendship, marriage, citizenship, and the shared task of humanizing the Earth.
The next walk asks for stewardship
Work
Vocation is judged by how one becomes available to real needs.
Citizenship
Public life needs people who are not closed around the self.
Charge
A graduate should leave ready to give what they are, not only what they have.
Marty carries the idea into work, friendship, marriage, citizenship, and the shared task of humanizing the Earth.
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Transcript
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Provenance
BROKEN transcript link (checked 2026-06-26): returns 404 Not Found. Provenance: Imported from NPR commencement archive
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