Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

Families gathered to see their sons, daughters, and siblings take the last steps of high school as they graduate.

SANTA BARBARA, CA (Catholic Online) - Students from Dos Pueblos, San Marcos, and Santa Barbara High Schools celebrated as they walked across stage to get the achievement that all seniors wait for: their graduation diploma.

Santa Barbara High School is one of the oldest and largest schools in the district with roughly 2,200 students. This year, the school saw 437 students graduate this year. The Peabody Stadium was covered in olive and gold robes as a few hundred students walked across stage. San Marcos High saw 443 of 1,800 students graduate at Warkentin Stadium.

"It feels like just the other day we were here for the first time as freshmen," Dos Pueblos High School senior Justin Morris, who will be attending UC Berkeley in the fall to major in engineering, said. "It's a pretty crazy feeling to be standing here now."

Ed Heron, Santa Barbara Board of Education member, stated that he always enjoys graduation, enjoying all the ceremonies and students furthering their lives as they transform from teenagers to adults.

"It's just amazing when I see what they have done and what they've accomplished," Heron said. "It's a pleasure to be a part of it."

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Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for January 2013
General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
Missionary Intention: Middle Eastern Christians. That the Christian communities of the Middle East, often discriminated against, may receive from the Holy Spirit the strength of fidelity and perseverance.