NATCHEZ &045; Time: savor each moment, appreciating each season of your life, and use the time and talents you have to their very fullest.

That was the overriding theme of Trinity Episcopal Day School’s 35 graduation ceremonies, held Sunday at Trinity Episcopal Church with a keynote speech by the Rt. Rev. Duncan Gray III, bishop of Mississippi.

Setting the tone for the ceremony, which was packed with almost 600 people, was a reading from Ecclesiastes: &uot;To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.&uot;

The author of that passage was &uot;seeking the meaning, the purpose, the value of life, Š and I trust that is at the heart of the journey of your own life,&uot; Gray told graduates.

Part of the solution is to acknowledge that life itself is a gift, appreciating the complexity, beauty and holiness of life, Gray said.

The world’s screaming bumper-sticker-type slogans don’t even come close to telling the true, full meaning of life, he said.

&uot;No one person or group &uot;has (sole) possession of the truth,&uot; Gray said. &uot;We need each other.&uot;

Gray told graduates to also to be constantly thankful for the other gifts they didn’t earn, such as being born into their homes and into this nation and for their churches and school.

Graduates told the crowd they’re thankful for what they’ve learned from the school’s faculty and staff, all their supporters and fellow graduates, many of whom have attended Trinity together since kindergarten.

Armed with those lessons, they said, they’re ready to go to the next level.

&uot;We are looking toward the next steps of our future, and we are ready,&uot; Salutatorian William Harris Jr. said.

&uot;We have the minds and talents it takes&uot; to succeed, class President William Edward Godfrey IV said.

But first, said Valedictorian Thomas Allain, stop to appreciate the time of life you’re in right now, &uot;savoring this time with the people you love.&uot;