Aquinas High School - Trumpet Yearbook (La Crosse, WI)

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,rg The lite long ambition ol St. Francis ol Assisi to become a missionary in the Orient is realized in part when he appears before the Sultan. Last July Sister M. Charitina left Aquinas to talce up a worlc which, in the words ol Pope Pius Xl, is the greatest and the holiest of all Catholic undertakings - that of a missionary. When she came to live among us, the quiet presence of her powerful character made us turn our heads a little from the juvenile wall4 of lite and now we find ourselves a little older and wiser than we were yesterday. Foolish and arrogant in our youth, we slighted her aid at first as something un- necessary. But she lcnew that we were EDIC foolish, arrogant, and young. And so she taught us how to love, for Charity was a part of her name, before we lcnew it, we had grown attached to her idealsf we discovered that adolescence has ceased to be a sordid state of life, and that it is the most important period in which to develop personality and nourish char- acter, she taught us a code of decency in so gentle a tone, with so masterful a meaning, that we were not languid in gathering up her intentions and when she felt that we lcnew a little about what a personality should resemble, she said to us: Malce the world a little more beau- tiful for your having been in it. From then on, Sister meant something to a great many. One day she told us to hold fast our dreams, and to lceep one secret corner in our hearts where little dreams may go. To scores of us it was a phrase we had unlcnowingly waited lor. There were never many people willing to tell us that dreams and dreamless action constitute the glory of youth. It has to be someone courageous, the lcind whom one never misses until the courageous one has searched the atmosphere for a higher ad- venture. And that same day, she com- pleted our admiration ol her by telling us that she had always wanted to be a missionary. And because she had gar- nered a right to dream, her dream became a reality, and she went away in the autumn when the world was warm and

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personal, and then found it spreading to include vast multitudes of lay people. For was he not the sun? Does not the sun illumine the whole world? Has it not the power ol warmth, of love, of tenderness? lsn't the compounded Sun made up of Light, Obedience, and an intimate contact with every being? Francis too was illum- ined with God, he longed only to be obedient to his Mastery every man to him was Brother, He was the very essence of seraphic joy, of hu- miliation, and of sacrifice. The whole world called him a Fool, and he was glad. Francis died as the sun dies: at twilight when the long day is tired and the sun is as tired as the day it has served. There were birds who had stayed to sing for him for the last time the songs he and Nature had composed. And as the stairs to a new life were revealed to him, heavy lines of brilliant light crossing and climbing the darlcened horizon, he lcnew that Love alone endures. There was no more pain, only a cool, strange peace. And he who in life had lcnown only a weary road, was in death carried triumphantly on white wings into the Kingdom ot Love. All his life was love and because the degradation of the modern world has great need of that ele- ment, the Church offers a solution in Love, Poverty, and Obedience. Thus, because of his inspiration, Francis has been used as a Light for our yearboolc to carry the three elements composing his frail brown slceleton body and the one love he called Poverty, a procla- mation of social justice. Two friends, Saint Dom inic and Saint Francis enter prominently into Dantes conception ofthe Heaven of the Sun. ., 4?.vz:5'i,s .f zrlrz- -- - ' law: 3.4 l

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QTIOTI lovely in slow death in the autumn of 1937 when Japan drove war horses across the slues down to the hell of battle And shewas gone to please the Man she loved We had a chance to feel a great loss almost relevant to death and we have lelt of the happiness lor good fortune that is not diverse from pain She has passed beyond our sense of reality she has grown to be a part ol the tenderness and the warm heartedness that lights the lagged torch of hope She IS a part of the fantasy ol war s cruelty she IS a part of China its wet fields, its rare dawns its ignorance and its intelligence But to us she is a veil, covering lilce balm the sore muscles of lile, soothing its throbbing temples and turning the tears into smiles. We miss her and missing her we try to realize that she also has ceased to live with us partly lor our betterment. She exists now only for the poor and lor the many who have yet to lcnow her worth. Thus, because she was one of God s be- loved Franciscans' because she loved poverty, obedience and would not be satisfied by Satiating her soul alone car- rying its incomparable culture into hope- less lands for which she had greater hopes that the ordinary man can lcnow- because we can never forget her smile her grace- lul gestures her charm and her eyes that laced you clean and sure as if God had leaned down and blessed them with H's divinely blessed hands' because she gave Sister M. Charitina former supervisor at Aquinas is now a missionary in Wuchang Hupeh China. us too much for us to ever hope to repay- because of her faith in opportunity, in her religion, in her social justice- and be- cause of her bright and happy soul that was clean, and strong and fine and that put a glow in her Face, inspiring those who thirsted lor inspiration- because she like Francis was bright as the sun and favored the Orient for her life s worlc' Because by these things which she gave so freely and lelt no loss in giving them- To Sister Mary Charitina, this Trumpet is dedicated. 'QC' q I E r L i i l I , , .s'A .E - 1 .P 4 E r I I I i j l 1' 'l - L - I - l I 5' , ....i.. -1 , , 1 1 , . i i i l -L 1 I I I 1 1 1 I i I I 1 1 1 1 1 I I 1 i I 1 1 1 I 1