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

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4 Q X, X cm my 1 l X 1, iii' , X. . v' ll 522' Q'-2213 3 in - If I . ' Y, 1 i ,F 5 ' --,.-.. wv ',,,ail' 1-n-sill A A Message to the Seniors As the school year draws to a close and you are about to complete your studies in Aquinas, receiving your diplomas of graduation and saying farewell to your teachers and class-mates, I naturally feel not merely an interest in you but a deep concern about you, I am wondering how you will get along in years to come, what success life has in store for you and what influence for good you will exercise upon those around you. The past at Aquinas with all your efforts in acquiring knowledge, in building character and in spiritual development, is now a closed book, it cannot be changed or gone over again. There is no second trial. The future for you is, however, an open book and what you will write there in time to come is something which you should think deeply and seriously about as you go forth from Aquinas, not to return. Aquinas is a Catholic school and its aim is, and always will be, to impart religious as well as scholastic training, in harmony with the spirit and teaching of the Church. Without minimizing the temporal, it makes the cultivation of the Christ-life or union with Christ the supreme purpose of education. There are many other elements which receive attention but they are all secondary to the one all-important spiritual objective, the quest for the pearl of great price, the Kingdom of God and His justice. - This great fact, I know, you have kept in view during the past four years and have given to it, no doubt, the attention it deserves, but it is the future that I am anxious about. If you fail spiritually hereafter, then all your efforts and ours likewise, will have been in vain and Aquinas might as well have never been. - There is no particular test of fidelity in that respect which I know of, ezgcept one, and while that may not be wholly decisive in the broad View of things, it will furnish, nevertheless, a fair means of formingla judgment. That test is the continuation of your active and devoted membership in the Sodality of Our Lady beyond school days. I have been most pleased and edified by your work in the Sodality, your fidelity, your constancy, your interest in all those things which make a Sodality what it should be and which render such honor to Our Lord and His Blessed Mother. ' Will you continue to associate yourselves actively with the Sodality in your respective parishes after you leave Aquinas? Will you in days to come be leaders in your parish Sodalities, walking before others less favored as a light on their paths, and that not just for a little while but on and on, into manhood and womanhood? That is the matter which gives me concern. Therein is the test. I pray you to be in that respect loyal and true. Shrink not from the small sacrifices which it involves. The rewards which will come from such a course will far outweigh any difficulties found in it. May God bless and protect you. I wish you success in life, temporal and eternal, and you will remember that the same road, through faith and truth and righteousness, leads to both. 1' ALEXANDER J. MCGAVICK, Bishop of La Crosse. 1 -, -axsss 'ff f.'.5--- ....-ss.-s-S Q ny777l 'wt Q 5- , ' s '-I-.cmwg-..--' x , aah!-85 'lasxss 5-sif Page 1 4

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THE REVEREND JOSEPH P. KUNDINGER , PRINCIPAL or AQUINAS spew' 1 . 1-sf 9M ,JV fc' -va cfs-Ur ,fi-fn My Qxwiivfggif' L' ALEDICTORY and commencement afford teacher and pupil an opportunity for silent and deep thoughtg thoughts which often lie too deep for tears. To write our sentiments down in a year book is no simple task. Hence, I believe that this is one of the reasons why poetry and art are employed to tell the tory of a school's feelings not in one essay but in an entire volume. My first impulse at this moment as I write my valedic- tory to you Seniors of 1939, is to do so in the form of a prayer-a blessing. You know too well that such are always yours till the end of time. The hardships of your school life are too clear in your minds for us to reminisce. Yet soon the glory of that June night will give your school life the glamor of things gone by. I am happy, however, to allude Very briefly to the theme of your year book, as perhaps the best interpretation of your high-school career and of your futurejf' LANA3 ' Q kg, ,PW ' ,B T Qljagffvie N Principals Message The theme of your annual is Pro Deo. This is artistically and poetically executed through the angels-God's ministers who serve Him in this world and adore and obey Him before the great white throne. This idea can give you your en- tire life's perspective. There's no room for gross materialism in the minds of youth inspired by the realities of the spirit world. How often we forget that Daily, with souls' that cringe and plot, we Sinais climb and know it not. The spirit world is indeed very near. You draw the veil that hangs be- fore your mortal eyes and you be- hold the world of which you have been aware from early childhood- God's messengers walking on earth conversing with men-depicted in glowing colors as your guardian on some artist's canvass or heard in the echo of a prayer Dear angel ever at my side. God needs not the services of any of His angels nor of any men, but such is a part of the divine plan- angels and men are His instru- ments, His messengers. No visions from a midnight sky need convince us of the reality of the angelic world for our faith makes them more real than our school companions if only we per- mit .their reality and nearness to inspire us. Let the thought of Israel's wrest- ling with angels make us strong, fighting members of a militant Churchg the voice of St. Michael Quia tu es Deus defend the Church in word against the at- tacks of the wicked g the scene of Judas Maccabeus give courage and strength in the hour of trialg and the prayer after Mass be a renewal or . continuation of the thought which your annual suggests De- fend us in battle, be our safeguard against the wiles and wickedness of the devil . . . O God rebuke him. From this moment We are all ranged under the banner of the angels- Pro Deo.