College of the Holy Cross - Purple Patcher Yearbook (Worcester, MA)

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yy, N .2 ' s ,2- sa-gi f ,W , 'al We ' Z az 5 ? ' 2 Z ,W I -P Y 2 'fi 1446, Q. X f , .V We VA' Q ,E X permeates all the many aspects of living here. Obviously there is no way to esti- mate a virtue quotient at Holy Cross. Where there are temples there will be Pharisees. But to some extent we can measure the opportunities to mature in a directly religious way. In addition to the four year theology cur- riculum, which undeniably includes much of the philosophy courses, these opportunities are many and fruitful. The principal organizations devoted to the students' spiritual de- velopment are the Sodality of Our Lady, the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, and the Knights of Colum- bus. However, these groups are select and total membership is relatively small. The general opportunities af- forded the entire student body are the daily services in the student chapel including the Mass, Confession, and Benediction. Also the very presence of so many religious on the faculty here provides especial advantages for personal friendships, frequent consul- tations, and casual discussions. These are all ways to grow interi- orly by acting outwardly, by realizing our relation to Cod not only intellec- tually but also willfully. Indeed, these features which characterize Holy Cross as a liberal arts college in the Catholic tradition, and which distinguish it from the secular tradition, are pre- cisely those which arise from and cor- respond to a very basic reality within ourselves, the reality of matter and spirit, body and soul-blessed by Cod. -RICHARD MATHIAS

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VVhen a youth leaves high school he rapidly changes from an adolescent, to a young adultv-whether he ma- tures swiftly, slowly, or not at all. NVilly-nilly, past relationships with people and institutions shift and often dissolve. And new ones must be formed. But more than the shaping of a modicum uiuendi with a bewil- dering complex world, this process also involves a radical adjustment within the self. There is a sudden intensification of the need to accept one's individuality not only as a right but as a frightening responsibility. This growth in self-consciousness usu- ally produces an original and more than emotional awareness of being, in a deeply significant way, utterly alone. It is within this elemental and uni- versal perception that the young man begins to grope for an identity and for a set of tangible relations to all that is other. This ever-enlarging need to recog- nize the self, to believe in it, to act according to it, and thus to realize it, is the underlying ufact of lifev for all youth and especially for us at Holy Cross. For in our pre-college years we were being prepared, though not realizing it then, to recognize and re- solve this existential need in the tran- scendent terms of God, grace, and salvation. Our many years of religious training at home and school are as undeniable and valuable parts of our experiences, of ourselves, as any other character of our pasts. For this reason one of the elemental ways in which we come to know ourselves is through our relation to Cod. This basic ufact of lifev was the pri- mary factor in the founding of sec- tarian schools as such and indeed was the basic motivation behind our en- rollment in a Catholic college. The idean of this kind of education arises from the recognition of a real need which is often obscured but cannot be denied. As human, we need to grow spiritually as we grow intellec- tually and emotionally. Maturation involves all three, necessarily and to- gether. Thus, at Holy Cross, this awareness of our need to develop a personal relation with Cod assumes a primary, and proper significance. This 'iattitudef' that realizing our- selves implies relating the self to Cod,

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