Assumption Preparatory School - Memini Yearbook (Worcester, MA)

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Most Reverend Bernard J. Flanagan, Bishop of Worcester The question, What can we do? has many answers. It enters into many areas of our lives: we are prep school alumni, future collegians; we have goals, vocations, professions ahead. In all we can do much. But long before all these, we have been Christians; and we shall remain Christians even longer after all these. From this view then, our Bishop has given us one of the best answers in his own motto: Respice ad Mariam. Since the first Good Friday, we have all belonged to Mary. As Americans, we are under her special patronage. As Assumption Prep alumni, we honor her unique place among the saints. Her litanies and Christian history give ample proof that she has always been the refuge and salvation of the oppressed and beleaguered. What can we do? What better reply than Respice ad Mariam.

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We members of the Class of 1962 of Assumption Preparatory School can hardly feel any more at home with the first group of young people than we can with the second. We have somehow lost contact with the majority of Americans our own age — the majority for whom that safe, confident feeling has taken the place of conscience; the majority that can say, Goals? We have no goals. Our parents have achieved them all for us. And all this in the middle of a strange and usually silent kind of conflict that must someday bring every one of us the pride and exultation of victory or the humiliation and terror of defeat. Recognizing the existence of this war called peace and determined to have a say in its outcome, we who graduate in 1962 ask ourselves this question: What can we do, with our God-given intelligence, talent, and skill, to defend and preserve our Faith and our nation from the spirit- destroying evil that is communism? WHAT CAN WE DO? This yearbook will show you . . . WHAT WILL WE DO? Only history can show you . . .

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Dear Graduates of 1962, In the face of the important question you ask yourselves in these pages, I hope you avoid two possible extremes: first, an attitude, alarming indeed, of callous indifference, for such an attitude singles you out as an unworthy graduate; second, one of worry over this problem, causing failing marks and sleepless nights. The one is the mark of an ingrate; the other, of a neurotic. But I like to believe that all of you are aware and concerned but neither obsessed nor sick with anxiety over the future, in which case my suggestions may prove helpful. In the face of nuclear warfare, a situation unfortunately possible but one we have reason to believe is unlikely to occur, there is precious little you can do, apart from praying and hoping — which of course is a great deal (and, incidentally, this remark has nothing to do with efforts for survival; these of course are to be recommended)l But once you have squarely faced the truly frightening spectre, then you are ready for more immediately positive steps. Four reasons come to mind for encouraging this optimistic attitude. Common sense calls for this outlook. Even if after strenuous preparations, you never have the chance to enjoy the fruits of your efforts, very little has been lost because of the efforts as such; indeed these are to some extent their own reward. But if the preparation were lacking, even though disaster never, please God, struck, then your future would certainly be seriously handicapped. Long ago, St. Paul reprimanded the Thessalonians for supinely awaiting the end of the world, which they erroneously but perhaps sincerely thought they would witness. If this prospect was not, in the eyes of St. Paul, a suffient reason for lying down on the job, then the comparatively minor disaster of nuclear warfare is hardly an excuse for laziness! The truly Christian viewpoint does not consider results as important as the sincerity of the effort itself. Viewing the matter from this angle, it therefore becomes clear that every effort carries its own recompense regardless of the earthly outcome. From this high vantage point, Christian uselessness is the most practical thing in the world! Finally, because of the very urgency of the moment as well as the new opportunities available here and throughout the world, and especially for young Catholic Americans no longer hampered by the shackles of the minority ghetto, the advantages of positive thinking are greater than ever. And what precisely is this positive view? It is simply one which demands, inside and outside the classroom, reflection, meditation, on the problems of the day. Then on the heels of this meditation must come commitment, the eager, strong desire to carry your share of the responsibility as well as and as soon as possible. Christians have always responded in this way in time of crisis. As the Vandals sweep over North Africa, a dying Augustine cries out: The Goth will not destroy what Christ protects. Lincoln, deeply moved by a fratricidal war, affirms: If God is with us, we cannot fail. Even today, astronaut Glenn humbly reveals the source of his strength: Long ago I made my peace with my Maker. This, I am sure, is the tradition you wish to keep alive.