Catholic Central High School - Shamrock Yearbook (Detroit, MI)

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E ESDHKDROCK. a4n Elezna 'unce By WILLIAM REDMOND It seems that Our Divine Lord saw in young Aloysius Gon zaga such a childlike lover of Hrs Humanity such a humble deeply reverend adorer of His Divinity that He was pleased to gather him up in His everlasting embrace lust as he was crossing the threshold of his manhood for St Aloysius departed this life to shine more gloriously among the blessed in Heaven a short three months after his twenty third birthday Born in Brescia Italy on March 9 i568 the first son of Ferdinand Gonzaga Marquis of Castiglione, our saint automatically fell heir to all the qualifications of blood wealth and political power which would naturally lead to a brilliant career at one of the courts of the various Italian states But such renown is short lived and had such been Aloysius course we would be considering him today merely as another name in history What he chose was to seek first the kingdom of God and His Justice and all things were added unto him for in our day the Church honours this son of an Italian marquls as one of her best known saints and multitudes and youthful purity His mother taught hum the Holy Names of .lesus and Mary as soon as he was able to speak such was his fer vour at the age of twelve that he was known to spend the first three days after Communion in thanksgiving for that lnestlmable favour and the three following days in loyful anticipation of the approaching Sunday morning when he could again receive his Divine Master It was this same mother who exceedingly relonced upon learning of her son s intention of entering the religious life but his pleasure loving father stubbornly refused his con sent and could only be won over after insistent demonstra tions on his sons part of has determination to become a religious This young nobleman served God as a youthful levite for five and a half years until his death on June 21 'l59'l when St Ignatius conducted another of his disciples before God Almighty God calls some of us from the pleasures and riches of the world to serve Hum in His holy priesthood and we might be inclined to think it too great a sacrifice Con sndering what a sacrifice St Aloysius had to make let us harden not our hearts but answer His Call with a firm resolve to do His Will in all things Tu I 1 1 9 4 0 ! I P ' , , I . . . I I I I , , , s ', I , , . - . I . of Catholics everywhere revere him for his burning devotion I . I . . . I I . , IU' fy

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5 srtnunnoclx of euage to the racfualed It us a remarkable fact un the world that groups of people are uouned together unto a socuety because of the fact that all the people un that socuety have a unuted love euther for one thung or for a group of thungs commonly loved by all We may give to the group of people who unute together the name cuty we may further find un the hearts of men two loves and thus we may duvude the human race unto two cutues to whuch all other human groups are reduced The large group of men who lead the lufe of the old man he terrestrual man and who are unuted by the common love of tem poral thungs may be called the terrestrual cuty The second group unuted by a common duvune love of God may be called the cuty of God There us a vast duFference between these two cutues yet our cutuzenshup must be resudent un euther of the two The cutuzen of the FATHER WHELAN terrestrual cuty struves for all thungs whuch wull brung to hum happuness and peace Clothes food, luxuruous luvung quarters property power money these are the thungs whuch form the happuness and the peace of the wordly one as a result of the unordunate penchant for these thungs there enters unto the luves of the unhabu tants of thus cuty sun strufe unhappuness and sufferung Peace true peace and true order cannot be found there and thus aruse tyrants who place the cutuzens un servutude and who themselves usurp the place of God But the celestual cutuzen on the other hand whose sole end us to enuoy the beatutude and who uses all thungs un vuew of obtaumng ut knows that order us love that vurtue us the submussuon of love to order that food, clothes and ruches taken un themselves are good but that un the use of them we must subordunate them enturely to God He knows that he must love hus neughbor as humself that he us made to the umage and lukeness of God that God has no body and that thus hus soul us the umage of God and hus body must be subordunated to hus soul that he must love the Lord hus God wuth all hus heart wuth all hus soul and wuth all hus mund The Chrustuan who luves the lufe of grace us master of all thungs ond because he knows how to relate each thung to uts own end he wull enuoy the peace and the luberty of the chuldren of God He knows that the terrestrual cuty lasts from creatuon to the end of tume but the spurutual man born of grace us called to luve un the Cuty of God for all eternuty Unfortunately however among those who adhere to the cuty of God there us stull much paganusm of thought and actuon and much leanung to the cuty of the world Sometumes un the hope of brungung the two cutues to coalesce But such hope us vaun There us no muddle term that can reconcule these opposutes and those luberal unduvuduals who would do ut by conformung the cuty of God to the notuons of the world and unclude un that cuty, wuthout conversuon the enemues of God seem to deserve to be themselves counted as belongung to the cuty of the world The error of those who aum to be Chrustuans un reluguon and gentules un luterature educatuon scuence and polutucs can only be accounted for on the supposutuon that they regard reluguon as somethung addutuonal to nature but yet separate from ut and not as the leaven that us muxed wuth the measures of meal tull ut leavens the whole mass Now uf Chrusuanuty us to be anythung ut must be everythung lt us not as an extrunsuc force applued to nature that ut elevates man to a hugher order but by enterung every flbre of our beung and becomung udentufied wuth our unmost soul ut makes easy what before was hard uf not um possuble and guves to actuons apparently truvual a worth and dugnuty above our hughest conceptuon It us the whole of man It must control hum not only un hus exteruor worshup un the church of God but must pervade hus luterature, hus scuence hus polutucs and hus busuness so that every act he performs shall be not only the act of a man but of a Chrustuan Whoever us not for God us agaunst Hum and whoever leaves God out of hus scuence hus educatuon or hus polutucs relegates humself to false peace to chaos and unhappuness and to the terrestrual cuty FATHER WHELAN ' if I 'l 9 4 O ' I . .. I., t u I . . . I I I I . . . I . I . . . I t I . I . . . I . . . , 1 , . I I . . I . . . . . I . , . I I I 1 I . . . . . . I - . - I , i . . , . , . Ttrvtuty-Ifuu