Johnstown Central Catholic High School - Memories Yearbook (Johnstown, PA)

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REVEREND THOMAS CAWLEY PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE Graduation from high school is a very important milestone in the life of the average youth. Custom has assigned to it the name com- mencement, and with good reason. Among other things, it is the com- mencement of a life of heavier personal responsibility. Carefree days draw to a close, and serious business lies ahead. Your commencement is coming at a time when world conditions are such as to try men’s souls. In spite of this fact, you are undoubtedly impatient to take your place in the great struggle of life. Danger and hardship hold no terrors for you. These things, you think, only spell adventure. Youth strains at the leash, even when death stalks abroad. It is for youth merely to see visions, while age dreams its dreams.

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MOST REVEREND RICHARD T. GUILFOYLE, D. D. Bishop of Altoona “Let every soul be subject to higher powers: for there is no power but from God: and those that are, are ordained of God.” —Romans XIII, I

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And yet, though I well understand that you know not fear, I ask you solemnly to be afraid. Have one great fear in your soul, as you step out into this war-torn world,—that fear which is spoken of in Holy Writ: “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. But rather be afraid of him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Matt. X, 28. There are abroad in the world today highly organized and power- ful forces working to destroy men’s souls. These forces are insidious. They strike their most deadly blows under cover, in the dark. They wear the clothing of sheep, but underneath they are ravening wolves. Respect the strength of these forces. Fear the danger they represent. And let your fear be a moving fear. Let it urge upon you careful measures of protection, the while you realize that your battle is “not against flesh and blood, but against the Principalities and the Powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness on high.” (Ephes. VI-12) Anticipate a hard struggle. Realize that you will earn a livelihood and attain a measure of temporal happiness often at the cost of tears and sweat and blood. But never become so absorbed in the struggle for existence as to forget that you have not here a lasting city,—that this life is only an exile, that your real home is in Heaven, and that there is no profit whatever even to the mm who has gained the whole world, if in doing so he has suffered the loss of his soul. Be assured of this, that you will certainly fail to attain a satisfactory balance between your temporal and eternal interests, unless you will constantly strive to know your religion more thoroughly and to practice it more faithfully. As a means of accomplishing this, may I offer you this threefold resolu- tion : Let one of your aims in life be ever to search out the mind of the Church Let one of your most firm resolutions in life be always to think with the mind of the Church Let your constant practice in life ever be to live in ac- cordance with what the mind of the Church teaches. God Bless You.