Loyola College - Review Yearbook (Montreal, Quebec Canada)

Page 9 text:

Eo E FL Message fXrom be Rector HAVE been requested by the Editors to address a few words to all the Boys, past and present, who hail Loyola as their Alma Mater. The Rector speaks in the name of the Faculty, as well as in his own, and on an occasion like this he speaks not merely for the present but also for the past. All but one of the six who preceded me in this office, and in whose name I speak, have passed to eternity. To the Old Boys I would say: “Hold fast to the lessons you have learned at Loyola, be loyal to one another and to your Alma Mater. Years ` bring their changes to a Faculty, but not to the spirit of the College, which remains the same. Keep in touch with the College and remember that a warm welcome awaits you there.” To the Present Boys I must repeat what I so often tell them in my monthly talks: “You are the College; not bricks and stones, not play- grounds, not books and apparatus, not even the staff, but you—the student body—with your esprit de corps and your traditions, make up the College. To the Boys of past generations I can truthfully say that you are worthy of them.”

Page 11 text:

The Past—The Present— The Future HE problem of supply and demand is discussed with keen wit by Canon Sheehan in the introduction to one of his novels. He finds that, in his case, the demand for more of his exqui- site literary craftsmanship sets his well- stored mind a-working and awakens to life his powers of tender and forceful ex- pression. Would that I had some of the Canon’s gifts to answer the call that has come to me for a bit of writing! Shall I try to recall the days that are gone and to live once more in the hallowed halls of Old Loyola? As reminiscence tugs at the strings of memory, strong, kindly faces come before me. From Father Gregory O’Bryan who greeted me on the threshold of my college course to Father Isidor Kavanagh, who bade me Godspeed on its completion, there is not a member of the Faculty that I knew who does not claim from me a tribute of affectionate gratitude. They all crowd in upon me now and call insistently for the recognition they deserve. I cannot do them justice— I am utterly unequal to the task. I can only bless their memory, cherish their ideals, and hold them as my friends. You would not ask me to speak of the students who sat on the benches beside me. Many of them are gone, cut off in the flower of manhood. But just as crushed roses fill the air with delicate perfume, their heroic deaths breathe into our souls a spirit of nobility and unselfishness. The other boyish faces are a blur, faintly descried through a mist of blood. Wher- ever they may be, scattered through the wide world, I hope that they too are faith- ful to the sacred traditions of their Alma Mater. Memory, veiled and silent, warns me away from the past. I turn to the present. What is this miniature army stretching out before me—line upon line of clean- limbed youths, their faces beaming with the joy of life, their eyes alight with the holy fires of sincerity and goodness? It is the new generation, the New Loyola. What an inspiration to the world are those happy countenances, untarnished mirrors of unspoiled souls! Young Gentlemen, do you realize your privileges? Let me be frank with you. I know that you do not. I wonder if any words of mine could help you to appre- ciate them more. Will you bear with me? I will not be didactic—just simple and straight-forward. You are blessed in your professors— men dedicated and consecrated to the su- blime work of fashioning and moulding human souls to the likeness of Christ, men with a tradition behind them of over three centuries of successful teaching in every land, men filled with sympathy and un- derstanding for the new age with its new problems. You are blessed in the atmosphere in which you live. There is Catholicity in the air you breathe. You know what that implies. It means that your mind ranges in wide spaces, unfolds its powers un- trammeled by any but salutary restraints, fraternizes with the greatest thinkers and dreamers of all time. Try to appreciate the advantages you enjoy: Make the most of the golden op- portunity offered you. Is it not a pity that on account of youthful thoughtiess- ness particularly, man should come to be defined as a “creature of regrets’? My first thought then is: Prize highly the truly liberal education you are receiving. That, I am sure, is sane advice and sound philosophy. Because love or appreciation is the real driving-power of all human en- deavor. Philosophy tells us, too, that the end we have in view influences every step we take