St Albert School - Aurora Yearbook (St Albert, Alberta Canada)

Page 17 text:

rito»oi% This year ' s Aurora makes its appearance in an atmosphere of development apd change. When your Editor ' s invitation to write a few lines reached me, I had just read a nevspape article in which the prediction is made that St. Albert will grow into a modern metropolitan satellite with a population of twenty to twenty five thousand persons . One cannot read such reports without wondering what the effects of this development will be upon the lives of the boys and girls now in your school. Last year, on the Dedication page, the Editor stated that The expansion of the Town and the School makes us look, not only into the future, but also into the past . I should like to express the hope that St. Albert students will cultiv¬ ate this habit of retrospection. In a time of rapid expansion, such as your commun¬ ity is now entering, it is easy, especially for young people, to become so engrossed with plans for the future that no time is left for thoughts of the past. This, I think, is always regrettable. But in a community such as yours, whose history con¬ tains so many examples of simple, God-fearing heroism, the effects could be disas¬ trous. What sort of place will the future St. Albert be? Will it be a community in which the solid virtues of faith and labour which characterized its founders still predominate? Or will these virtues be submerged by the materialism which, alas, so often accompanies the so-called progress of modern civilization? The stud¬ ents whose names appear in this issue of Aurora may well have important parts to play in deciding the answers to these questions. In his message of 1957, Father Tardif wrote, Not only have you to walk in the footsteps of the pioneers, but you have also to surpass them, to set your goal higher. . This is a tremendous challenge. In your endeavours to meet it, do not neglect the inspirations of the past. If you look closely enough, you will find there truths and values which will carry you safely through all the vicissitudes of 1 he future.

Page 19 text:

Another term, anotner graduation, another yearbook, another thought l The Yearbook is dedicated to your parents. How they deserve it l We begin tc understand our parents when we are grown up; then it is too late to avoid our sorrow for years of thoughtlessness. This you don ' t understand. You will in thirty or forty years when you r own burning tears, your destroying worries your flaming pride in your children will have taught you the cost of bringing a child to adulthood with little co-operation, little gratitude, and little love from him. It will be too late then for your parents to enjoy the fruit of their devotion and too early for you to reap in total joy the result of the efforts given to make oj your children the honest citizens, the strong Christians you wanted them to be; not always will the success be all that was hoped for. Good parents are the greatest gift of God. Not understanding them is a weak¬ ness of the intelligence, not co-operating with them a softness of the will, not loving them a paralysis of the heart, not profiting by their advice, their care, their sane ambition for your betterment is a waste of the grace of God. How many, even amongst the best are deeply grieved for not having made the most of the treasure of wisdom, the wealth of attention showered upon them by their parents l Now that age has taught them to know better, they would like to make up for their neglect, their rebellions, their indifference, hut it is too late: the father whose hand they wish to press, the mother they would love to hold in their arms, is gone forever. All that remains is the wound in the heart of the thought¬ less childrenj they themselves are the cause of their own sorrow. Don ' t sow regrets for the futurejlove your parents and tell them that you love them and prove it by greater attention to their wishes, by a steady exertion in your work, by trying to live up to their dreams for you. i It takes so little to fill the parents ' begging hearts with joy l Do not refuse it. Pay them, in part, your immense debt .of gratitude.