St Barnabas High School - Immaculata Yearbook (Bronx, NY)

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CHURCH AUDITORIUM 10

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greetings 1 MY DEAR GRADUATES! A decisive period in your adolescence has arrived. You are at the crossroads of life. Varying sign posts mark the paths before you. Bewilderment confronts you. A World bedeviled by paganism with its offsprings of unmorality, immorality, wickedness, brutality and barbarism is demoralizing humanity. Man, the handiwork of God's almighty genius, created a little less than the angels, has been made, in many countries, a slave, a vassal of the State. His personal rights, his property rights, his religious rights have been stolen from him entirely, as witness the ideologies of the day, or, have been ridiculed unto contempt. XVhy? Because God has been robbed of the reverence, wor- ship, obedience and fidelity due Him. His Name has been blotted out of the councils of nations. His doctrines have been confounded by the arrogance and selective policy of preachers. His Name has been blasphemed in the courts of justiceg ignored in colleges and universities. His moral code has been desecrated even in the sanctuary of the home. It borders almost on pessimism even to allude to so horrible a debacle at the joyful period of your high school graduation. But your religious education has begotten a defi- nite responsibility for you in the crisis. Reconstruction and rehabilitation is the full job of all humanity. You must do your share. A solidarity of thought and action under God can only function when each personal unit contributes his or her share in faith, prayer and holy living. Human forces have wrestled with the products of the demoralization but have failed. Because God has not been restored to His rightful place in the hearts and minds of men. Science has given the finesse of its inventive genius. Money has been poured forth with bewildering profligacy. Armaments have wreaked their destruction on monuments and peoples. Diplomacy has exhausted its resourcefulness. And yet slaughter and wanton destruction have not ceased. The best blood of the nations is being poured forth in profusion. What yet remains to be done? Two things-prayer and fasting-the very indispensable implements Jesus reminded His Apostles to use in order to cast out devils. These are available to all of us and unavoidably incumbent on all of us. Only through them, under God, can justice, permanent peace and reconstruction be secured. Dear graduates you and your kind are the real fashioners of the world's destiny. You have the only solution to the world's problems-viz.: true Christian spirituality. In the twelve years of your education every subject has been interpreted in the terms of God and morality. These are the chastening powers of life. An Atlantic Charter, Teheran and Yalta Conferences, San Francisco forums will prosper or fail proportion- ately to their sanction or discard of these-God and morality. Man must be spiritualized before he is fully civilized. It was this thought that caused Doctor Carrel of glorious memory to declare that the greatest and most successful men or women in the world are the saints. They are the truly just persons because they give God and neighbor and themselves what is their respective due. God must be worshiped in truth. Man's dig- nity, personal rights must be respected. The saints themselves must be daily purified by prayer and fasting. What part will you play? The world's or God's? Will you become saints or just remain sinners? If saints the very atmosphere of your environment will be purified and ennobled. The leavening influence of your lives will beget self-sacrificing peoples similar to yourselves. The highway to permanent peace will be paved with your virtues and theirs. God's and neighbor's rights will be restored, peace will reign supreme. If sin- ners, the miasma of deviltry, your lives will exude, will be a curse to the very space you occupy. The tragedy of war will never cease. God help you all to become saints and thus be true to God, to yourselves, to humanity and upbuilders of God's lasting house of peace and justice. Your devoted pastor, K Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, 1945. I

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Qedicaiion 1 IN knowledge lies confidence, in God lies strength. This is the standard of the Class of 1945. This is the fountain from which sprang our efforts for growth in studies and in prayer. And now, well-fortified, fearless, and with this final glance back at days of joy and brightness we turn to a shattered world. Yes, our days have been bright, in spite of the shadow that has loomed large and long over our past four years. Almost from the very beginning of high school days our brothers and friends have been gradually going off. Boys with whom we grew up are living now in countries they had read about, but scarcely ever dreamed of visiting. Evident in our thoughts and speech is the effect of war. Truly, we are the first class whose entire high school years have been pervaded by this war spirit. It is, perhaps, principally for this reason that we wish to dedicate this, our Yearbook, to one whose aid we have so often sought during periods of rebellion against seemingly needless human suffering, to one whose sweet comfort, we pray for all. It is our privilege to dedicate our book to Our Lady of Victory. As Catholic students, we have another motive for this dedication. We ask Our Lady of Victory to obtain for us the grace to be outstanding Catholic leaders in our chosen fields. We likewise ask from her the strength to achieve her victory-victory over worldly ideals and selfish motives. Then our lives will reflect that true nobility of character which is founded on purity of inten- tion and fidelity to duty. Such qualities will lead to the greatest of all vic- tories-victory over self. Although our high school days have been over-shadowed by the reality of war we are happy-happy that we are united in the cause of victory. Our knowledge of government and world affairs will help us in the formation of correct judgments and our strength through prayer will encourage us in fur- thering any cause that will be for the good of America and the glory of God. Thus with knowledge based on truth and strength begotten of prayer we, the Class of 1945, will remain united under the banner of Our Lady of Victory. Within these pages we have tried to capture the essence of our four years. For us, this book will ever be the stepping-stone to memories of carefree days, joyous times, loyal friendships. Its dedication to Our Lady of Victory is sym- bolic of all We seek at this time in our lives-victory over worldly enemies and victory over our spiritual enemies. As we hand it into her keeping we make one last plea: O world, be nobler, for her sake. - lVlARY EL1zABET1-I PENCE. 11