St Bernards High School - Bernardian Yearbook (Fitchburg, MA)

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yeritte, NADER, vy, = fF s ay € S, frre rrr De Of Ca Trion i 4 2) It is our privilege to be the first class at aol 74 1 St. Bernard’s to dedicate our yearbook to our First Bishop of the Diocese of Worcester, His Excellency, Right Reverend John J. Wright, D.D. We are also to be favored with the pres- ence of our bishop at our graduation exercises on the evening of June 20. Only the Class of 1929, the first to graduate from our present high school, has been so honored in having a bishop confer diplomas. Most REVEREND JOHN J. Wricut, D.D. We have taken as the theme of this book, our Bishop’s motto as found on the seal chosen by him for our new. diocese of Worcester — RESONARE CHRISTUM, to be the echo of Christ. Is it possible for us to be an echo of Christ? Yes, for Christ has said, “I have given you an example, that as I have done to you, so you do also.” John, 13: 15. God became man to teach us virtue and holiness, and we should learn from Him, what it means to be Christlike— truly a Christian, His follower, and His echo in all we do, think, and say. Bishop Wright lives his motto in being another Christ, putting God’s interests first, and in fearlessly denounc- ing evil as Christ did.

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ST. BERNARD, THE 12TH CENTURY ECHO OF CHRIST A study of St. Bernard’s life shows us how closely he resembled his beloved Master. First of all, Bernard’s love for his own saintly mother and for God’s Mother was a bright reflection of the great love of Jesus for Mary. No other writer of the first thousand years of the Church had such an ardent love for the Mother of God and wrote so beautifully of her. As the Son of God sacrificed the glory and bliss of heaven to become incarnate for us, so Bernard forsook the castle of Fontaines and all the dignities that would have been his, to become a poor monk in the very austere order of Citeaux. Like Christ in His hidden life, so Bernard tried | to bury himself in obscurity doing the most menial tasks. As Jesus said that He was come to cast first on the earth, so Bernard became a lighted torch in the hand of God to dis- pense light to all His Church. From the moment that Bernard took the decisive step to give himself entirely to God, he became a powerful instrument in the sav- ing of souls. He showed how necessary it was for everyone to consider seriously the purpose for which he was created, and how foolish it was to exchange for a few passing pleasures, the eternal joys of heaven. In the Acts 1.1, we read that Jesus began to do, and afterwards He taught, so Bernard worked first at his own sanctifica- tion, and practiced himself all that he was afterwards to teach to others. In striving - to perfect himself, the meek and humble Jesus was the Model which Bernard ever tried to echo.

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THE ASSUMPTION OF MARY Mary was truly the first to be the echo of Christ on earth. How Christ’s love for His Mother must have deepened day by day as He saw her heroic efforts to follow Him so closely and to please Him in everything she did! What more natural than that at the very moment of her death, Christ should take her sinless body, as well as her soul, immediately into heaven? This Mary’s faithful children have always be- lieved, but since November 1, 1950, Mary’s As- sumption is now a dogma of our faith. We believe that Our Blessed Mother did die, but was restored to life by Gpod’s power and taken intact into heaven, so that her body never suffered the least corruption. ' 3 i Statue of Our Blessed Mother on our balcony Our Holy Father, Pope Pius XII, solemnly proclaimed the doctrine of Mary’s Assumption into heaven, on November 1, 1950.