The Director, Fr. Dehon, is often remembered in his almost "paternal" role, favoring a climate in which deep friendships could mature. In a short period of time a "friendly Association" of ex-pupils also emerged, with a good number of directors and counsellors who together, at their annual meetings, reviewed the life and the activities of the past year.

The article which follows has been taken from a booklet which contains the 12th "report" of one of these meetings, dated August 18, 1895. Filled with words of greeting and with good wishes, this was Fr. Dehon's speech when he "toasted" the ex-pupils of "Saint John" on the occasion of their 12th annual meeting. With simple, everyday words Fr. Dehon expresses the reasons for Christian optimism.

My dear Messieurs,
 
 

"I will borrow the theme of my toast from the Book of Wisdom, without, however, allowing it to become too tedious.

"Vimon el musica laetificant cor hominis. Bountiful wine, the harmony of poetry, of eloquence and of music that expand the heart.

"Without doubt the holy writer wanted to praise meetings of friends such as ours today.

"It is indeed a reunion of friends. Friendship has been defined as: 'The absorption of the lives of others in one's own life, including their sufferings their joys and their hopes'. Here your old teachers are truly your friends. They take part in your sufferings, they share your joys, they live your hopes.

"We open ourselves to the outpouring of this friendship. After Mr. Treasurer's bountiful wine, we have had the warm and musical words of our new secretary. And just now, at the Mass too, we have quivered with emotion as we listened to the gorgeous chants of Mr. Balland. He said his Hosannah with such force that we thought we were hearing the cry: To arms! To arms for our country and for the Church! And already Lieutenant Charlier reaches his hand to the handle of his sword.

"But, after the outpourings of friendship, the sage recommends that we have generous resolutions: et super utraque dilectio sapientiae. And the resolution which I am proposing to you today, how could it be other than that which Fr. Rasset has just advised? 'Down with pessimism, and get to work for God and for our Country!'

"Let us not be depressed and annihilated by despair. Lift up your hearts! Let us pray and act, God will do the rest. After the dark and dismal days will come the days of joy and sunshine.

"Look at nature: we have just had a period of storms and rainy days which have thrown the world of agriculturalists into consternation. All the fruit of a year's work was about to be lost. But the breeze from the north blew, the sun is shining, the beautiful carts of wheat roll into the barn and our young farming friends show us radiant and confident faces.

"The moral world is also going through a storm. There is no lack of prophets of gloom. Already the great poet Victor Hugo, having seen rationalism reborn after the fine years of the Restoration, refers to this in his Notre-Dame de Paris (The Hunchback of Notre Dame). And, in showing us in another epoch which is analogous to this one - the progress of the spirit of criticism, the relaxation of morals and the weakening of faith - he wrote these historic words: 'This will be the death of that'.

"He foresaw defeats for Christian morals; and there were plenty of them. Louis Veuillot, the great Christian critic, summed them up: 'That which is interest kills that which is feeling, egoism has killed charity. In literature, the newspaper has killed the book; the novel has killed serious reading. Among young people, sensuality has killed pleasure and pure joy; the cafe has killed the social salon and the professional's office'. What would he have said if he had known the cafe-concert and the drinking dens of this century's end?

"Today, those who echo this great writer in the Catholic press say: 'In private life divorce has killed the family; luxury has killed noble simplicity and good taste; the bicycle has killed the modest and reserved young women.

"'In social life the cult of honors has killed the cult of honor. In economic life egoism and the struggle for success have killed devotion and renunciation of self; Judaism and Mammonisn have killed the thrift of ordinary people and the simple contentment of workers'.

"Pessimistic predictions do even better: 'International socialism will kill love of one's country; anarchy will kill society; free-masonry will kill the Church'.

"We, on the contrary, believe in better days. We are sure of a Christian reawakening and we perceive a dawn which will follow these dark days turbulent with storms.

"On the political scene, true freedom will kill deceptive liberalism. On the economic scene justice and charity will kill undeserved poverty and arrogant monopolies; the spirit of association will kill individualism and the weakness of isolation; organized Christian democracy will kill the despotism of the Masonic lodges. In a word, that which is Christianity and hope will kill that which is pessimism and despair.

"And what are the foundations of our hope? I hope in France, because of her national temperament 'I do not like it', says a great bishop, Msgr. Ireland, 'when people express pessimistic feelings about France. France is the country of the ideal. It cannot be led astray by positivist atheism for long. Many great memories speak to its heart! Speak to the people about St. Louis, about Joan of Arc and the country will recover. This would soon happen if they were not momentarily under the yoke of politicians and cosmopolitan exploiters who oppress them'.

"My hope lies in the powerful direction of Leo XIII. He spoke in the midst of the tempests which darken the horizon and his voice was like the breeze from the north which chases away the clouds and brings on the sun. The night of social errors is being dissipated and the sun of justice and charity is starting to shine again for this European society which was unwittingly going towards anarchy.

"Have courage. Hope and be valiant. Spread the teachings of Leo XIII. Sustain Catholic works. Have trust in God like Joan of Arc and say with her: Let us keep on fighting and God will do the rest.

"Take the motto of the Canadians, it expresses the sentiments of old France: 'Love God and continue on your way'."

Warm applause covered these last words and the glasses were happily clinked together, while all hearts beat in unison.

However, don't forget the coffee;

- "......whose amiable liquid,

- without impairing the mind, gladdens the heart".