MUNDELEIN, ARCHBISHOP
"And yet all this labor would be useless, those schools would be like so many empty fortresses without soldiers to defend them, had we not the religious orders to man them, the good Sisters and Brothers who are teaching in them. These teaching orders of the Church are filling the most pressing need of the present day. They are fulfilling the first and most important part of the Communion given by Christ to His Church, and whether men or women, in sacred orders or consecrated by their vows, they are the sharers of the priestly work, and by the graces of their special vocation are better able to perform it than the priests themselves. They keep the little ones in their most tender years when the impressions are made that are lasting: and by precept, by their
religious dress, by their example, they model the hearts and souls of the little ones according to the image of Christ, while at the same time they do not neglect to instill secular knowledge. As a result when the children leave the school and go out into the world, it is with an enduring impression, with an indelible memory, with a constantly reviving remembrance of the teachings, of the counsels, of the warnings of the good Sisters, of the faithful Brothers, who were the teachers and the friends of their youth.
"...and again we have our colleges, our academies, our high schools for them and again God's wonderful Providence, to me the convincing evidence of the abiding of the Holy Ghost in His Church, the manifestation of the great love of the Sacred Heart and the Master of us, His children today, the teaching Orders of priests and Brothers, are doing such splendid work for God's honor and glory and the salvation of souls in them, with but little recognition from any of us, with comparatively no earthly recompense of any kind, in fact, 'sola spes vitae aerteneae pro praemio'. on the hope of eternal life as their reward."
-- Scholastic, 50:591 (1917)