Hey Brother Rob,
I don't know that you'll get too many responses, as there rarely are more than a few of us (at most) around here. But I'll say thanks for giving me the chance to think about this again.
The quote you are thinking of comes from Father Mills in the 1912 Edition of
The FMA Annual, entitled "What Are the Possibilities of Sinfonia: Optimism Runs High in Phi Mu Alpha." Here is the excerpt:
Our business is the making of men; and the all-important question for us "Are Sinfonians any better for being Sinfonians? Do they leave our portals physically, mentally, morally stronger, cleaner, purer -- in fact more worthy men than when they enter?" If not, then the Sinfonia Fraternity has no excuse for existing and for making such large drafts on our time, our energy and our means.
I can only answer by saying that I hope it has (or that I hope others would say that it has). Like you, I pledged by the Purposes and gladly (even excitedly) accepted the restoration of the Object. There are words, phrases and images that you and I would both recognize that, decades after I first heard or saw them, still ring in my ears or burn in my eyes, enliven my imagination and guide choices in my life. I ask myself regularly whether I live up to the obligations I have undertaken as a Sinfonian. I hope that, as a result, I am a better man.
Father Mills concluded the 1912 article with words that really have become a guide for me and, I know, for many other Sinfonians:
This it is to be a man of the highest type. To be and not seem; to do and not simply to talk; to have the right ideal, the true motive and patiently to transform conduct in accordance with it. So let it be for SINFONIA.
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