So we went to St. Mary's College and there, fortunately-almost
by accident-I bumped into a fellow by the name of Ozech. He later
joined the Jesuits. He was going to Detroit every month for interviews
with the Jesuits. And he'd come back and he'd tell me all about
the Jesuits. And that was about the first time, I think, that
I ever heard about them. So I got more and more interested in
the Jesuits, especially I liked what they were doing: they were
teaching. And I was kind of inclined a little bit towards studying.
There were two people there at the time, Burke,
who was dean, and George O'Donnell, who was chairman of the math
department, and they were both superb. And this was also the period
of the new math program.
I had to teach Raytheon physics. So the Raytheon
people and the General Electric people would come to BC twice
a week, and I would teach them physics, and I was paid by the
government.
You see, the Math Institute was decided because
of the money we were getting from the National Science Foundation-because
for some reason or another they liked what we were doing, the
papers that we were writing, the books we were writing, the contact
we had with the teachers in the country, as a matter of fact.
I think I gave something like 900 talks during this period.
But I would say that I most liked the life of
some of the Jesuits, early Jesuits. The life has been normal to
a Jesuit. In other words you get up in the morning, you say Mass
or you go to Mass, you pray. You have difficulties and you pray
some more. But, you see, again, this part of your life sometimes
is a little bit vague, because you're still very young and inexperienced
in prayer. And therefore, you say, "Well, I meditated this
morning." Well, did I? What do I mean by meditation? These
are the kind of questions I think that one has. And then all of
a sudden some day you get up and you say, "I feel great,"
and you don't know why. Well, is this something that God sent
you or what? But I think most of the time when you really feel
in need is when something happens to the family. When you get
a letter from home and you say, "Dad is in the hospital."
At that time, I think you really know that you prayed.
