I was Fr. Finn's first altar boy in the newly founded parish of
Our Lady of Good Counsel, and I knew I wanted to be a priest.
Then one day in the eighth grade at St. John's School in South
Quincy, Sr. Melania, CSJ, spoke to the class about St. Isaac Jogues
and the North American martyrs. That day may have been the seed
of my being drawn to the Society of Jesus.
In spring 1963 I made a retreat at Gloucester, with the result
of deciding to return to Baghdad as a priest. By then the Jesuit
mission had expanded from Baghdad College to Al Hikma University
on the south side of the city. The university was named after
the famous Abbasid Institute, Dar Al--Hikma, "House of Wisdom."
At our university I began to offer daily Mass in Arabic on Sundays
for the students and to preach in Arabic on Sundays at a local
parish.
There came another surprise in the form of an invitation from
the staff at the Center for Religious Development to participate
in their nine month internship program. I do remember going to
42 Kirkland Street in Cambridge for an interview with Fr. Bill
Connolly and Sr. Madeline Birmingham, RC. What I most remember
about the interview was being served high tea as a gracious gesture
of my being accepted as an associate. Such hospitality led to
an even more grace filled status later, when I was invited to
join the CRD staff. This was another major turning point in my
life.
From all I have said, God's activity in my life seems rather evident,
and the manner of his coming has been a pathway to "the intimate
feeling and relishing of things," as Ignatius says in the
Second Annotation of his Spiritual Exercises. What better confirmation
of my vocation to the Society than by making the thirty-day retreat
as a novice amidst the autumn beauty of the Berkshires, a beauty
I had already relished for four years at Cranwell?
