I loved the Jesuits. At first I didn't think they were really such great teachers, but they really were. We had study hall for three hours every night. That taught me how to study. I also learned a lot of Latin.
Among the things that have stayed with me almost all my life were Bishop Sheen's articles on teenagers. He taught me that love brings us reverence, respect, and a sense of the sacredness of others. The "Gift of the Magi" showed that love is based on mutual sacrifice and understanding. And one of my favorite quotes was: "to adore beauty is to worship God." It somehow just clicked for me.

I loved it at BC High. I loved the teaching, and the kids were not hard to discipline. They were learners, they knew they had to study. So the teaching went awfully well.
And the thing I enjoyed most was managing the freshman basketball team. We got into the finals two years in a row. We played at the old Boston Garden. We got beat twice there by only two points in one game and by one point in another. I loved being at the Garden.
One Saturday, we went down to the Garden where Red Auerbach was running a clinic. I was thrilled to be able to get up near him and say hello. I even had my picture taken with him. It appeared shortly afterwards in the Globe, and I couldn't wait to send it home to my father and mother.

So I went to Weston and started driving the men to their doctors' appointments. And, fortunately, having outside interests-Marriage Encounter and charismatic renewal had been a saving grace at Cheverus, was also my saving grace at Weston. It was just healing to share very deeply with many others in Marriage Encounter and in the charismatic renewal. And where they met was in the general Weston area. I don't remember just how many years I did this at Weston. I think it was about four.
To finish the healing, my friend, Janet Titsworth, administrator of the health center, had a friend in Canada who was going to give a retreat there. So she and others planned to go there for that retreat. I asked if I could go as well, and they said I could. It turned out to be a charismatic retreat. And the people there prayed over me, with me, and for me. I felt like electricity was pouring all over me for four days, and found myself feeling much better.

I am the hidden sight of your eyes.
I am the empty blue of the plentiful sky.
I am the birth of wonder and the source of awe.
I am the fire of the soul and the fuel of religion.
I am something from nothing and all there is.
I am endless and invisible and ever-present.
I am the echo of time and the glue of being.
I am creation rethinking, reshaping,
.....renewing its poetic form in air, flakes,
.....buds, seeds, maples, atoms, storms.
I move cars and light years, rockets, bees;
.....order sleepy days and dreamy nights.
I am the buried and dead in you, alive.
Call me the source of life,
.....the spark, the beyond within.
Who am I? Who am I?"
.....echoes the miracle of life.