But T. J. C. Kelly, SJ, at BC High-God rest him-had the strongest
influence on me. He was a great teacher. T. J. C. Kelly was a
wonderful, wonderful scholastic, who taught me in my first year.
He became a kind of model for me when I started thinking about
the priesthood. I very much wanted to be like him. When I went
to Shadowbrook, it was a wonderful surprise to find he was already
a teacher there. It was a joyful reunion.
He was right. I was sent back to Rome. It was suggested that I
should do an historically oriented dissertation about some outstanding
Jesuit spiritual writer. I followed that advice and studied Fr.
Jean Nicolas Grou [1731 1803]. You may never have heard of him,
but he deserves to be studied more thoroughly. So that's how I
spent my second year in Rome.
Both Bill Barry and myself were in the pastoral department at
the Weston School of Theology, so we were formally involved in
a spiritual formation program. He was also doing some counseling.
And we gradually began to consider training people in this area
of spirituality. This led to our starting a master's program in
spiritual direction at the school. And that's how the Center for
Religious Development started up.
I ask also what good have I done through the influence of my Jesuit
formation and spirituality. The answer, of course, is what has
happened through the goodness and greatness of God in my life,
including mystical moments. I am grateful for the transcendent,
even mystical, moments of my life.
