I couldn't tell if Rome was going to answer this or not, and days went by, weeks went by, months went by, and I still had no answer. I was very tempted to think that maybe I was making a big mistake and God was giving me a chance to back out of it.

Then came the news that I was wanted at the chancery office.

He had the papers and he said to me, "Sit over here and take this pen with which you are going to sign your soul away."

After I signed it I knelt down, and I said to him, "Will you please give me your blessing?"

"Blessing? On what you are going to do?"

I said, "Well, how do we know?"

He said, "I know one thing: in six months time you'll be coming in that door saying to me ‘I made a terrible mistake!’"

I said, "That could be but I don't intend it to be that way."

So he gave me his blessing.

And I went out and they dropped me off at the gate house of the novitiate, and the clothes they had given me were there.

I learned to be a good religious in the Little Sisters of the Poor. I was there for 21 years. And you know that's separating the boys from the men there. That's what you really need. I could never have done this if I hadn't had that. So in a lot of ways I have been very grateful to them. And if I hadn't had the hardships with them, I would have had it somewhere else, because the Lord has to train you somewhere. It's given me a good solid faith, a faith that was enlightened by knowledge as well as being strengthened. I really have always been happy about the whole thing.