The Journey Continues: Letters Home from Philosophy Studies, 1965 – 67 –  Part 1

“The Journey: Letters Home, 1961 – 1963″ consisted of edited letters to my parents and family about my experience of the Jesuit NOVITIATE, a two year ‘kind of’ boot camp, for young men aspiring to be Jesuits. (The 19 Part IgNation series ran Thursday’s from October 6, 2016 to February 9, 2017.)

“THE JUNIORATE Letters home, 1963 – 65″ began where Part 19 of the first series left off. The 16 Part IgNation series began to be posted on May 10 and concluded on August 16. 2017.

This last series of letters were written during the next stage of Jesuit formation called “Philosophy”. Every Jesuit scholastic was required to study philosophy as a preparation for ordination to the priesthood. (The study of philosophy is the prelude to the Jesuit’s four year studies in theology.)

In the 1960’s the English Province of the Society of Jesus in Canada sent young Jesuits to Jesuit Universities in the United States to receive their training in philosophy and to acquire (usually) their first academic degree (usually a B.A.). I was sent to Mount St. Michael, a Jesuit house focused entirely on the study of philosophy. It was part of Gonzaga University, Spokane, Washington.

In the first two years of formation, the aspiring Jesuit was termed a ‘novice’; in the second two years he was referred to as a “junior”. In this phase of formation he was called a “philosopher”.

The first letter of this series begins just after the ‘philosopher’ visited home and family after a four year absence. (His parents visited him twice during those years. Three of his siblings accompanied his mum and dad in their October 1963 visit. The rest of his family he had not set eyes on in all that time.

Permission was granted for a three day visit home, not counting the day of arrival and the day of departure. They were intense busy wonderful days. The letter describes the beginning of his new life as a “philosopher” and the anticipation of a ‘guitar’, an instrument well used then and to the present day.

Editing note: (A raft of periods indicate where text has been excised; Square brackets [ ] indicate additions to the text.)

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September 4, 1965

Dear Mum, Dad and all,

Well, at last I am here and settling down to a new part of [my] training. The trip down to Vancouver was a little long because I was travelling alone again. I had to switch train stations there because the Great Northern Terminal is with the C.N., and the C.N. is about one mile from the C.P. station. Two hours after I arrived, the four other lads stepped off the Canadian.

We then took a look at the city. (Oh yes, before I forget, thanks very much for the Bermies, shirt, etc.) As things worked out I didn’t even get in touch with anybody on my way. We hit Calgary so early in the morning, and things just didn’t work out in Vancouver either [to visit relatives]. By the time we arrived in Spokane it was midnight at least. All the Canadians [at Mount Saint Michael] were down [at the train station] to meet us, and after showing us a little of the city, we drove to the mount.

It didn’t take long to get down to business. The very next day we began classes. It wasn’t that bad however because we only had a couple [classes], and they were more or less introductory ones. I’ll be taking one class at Gonzaga [University] in Spokane, a course in English Literature.

Mount St. Michael’s

On thing that is very different here is the number of people. At Guelph there were twenty at most in your particular class, but here there are about one hundred and fifty. I don’t suppose it is possible to get to know all of them very well. It is certainly strange to be living in another country. The people are a little different and everything, even down to the food you eat, is not the same. Not that it is different for the worse. It isn’t unpleasant or anything like that, just different. It’s hard to explain.

Today I had my first game of handball [here]. They play a different game here than we do at Guelph. Here there are three walls which adds a lot to the game, and so does the regulation handball which is about one and a half inches in diameter and solid rubber. The ball bounces much more than the worn out tennis balls we used to play with. No need to say I lost my first game. Tomorrow will be a different story.

There is probably much to tell but at the moment I’m dry. One thing that must be done is to tell all of you how wonderful my holiday at home was, and to thank you. Please extend my apologies to those people who I missed and those I failed to say good-bye to. A special thank you to Matt for lending me his room.

Another thing I should mention before closing is about the guitar. Many lads have them here, and I was looking at many of them and asking for information. Many suggested that it is a good thing to get a guitar with steel strings because then you can switch from steel string to nylon but you cannot dothe opposite. If you try to put steel on a guitar meant for nylon it will buckle. If you can’t get a Classical with steel strings, a Spanish will be O.K. Good luck.

It only struck me now that I haven’t told you a thing about the place… It is a typical of studies, very large with many rooms and corridors. It is a four story brick structure built probably in the early part of the century. Only now (after about four days) am I able to find a particular place or room without anyone’s assistance.

All in all it looks as though it is going to be a fantastic year. The profs seem to be very good, and there always seems to be someone else interested in the same things that you are interested in.

As you can see my typing is terrible. One of the reasons is that I am trying to get used to a huge standard Underwood [typewriter] which is a part of my room. It has a rather heavy touch but in about a month of so I should not have any problems with it. It seems like a pretty good machine.

My room is in the basement of the house in a corridor called San Juliano. It is much larger than the ones at Guelph and has a walk in closet. Although it is not as new or maybe as lovely as Guelph’s, the ample lighting and space make it much more pleasant.

With that I’ll close. Don’t forget me in your prayers. All of you wonderful people will never be forgotten in mine.

Love

Frank

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 Mount Saint Michael

Spokane, Washington 99207

September 22, 1965

Dear Mum, Dad and all;

As usual too long a time has passed since my last letter. First of all, thank you very much for the letter and for the pictures. Everyone looks tremendous on the picture but me; I have a phony half-smile on my face. It is a good picture of everyone but an exceptionally good picture of you and dad. It is the best picture of you that I’ve seen.

I hope by now that Matt and Rosemary have gotten over their colds, and that everybody else is well. The colds are going around here too. One lad went to the doctor and got some shots for it, and there are others who have had a cold for quite a long time. I felt one coming on a few days ago so I made sure I got enough test and took an aspirin. It did the trick. Since I got here, we all got flu shots too. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

I was sorry to hear that you had such terrible weather and could not get any harvesting done for such a long time. I heard on the radio last week that some places got so very much snow. Then other sources said that the mid prairies didn’t get too much. What is the situation? I hope it is favourable. We had cold wet weather here for about a week.

It was so cold in fact that they had to turn the furnace on in the building. Usually they don’t have to do that here unti almost October. But now some warmer weather has moved in and the out doors are more pleasant.

Well, everything is in full swing now. Classes have started down at Gonzaga University, and so I have to go down three times a week. I’m taking a survey course of American Literature. The professor is very good and so the course should be enjoyable. After I get my B.A., I will probably go for my M.A. in English. In any case that is what it looks like now. (It certainly doesn’t look that way to look at my grammar and spelling does it?)

Besides studies there are plenty of other things to fill up our time here on the Mount. I tried out for the drama club for this semester but didn’t make it. It’s a good thing too because I tried out before all the other activities began to get into full swing. It would have taken a good chunk of time. In any case the project for the next semester sounds a little more enticing.

They might put on an operetta, maybe even The Pirates of Penzance. I’d love to do the Major General again. They are doing “J.B” this semester which requires a cast of only ten. So you see there were many triers who never made it.

Our choir has begun to practice for Christmas now. You might think that it is a little early to begin Christmas music, but we are supposed to put on a Christmas T.V. program (one hour long). Besides that I have been told that there are various other places at which we will sing. It all looks like a lot of fun.

There are about fifty of us in the choir, and so we’re not limited as to what we can do etc. especially since there are so many talented people in it. You should hear some of the voices.

There are many apostolates which can take up some of your time. Every Sunday some people go to visit the Old Folks’ home, the orphanage, or deaf people’s homes. I have been to the Old Folk’s home once. It was really enjoyable talking to those people. Some of them look forward to visits very much because they do not have any family coming to see them.

I hope to get to the orphanage to see what one can do there. I have been learning some of the language of the deaf so that I can visit them. It will be a little difficult at first to get down enough of the sign language well enough to be able to carry on a good conversation. Some of the lads do very well.

Before I go any further I must tell you about the villa. The villa is called Linger Longer Lodge and used to be a type of Motel-Hotel place. It is two stories high and quite long. The rooms are fairly large and complete with bath-tub and other usual facilities. It has lovely lounges, verandas and dinner room. The whole place is on the shore of a little lake called Priest’s Lake in Idaho.

One Saturday we all went up there for a picnic and had a marvelous time. As you can see it is quite a distance from Spokane. Since the house has two buses, they only had to rent one bus to be able to take the whole community. I’m looking forward to Christmas holidays already. (You can see it on the map enclosed. Tom Bonic gave it to me to send to you.) [The map did not survive the years.]

Last Saturday we all went to see The Sound of Music at a local theatre in Spokane. It was a showing for all the clergy, nuns, orphans, etc. If you ever get a chance to see this movie don’t miss it. I have never enjoyed a movie more. It is a very heart warming story and the music in it is tremendous. Julie Andrews sings in it too, and so it could not be better.

Source:ponono.ca

Guess what time they begin their day here? Well, it is five A.M.! I used to think that five thirty was bad enough but wow! It isn’t that bad though because there is time in the afternoon for an hour siesta for anyone who needs it. In the California Province [of the Society of Jesus]they always have their afternoon siesta and they always get up a five o’clock. I suppose it is because of their hot climate in the afternoon that they get up earlier. In that way they can work when it is cooler.

As far as the liturgy is concerned, they are a little behind Canada, but not that far. One thing that seems particularly strange is the switching from Latin to English and vice versa. For instance, they say the Kyrie and Gloria in English and then say the Collect in Latin. The ‘Lord be with you’ is in English sometimes and Latin at other times. It just seems a little unnatural. But other than that they are coming along very well. I have heard that in more conservative places changes are much slower in coming and staying. Oh well, c’est la vie!

I planted those good luck plants and am waiting anxiously for them to grow. There are many beautiful plants around the house and grounds, so soon I’ll have a goodly selection. My room at present is not ideal for growing plants, but it will do for a while.

You should see the lovely roses growing around the house, tea roses, yellow roses, red roses. It’s marvellous. You should have seen the huge Dahlias at Everett, which is a town along the west coast through which I passed on my way to Spokane (You can see it on the map.) They [the blossoms] were almost one foot in diameter and the plant itself was almost four feet tall and was simply beautiful.

So all in all you can see that everything is going fine. Everybody here treats us very well, and I have made many friends already. As you mentioned, there are different customs and ways of speaking. They cause many laughs because Canadians get kidded about their pronunciation of some words [“out” “about” “house”], and we tell them that people in American just don’t speak English.

With that I’d better close and get down to some more studying, or I’ll have to start another page entitled ‘page 3′. The top of this page began as a mistake. I was a little more verbose than usual and didn’t realize that I already had a page 2. Rather than making a mess by erasing I hit upon the ‘continued’.

Oh yes, there is enclosed a picture of me and my fellow Canadians (who came west with me) that was taken in front of the building. I jotted the names [right to left] on the back so that you could find me.

Love,

Frank

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All photos courtesy of Frank Obrigewitsch, SJ

Frank Obrigewitsch, SJ, is pastor of St. Ignatius parish in Winnipeg.

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1Comment
  • Peter Bisson, SJ
    Posted at 08:25h, 07 October Reply

    Thank you, Frank!

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