Disclaimer: The series of letters entitled “Correspondence on the Monastic Vocation”, while based on the real questions of a number of men in various places and states of life, is entirely fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, institutions, or places is purely coincidental.

Letter 14: Father Dan Fulworthy

Dear Father Prior,

I am writing you from Saint John XXIII parish in the diocese of Newkirk. I met you last year in Hopefield Manor when you preached a retreat there. I don’t expect you to remember me. You undoubtedly met dozens of priests at the Hopefield Manor retreat. I have been curate in Newkirk since September 2013. Newkirk is my first assignment. I was ordained in June 2013, after completing studies in the regional seminary, followed by an S.T.L. in Rome. I am 29 years old and, prior to entering the seminary, I worked in a used book store. I am the middle child of a family of three, having one older brother and one younger sister. My mother is a cradle–Catholic; my father, of fallen–away Protestant stock, converted to the