This is a work of fiction. Every character, family, school, university, seminary, parish, diocese, date, village, and private event in this novel is invented or substantially altered. Although the story draws on the universal experiences of family love, bereavement, education, Catholic faith, vocational discernment, and pastoral formation, it is not a biography. Any resemblance to an actual person or institution is coincidental. The novel deliberately ends while its central character is still discerning. It does not invent an ordination, an ecclesiastical appointment, or a final vocational outcome. Its hope rests in the next truthful step.