Editor's Note: After his intense wartime experiences of the 1860's and his demanding editorship of the Banner of the South newspaper in the 1870's, Fr. Ryan seems to have reached a mid-life turning point in the early 1880's. Officially resident in Mobile, Alabama, Fr. Ryan in 1880-81 obtained Bishop Quinlan's permission to retire for an extended sojourn in Biloxi, Mississippi. He named his residence "Sea-Rest." It seems possible that either the date of the preceding letter postmarked Boston College or that of this letter sent from Sea-Rest (1882) may have been misprinted in James' essay. The printed date of 1/13/82 would place this note only 10 days after his letter from Boston College. Moreover, that letter indicates that Ryan's next tour stop after Boston would be Montreal near the end of January.--DRB

Sea-Rest
Biloxi, Miss.,
Jan. 13, 188[2]

My Very Dear Friend:
-You asked, with a sort of pious avarice, for my prayers; so I just thought that I would write to you and ask you for your prayers. In fact, form a kind of spiritual reciprocity -treaty for the transfer and exchange of prayers. Would you sign such a treaty? Well, first I will describe my solitude. Down there, southward, a hundred yards from the front door, is the open gulf. And it is now still. It is singing day and night to the shore. Twenty yards from the gulf is a picket-fence four hundred feet long. Between the fence and the main building are trees: oak, hickory, palm, pine, and cedar, with veils of moss. The main building is a large frame house, built high on brick pillars. A dozen or so of steps lead up to the front gallery, which runs the whole length of the house, and is wide, and railed. Through the front door you enter a parlor-hall, very large, and with high ceiling. On the left, with two windowed doors reaching to the floor and looking towards the gulf, is my bed-room.
[--]
Back of the parlor-hall is a large dining-room; back of that is a gallery. Twenty yards further back is the kitchen with rooms for the servants, who consist of a man and his wife, without counting three children. As with front yard, so'in the rear, there are large spreading trees. Then on either side of the main building there are cottages, with galleries containing each of them three nice rooms. Back of all extends a very forest. Next to the house on the east is a grave-yard. I could not have found a lonelier situation.

How do we spend our time? I write scarcely anything in the day-time except letters. My poetry and other works must have the hours of night. We breakfast at nine, and dine at four. Then, sometimes in the day Philip and I go hunting. I have a splendid gun. Every evening regularly, Philip and I play cards together for an hour. It is our recreation. And could you sometimes hear the merry laughter at the table, you would certainly feel that there is more than a little happiness in my solitude. As for myself, I had resolved on leaving the world for some place of solitude three years ago. But I kept my secret to myself until the opportunity came. So here I am,-and here am I going to stay. Nothing can coax me back. From my ordination, I have been a public man, and am obliged to stand in the glare of a popularity which might satisfy some, but filled me with ennui. Yet I believe that all the time I led a sort of an ideal inner life which the world never knew, and which only a few intimate friends dimly suspected. And I had not enough time to devote to my own soul. I was working, and God knows I did work hard for others. But this ceaseless, external action is injurious to the spirit of contemplation. And I hold that any consecrated person, priest or nun, cannot live a lofty, spiritual life, unless his or her soul sometimes rests in contemplation. So I am reasonably happy, for I have chosen this step. The rest of my life I will devote to writing. I am writing now a Month of Mary Book, which I will call: " My May-Crown for Our Queen." It is going to be novel and original. In it I walk in new ways of thought. It will contain the deepest dogma clothed with the dreamy drapery of poetic expression. I know that it is going to make a strange impression. It will be out before the first of May.

Instead of numbering the conferences by days, I number them by flowers: as for instance, the Flower of Mary's Eternal Predestination; The Flower of the Promise in Eden; The Flower of the Sinless Conception; The Flower of the Nativity, etc. It will be a large book. I sometimes sit up all night writing. As this last night, I wrote twenty-four pages of fools-cap, and after finishing I began this letter, and it is now half-past four in the morning. Am I tired? No. Our Saviour as man needed as much sleep as I do; He took but little. He used to watch on the mountains dim in prayer. So I hope you will often pray for me, and when my book comes out I will certainly send two copies, one to you and one to ___.

God bless you! Remember me to all. I will write soon as I hear something from the North.
With affectionate regards,
Yours faithfully in Christ,
A. J. Ryan