Name: Father Daniel Seward.

Age: 37 – I was born in Ndola, Zambia, in 1974.

Job: I am the Provost and Parish Priest of the Oratory. This means leading the Oratorian community here and also our parish. As well as saying mass, hearing confessions, visiting parishioners and so on, it also means all sorts of practical day-to-day tasks involved in keeping our church and house up and running. There’s a great deal of variety in being a priest – meeting all kinds of different people, and seeing them at all the most joyful and painful points of their lives.

Home: At the Oratory in Woodstock Road – there are nine of us who live in the community: eight priests and a novice. Oratorians stay in one place for their whole lives, so we have a stable life, rather like that of a family. We eat meals in common, with readings during dinner, and pray together twice a day.

Who I love: The reason that priests don’t marry is so that they can belong equally to everyone – so that ought to mean that I love everyone, but of course I’m not always very good at it.

Happiest year: 2001 – the year of my ordination. It takes six years to train to be a priest, and after that it seems as though you’ve always been one.

Darkest moment: Being at an airport, having missed my plane, and not having any money – I eventually got home in the end. It was a good lesson as to what it would be like not to be in control of one’s life.

Proudest boast: Bungee jumping off a tall bridge in South Africa. They assemble a great crowd of people to count you down from the top, otherwise you would never have the courage to jump.

Weakness: Arranging to do more than one thing at the same time – so not knowing when to say no.

Lesson learned: Always ask the difficult questions at the beginning, otherwise you still have to deal with them later on, when it’s harder.

Dullest job: Dealing with the accounts – like any job, there are lots of hidden, administrative things a priest has to do.

Greatest shame: Getting into the wrong end of a procession in St Peter’s, Rome, and ending up among the cardinals. It looked to everyone as though I had deliberately made myself more important but was actually hugely embarrassing.

Lifelong hero: Pope John Paul II, who overcame Communism in Eastern Europe with the positive power of the Gospel. His great motto was always “do not be afraid”, which is a liberation for anyone if they can take it to heart.

Oldest friend: Other than my family, I am still in touch with the nun who taught me at nursery school when I was three, and who prepared me for my first holy communion.

Widest friend: Oratorians are meant to be joyful all the time, because our founder, St Philip Neri, is the patron saint of joy. He used to walk around Rome with half his beard shaved off and to pull the beards of the Swiss Guards before going to see the Pope.

Favourite dream: Not having to worry about money – but then if we had no difficulties and worries we would become complacent.

Biggest regret: Forgetting all the Russian I learned at school. At that time it was difficult to visit Russia, so I never got the opportunity to practise speaking the language.