Affectionately...in Jesus and Mary
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As soon as Edward entered the room, he sat down in a desk and lowered his head.
“Edward, since you confided in me that you were going into the seminary, … I feel I have the right and the obligation to say something to you. A religious vocation is a gift, an invitation from God to follow Him in a very special way. The sacrifice involved is difficult, very difficult, and at times it seems almost impossible—” Be careful not to scare him, she told herself.
Edward was silent, his head lowered; she was talking to that hair. Monkey! Was he embarrassed? Was he angry at her intrusion? Whatever he was, he wasn’t leaving the room, which encouraged her to continue: “I almost left the convent a number of times because I thought I couldn’t go on without having a child. It hurt; it still hurts so much at times. I feel so empty and unfulfilled at times that I almost get physically sick about it. Some days I feel so terrible that I can hardly get out of bed. But a religious vocation is worth any sacrifice you have to make, no matter how hard it hurts. In the end, you get back so much more than you have to give up.”
His head—with that hair! Monkey!—was still lowered.
Come to the point, she told herself. “Frankly, Edward, I’m worried about your involvement with Dolores Leveroni.”
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About the Book
This collection of short stories examines the lives of five very different men as they study for the priesthood and experience seminary life.
Affectionately … in Jesus and Mary presents a collection of related short stories about the lives of five very different men. Each man is studying for the priesthood, but they approach their seminary studies very differently. The stories chronicle the day-to-day sacred, secular, holy, sinful, heroic, and petty thoughts, words, and deeds of the five men as they journey through each of the stages of training and formation that culminate in ordination into the priesthood.
Vinnie Lauter tries to account for his need to always be the center of attention, even in the seminary. Eddie Moszka wonders if being a virgin is a blessing or a curse, while JV Delancey constantly struggles with religious obedience and with the demands of community living in the seminary. Jay Kenny increasingly feels that Thomism, the official philosophy and theology of the Catholic Church, has strapped him in an emotional and intellectual straightjacket. The saintly and scholarly Sean Saint-Jean, although he has personally reconciled Christianity and evolution, struggles with the ban on teaching and publishing on the topic.
These stories delve into a private world that is normally hidden from view, exploring the lives of men—whether admirable or blameworthy—who inhabit this world.
About the Author
Edward Makuta lives on Cape Cod. Affectionately … in Jesus and Mary is his second collection of stories. He is author of The Land of Opportunity and Other Fictions, a retelling of the Eastern European immigration to the coal fields of Pennsylvania.