"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.