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From the Publisher
This memoir of unforgettable stories is an oustanding collection of wonderful vignettes. You may laugh, you may cry. Yet one thing is certain: your life will not be left unchanged by this powerful and sometimes painfully honest tribute to life, relationships, love, sickness and death.
Praise for Souvenirs
“Souvenirs from the Life of a Renegade Priest, a delightful memoir, offers a picture of how irreverence and holiness can co-exist. Irreverence is most apparent where Jim Petty confronts religious and social convention. Holiness flows from the painful end-of-life stories Jim tells, where AIDS victims and God’s other beloved “unclean” children meet his boundless grace, often embodied in other people. In this witty and moving book, personal misadventures are interwoven with heartrending reminiscence about pastoral care, epitomizing a gifted storyteller’s art.”
—Edward L. Bleynat, Jr., attorney and author of The Synoptic Gospels: A Journey Into the Kingdom, Volume I: From Bethlehem to the River Jordan
“Absolutely outstanding collection of wonderful vignettes; some heartrending, some joyous, some very funny—all instructional and inspiring.”
—The Rev. Anne C. Brower, M.D.
“Father Petty’s book is a must-have for clergy and anyone who appreciates the humor in church and pastoral life. His stories, many told on himself, point up both the fragility and resilience of the human condition—which, of course, is the pastor’s condition, too! These terse and witty vignettes provide solace, laughter and godly admonition to anyone who dares to be a caregiver. I look forward to returning to these stories again and again in the hope that his down-to-earth and hard-won wisdom proves contagious.”
—The Reverend Anne Gavin Ritchie, Rector,
Church of the Resurrection, Alexandria, Virginia
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