All 8 Uses of

zeal
in
A Prayer for Owen Meany

Whereas the Rev. Mr. Merrill had heeded his calling as a young man—he had always been in, and of, the church—the Rev. Mr. Wiggin was a former airline pilot; some difficulty with his eyesight had forced his early retirement from the skies, and he had descended to our wary town with a newfound fervor—the zeal of the convert giving him the healthy but frantic appearance of one of those "elder" citizens who persist in entering vigorous sporting competitions in the over-fifty category.†
p. 113.9

zeal = active interest and enthusiasm

In their zeal to demonstrate their knowledge of appropriate passages from the Bible, neither minister had offered my mother and Dan that most reassuring blessing from Tobit—the one that goes, "That she and I may grow old together."†
p. 127.9

He was embarrassed by his mother's lack of patriotic zeal; it may have been the only time he argued with anyone, but he won the argument—he got to go to Vietnam, where he was killed by one of the poisonous snakes of that region.†
p. 131.3

The Rev. Mr. Larkin is as quick to be gone from a conversation as he is quick with the communion cup; and our priest associate, the Rev. Mr. Foster—although he burns with missionary zeal—is impatient with the fretting of a middle-aged man like myself, who lives in such comfort in the Forest Hill part of town.†
p. 227.1

But there was no hard evidence against him; not even the zeal of the headmaster could put the blame for the demolished Beetle on Owen Meany.†
p. 404.3 *

They say there's no zeal like the zeal of the convert—and that's the kind of Anglican I was.†
p. 466.4

They say there's no zeal like the zeal of the convert—and that's the kind of Anglican I was.†
p. 466.4

Typically, the town newspaper, The Gravesend News-Letter, did not editorialize on the event, except to say that a march against mayhem on the nation's highways would be a more significant use of such civilian zeal; as for the academy newspaper, The Grave reported that it was "about time" the school and the town combined forces to demonstrate against the evil war.†
p. 582.4