I am grateful for all the poets who submitted their work for the contest. Every year we get poems from all over the United States, and even across the world, about any number of topics.

Writing this marginally insane diary was a reminder to me that, no matter what disasters strike us, and no matter what destruction they wreak, we can at least find ways to diminish their soul-destroying power. We can at least laugh.

A Reflection for Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Easter, by Joe Hoover, S.J.

There is no civil war in the Catholic Church, there is only Almighty God sifting us like wheat. There is no schism ahead, only the proper ordering of us into the right places for the salvation of our souls.

The rest of Tucker Carlson’s racist text betrayed a self-confessional Tucker Carlson I can begin to identify with.

The poetry of Amit Majmudar, whom America has published 10 times in the past few years, moves easily between the mystical and the ordinary, the one rooted in the other.

The best “time maximizing” methods can lead us to a space where God can maximize our souls and inhabit everything we do.

A Reflection for Thursday in the Octave of Easter, by Joe Hoover, S.J.

A Reflection for Thursday of the Second Week in Lent, by Joe Hoover, S.J.

Having Mass announcements right before the liturgy ends is like having the director come out and stop “Hamlet” three minutes before it finishes in order to tell the audience where the best post-show night spots are.