As a layperson, and as a father, I cannot continue to make myself dependent on ordained men. Not for this.

Our task now, after we have defaced our neighbors’ political signs and posted undignified invectives online, is to figure out how to be more neighborly to one another.

This is the prayer: Accept things as they are. It was all meant to be.

It is the most remote settled island on earth, and a small Catholic community not only survives there but thrives.

Whatever comes next may be ugly. We all know this. But for reasons I can hardly explain, I felt buoyed up the morning after the election.

The only reaction that matters right now for most of us is spiritual. We need patience. We need to let the votes be counted.