In 'Requiem,' her fifth book, Virginia Konchan takes the sacred seriously. She’s jocular with her subjects, including God, yet in doing so she demonstrates sustained attention toward the divine. God is among her natural poetic vocabulary.

Like my discernment to enter religious life, it was a gut reaction I acted on and did not look back.

When people face incurable illness, fear of the unknown is a major force that can drive their thinking. The task of physicians is to help calm people and correct their misunderstandings.

Like little sunsets, like a song of ascents, I wish to remember my father.

My wife and I lost a friend on earth, Gerard O’Connell writes, but we now have a friend in heaven.

In his brief final testament, Pope Francis asked to be buried at Rome’s Basilica of St. Mary Major and said he had offered his suffering for peace in the world.