My formal, reserved church could take a cue from those who pray with raw urgency.

Gracie Morbitzer has created over 100 icons of saints that reflect the modern church: They are young, diverse, sometimes tattooed—and no less holy because of it.

I have more or less settled on the idea that we’re meant to speak to God in our native tongues, and if that means humor, then that’s legitimate. But it’s important for there to be a line.

“I returned to my Catholic upbringing, professing a faith I did not completely feel, because I was suffering and needed answers from God,” writes Lyle C. May, who is on death row in North Carolina.

My new motto has become, “Preach the Exercises always; when necessary, use words.”