‘I found that I was able to live more ‘monastically’ than I had ever thought possible.’

“Covid swept away a number of our distractions and so, at least in principle, allowed us to wrestle with the questions that really matter.”

‘You surrender to what is. Covid taught me this.’

‘Hope is an active verb. You don’t have hope if you just stand on the sidelines.’

The three are equally telling: here is the promised Messiah; here is the very presence of God; and here is the one who has come among us to die.

Who were some of the U.S. Catholics who were regularly in the news this past year?