America strives to understand and highlight the experiences of those on the margins.

As late as the 1970s, boxing saturated U.S. Catholic culture. It reinforced Catholic ideas about the redemptive value of physical suffering; it also offered a powerful form of assimilation to male Catholic immigrants.

As I approach 90, I am less concerned with outward appearances—things like what I wear, how my hair looks, what others think of me—and more concerned with my inner life and how I relate to the world around me.

When I was growing up, the impending arrival of Lent brought on great anxiety over what to give up — soda? chocolate? or most drastically, all sweets?

This week, we talk with Mireille Twayigira, a Jesuit Refugee Service Education Advocate.