Is it possible that people who say that the sacrament is more trouble than it is worth, that they do not need confession, have duped themselves?

Why do we dwell within our protective shells, safe from what might harm us but certainly not fully open to what lies beyond?

The homily should be part of an active relationship between preacher and parish. None of us, speaking or listening, should stop trying to improve the experience.

If you feel a longing for God, take heart. You are alert and ready to receive the bridegroom. If you were not, his absence would not burn.

We are not meant to envy the intimacy or intensity of religious life. We are called to imitate it.

This is the theological virtue we call hope: remaining open to what will come, to whatever God determines. And what that might be, we truly do not know, no matter how certain we might think that we are.

So often what we consider to be interruptions can become invitations. We only need to ask, “What is it that you are saying, dear Lord?”

Believers who oppose abortion are not doing so by divine dictate. On the contrary, though our ethical thought is certainly inspired by our religious faith, it is not directly derived from it.

Our eschatology became focused upon place rather than person, but that is a fundamental distortion of the Gospel preached by the disciples.

A life lived in the Gospel makes demands upon us. If it does not, we need to look again. Maybe we are not living such a life.