I recall being in fifth grade at Holy Name of Jesus School in Windsor Ter¬race when my teacher told my parents that I was having some problems reading what was written on the blackboard.

Our Lord Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman, who is simply looking for some water, is a supreme example of what Pope Francis calls “accompaniment.”

Sometimes in our reading of Sacred Scripture, it’s important to put things into context. Sometimes, it’s important to examine exactly where a section of the Bible is taken from in order to understand it more fully.

What are you giving up for Lent?

As a kid growing up, many of my friends would tell me all the time that being a Christian is easy.

When I was a college seminarian, one of our apostolate ministries was to serve as catechists at parishes in their faith formation programs.

I have been wearing eyeglasses since the age of seven.

A beautiful painting my sister Therese gave me hangs on my wall, one of Jesus delivering the Sermon on the Mount to a crowd of people of humble origin. Besides the soft colors, light-blue wooden frame, and depiction of Our Lord, what strikes me about the painting is the closeness of Jesus to His attentive listeners.

I love fish on my plate, seeing them in aquariums, and coming upon very tiny ones in the surf of Coney Island.

It was not until seminary studies that I learned that the word “scapegoat,” so often used colloquially for a person who is unfairly assigned blame for the transgressions of others.