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.

The poem is by English poet Mary Coleridge and is entitled Salus Mundi.

When we examine the four Gospels, it is important to remember that they are all divinely inspired works.