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.

In the Gospel we proclaim this Sunday from the Evangelist Matthew, we encounter, yet again, the figure of Saint John the Baptist.

The words, “I’m waiting,” or, even simply, “Wait,” can inspire a lot of different feelings depending on who is saying them and why.