Paul’s wish for the church in Corinth is “that there be no divisions among you,” this Sunday’s second reading informs us. In the aftermath of the Arizona shootings, calls have gone out for greater civility in the nation’s political discourse. . . .

It would be difficult to find a place on earth that more aptly fits the description in this Sunday’s gospel evocation of Isaiah of a people “dwelling in a land overshadowed by death” than the nation of Haiti. Perhaps fancying himself the “great light” his nation needs, exiled former Haitian dictator . . .

From the earliest days of his public ministry, as described in this Sunday’s gospel, teaching was a central aspect of Jesus’ mission. A new study reports that freshman and sophomore college students, by contrast, are not focusing on what they are supposed to be learning. . . .

Both the first and second readings this Sunday describe how God acts to bring the light of salvation and consolation to God’s people. Nowhere perhaps is that consolation needed more urgently this week than in Brazil, . . .

The psalmist this Sunday seeks “to dwell in the house of the Lord" forever. A growing number of U.S. senators don’t feel the same about hanging around the upper chamber of Congress after 2012. Democratic hopes of retaining . . .

‘‘Now I will have to say that, if we don’t have the same daddy, we’re not brothers and sisters. So anybody here today who has not accepted Jesus Christ as their savior, I’m telling you, you’re not my brother and you’re not my sister, and I want to be your brother.”

Mostly because of declining tax revenues, public education lost the most jobs--143,700--in 2010 of any employment sector.