In the first reading for Palm Sunday, the prophet Isaiah speaks of having received “a well-trained tongue” from the Lord, who each morning also “opens” the prophet’s ear. Lawyers who have been before the U.S. Supreme Court this week to argue the case for or against the Affordable Care Act hope their well-trained tongues . . .

Jesus is arrested, hauled before the authorities, sentenced to death, and executed, we hear in the gospel account of the Lord’s Passion this Sunday. Prison chaplains know a thing or two about those who have been arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced, and a new study of state prison chaplains suggests religion is alive and well behind bars . . .

Though he was in the form of God, Christ Jesus “emptied himself” and “humbled himself” to take on human appearance and accept death on a cross, the reading from the Letter to the Philippians this Sunday tells us. Finding their bank accounts near empty while living on their own, a generation of young adults have humbly moved back in with their parents in recent years because of economic conditions . . .

Jesus had a simple request of his disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane in this Sunday’s gospel: "Sit here while I pray." Yet Peter, James, and John couldn’t even stay awake to do that much for their suffering Master in his hour of need. On the other hand, just sitting there could have been quite harmful to their health . . .

“The overall image of this war is of U.S. troops mired in quicksand and getting blown up and arbitrarily waiting until 2014 to come home.”

Though U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts thinks "the most important thing for the public to understand is that we are not a political branch of government," 59 percent of Americans believe the justices will allow their ideological views to influence their decision regarding the legality of the 2010 federal health-care law.