The people of Jesus' time had such confidence in him that they “hastened . . . from all the towns” to get to his next destination ahead of him, we hear in this Sunday’s gospel. American’s confidence in organized religion, on the other hand . . .

Christ “is our peace” and “broke down the dividing wall of enmity” the reading from The Letter to the Ephesians proclaims this Sunday. Warring gangs that caused El Salvador’s murder rate to skyrocket in recent years finally had enough of enmity . . .

"The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want,” says the psalmist this Sunday, praising the abundance of the Lord of Israel: “You spread the table before me . . . you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.” Hard times have fallen on contemporary Israel, however, and a year-long protest movement . . .

In biblical times people did a lot of walking and physical labor, including the shepherds whose image is used in a variety of contexts—some positive, others not—in the Sunday readings. Now that machines do much of the heavy lifting . . .

After Jesus sent them out to preach and teach in his name, the apostles “gathered together with Jesus” to discuss “all they had done and taught,” this Sunday’s gospel relates. In 1962, successors to the apostles gathered in Rome from around the world . . .

"Our gift to the church is to be with those who have been made poorer, with those on the margins. Questions there are much less black and white because human realities are much less black and white. That’s where we spend our days.”

Because of melting ice sheets and the faster expansion of warm water, sea levels on the U.S. Eastern seaboard between Cape Hatteras and Cape Cod have risen four times faster than the world average.