“The Lord has revealed to the nations his saving power,” says the psalmist this Sunday. A number of Christan groups in the U.S. are wishing that the political leadership of their nation would cease obstructing the power of federal services . . .

In the gospel reading for this Sunday, only one leper who was cured returned to give thanks. A large number of American Catholics, however, are thankful for Pope Francis’ recent statements that the church should focus . . .

In gratitude for his healing, Namaan asked Elisha to “please accept a gift from your servant," says Sunday’s first reading. Scientists François Englert of the Université Libre de Bruxelles in Belgium and Peter W. Higgs of the University of Edinburgh will be showing their gratitude for the joint 2013 Nobel Prize . . .

“This saying is trustworthy,” says the author of the Second Letter to Timothy of the gospel he has preached. While this year's Nobel Prize-winning physicists inferred the trustworthy existence of a particle proven to exist years later, art historians have recently discovered in a private collection of 400 works . . .

"Lord, when the federal shutdown delays payments of death benefits to the families of [soldiers] dying on far-away battlefields, it's time for our lawmakers to say enough is enough."

An Associated Press-GfK survey found that only 5 percent of the U.S. public approves of the job Congress is doing, while 83 percent disapprove (11 percent neither approved nor disapproved).