In the reading from the Book of Genesis for this Sunday, Eve and Adam discovered that while the fruit from the tree was indeed good for food, pleasing to the eyes, and desirable for gaining wisdom, once she and Adam ate it they felt shame. Turning from temptation to the good has an ex-drug dealer . . .

The psalm for this Sunday offers both a confession of sin and a prayer for renewal—a perfect formula for repentance at the beginning of Lent. The CEO of a major Bitcoin exchange recently made a public apology in Tokyo for the failure of his firm, Mt. Gox, a development which has led observers to wonder . . .

“Just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners,” Saint Paul told the Christians at Rome in this Sunday’s second reading, “so, through the obedience of the one, the many will be made righteous.” Pope Francis has made it abundantly clear that the men who occupy . . .

Jesus ventured into the desert alone to face temptation in the story from this Sunday’s gospel. Copies of the life-size sculpture Jesus the Homeless have also been on a journey, its creator looking for permanent locations for the work. The statue, originally cast in 2012 by Canadian artist Tim Schmalz, depicts Christ lying on a bench wrapped . . .

"We become less human if we don't tend to grief in an openhearted and generous way. We face into that abyss and say yet I will live, yet I will pass on life and joy. Even if I can't know it myself, I will ensure that others will, and I will find my greater meaning in that."

American women account for 84 percent of all women killed by firearms in the developed world even though they make up only one third of the developed world's female population.