The message of this week’s reading from the Letter to the Hebrews is that Jesus embraces lowliness to exalt all to glory. The Palestinian people, denied a homeland and recognition as a state since the creation of Israel, Wednesday saw their flag raised for the first time . . .

“The only way to make a credible case for the argument of life is to make it be seamless and without contradiction, as the late Cardinal Bernardin proposed,” writes Alice Camille in Exploring the Word this “Respect Life” Sunday. Not everyone sees it that way, however. Convicted murder conspirator Kelly Renee Gissendaner . . .

Women and children receive new and improved status in the eyes of Jesus, we read in this Sunday’s Exploring the Word. A 99-year-old woman who has lived legally in Canada since 1933 had to struggle for years to be granted the status of citizenship ...

The Pharisees, testing Jesus, spring a trick question on him in this Sunday’s gospel. In a follow-up to the stunning revelations last week that Volkswagen tried to trick emissions testers, the company announced that it will recall up to 11 million vehicles programmed with “cheat devices.” . . .

It has been my privilege to witness thousands of wedding ceremonies. I have experienced touching moments—the groom with tears of joy streaming down his face as he watched the bride processing up the aisle and the bride who sang her prayer . . .

“I don't know how many nurses would be lucky enough to have something like this happen, to have someone remember you all that time. I feel privileged to be the one to represent all the nurses who cared for her over the years."

The U.S. has an incarceration rate of about 700 per 100,000 population, highest by far of any nation with 100,000 or more residents. By contrast, the number for our closest neighbors: Mexico 212, Canada 106.