In the Ninevites and the apostles Simon, James, and John, scripture today has examples of immediate repentance and turning to follow God. Make a brief examination of conscience and identify what you need to repent.

Discipleship requires a certain amount of flexibility. Actually, a better term would be acrobatics. I’m thinking of something along the lines of what the performance group Cirque du Soleil does. Discipleship is easier when you have no bones to break in the process.

My dear friend, Richard, had a rare disease that was difficult to diagnose, and thus to treat. For months, he suffered and endured stays at seven different hospitals.

In her autobiography The Long Loneliness, Dorothy Day, the cofounder of the Catholic Worker Movement, told many stories of how people came to be part of the Worker. One was Hazen Ordway.

We turn to God who fills our hearts with repentance.

To pay attention—this is our endless and proper work.