When do you feel most “at one” with those around you? A shared faith helps us feel the warm kinship Jesus describes in today’s gospel.

“Jesus is coming soon.” We’ve seen these words or similar ones on sandwich boards, bumper stickers, and billboards. We hear them in church, too.

Since the 1950s scientists have had in their possession an artifact discovered in South Africa known as the Hofmeyr skull. It resembles other modern human skulls unearthed in Asia and Europe.

She said it again. No matter how hard Jennifer tried not to say it, that word kept coming out of her. It was a word she wasn’t supposed to use.

Like you, O Lord, your first martyr Saint Stephen called on God to forgive his persecutors. Today we pray for that same forgiveness.

I gave as an offering my all to him who had won me and saved me, my property, my fame, my health, my very words. . . . In considering all these things, I preferred Christ.