November signals the start of the holiday season with the arrival of Thanksgiving (24) and the start of Advent (27). Yet there's a lot more to observe this month. National Vocation Awareness Week runs the first full week of November (6-12). It reminds us that clergy and religious don't grow on trees but in families, parishes, and work environments suffused with holy purpose.

What difference does your faith in the Resurrection make in your daily life?

A tragedy is unfolding in my neighborhood—and perhaps in many others as well. A woman is about to leave her husband of 10 years. They are a loving couple, well suited to each other in terms of temperament, wits, interests, and abilities. What they don’t share—and these have become the deal-breakers—are values and goals.

I came across the program that I had put together for my mother’s funeral Mass more than a decade ago. It brought back many memories, beginning with the beautiful Billy Collins poem we put on the cover of the funeral program.

Growing up, I recall hearing a recording of one of comedian George Carlin’s routines. In it, Carlin is a Catholic grade-school kid, the smart-aleck, troublemaking type. He poses a question to one of the nuns: “Sister, if God is all powerful, can he make a rock so big that even he can’t lift it?”

We pray for forgiveness of our failings and for encouragement to follow the Lord.

I am not dying, I am beginning to live.