The apostles’ words to Jesus, “Increase our faith,” seem the most natural in the world. Everyone who believes wants greater faith, right? In another way, however, their request might make you think, “Increase? What more did you need?

Faith is a word many believers misunderstand. It isn’t concerned with whether God exists. Faith means we’re confident that God is reliable. Faith, then, is not about reciting doctrines like a checklist of orthodoxy to be signed with our intellectual assent. Frankly it doesn’t matter what we accept as true if it doesn’t affect the way we live. If we have faith in God’s reliability, then we depend on God like gravity. We take every step confident in the force of God’s love to hold onto us.

THE APOSTLES came up and said to the Master, “Give us more faith.” But the Master said, “You don’t need more faith. There is no ‘more’ or ‘less’ in faith.

TO THE prophet in the first reading, reason to believe seems remote at best. Almost hoping against hope, his prayer goes out as if cast into a void. God, though, is there to hear.

Brothers and sisters, let us acknowledge our sins, and so prepare ourselves to celebrate the sacred mysteries.

Faith is obviously the major piece of business in the readings this week, but we see different sides of it—and there is actually a bit of a crisis of faith going on: The psalmist wonders if God is still able to deliver on the old promises.

Time is one of the great mysteries of human experience. It has many qualities and dimensions. There is the inexorable, relentless public time of clocks and calendars, schedules, and appointments. Then there is private time.

Faith is the art of holding on to things in spite of your changing moods and circumstances. —C. S. Lewis