Like some of the other great prophets of Hebrew scripture—Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Amos—Jeremiah had to first establish his “cred”—that his prophetic call was indeed from God—for the people to listen to him.

What will your mortal legacy be? If it’s your business to lead troops to military victory or deliver your community from economic hard times, you may earn yourself a statue in the park after you’re gone. If you leave a hefty bequest behind, you may even get your name on a school or library.

You can hear other echoes of the prophets in Christ’s ministry. When at Zeraphath, Elijah met a widow and her son and multiplied their grain and oil so they could survive; when the son died anyway,

As we celebrate God’s banquet of love, let us remember that it is God who rescues us from sin.

Love is patient, love is kind. Saint Paul’s words to the Corinthians, beloved of weddings, have their roots not so much in the marital relationship as in his encouragement of the church at Corinth to overcome its differences. He uses a kind of “beatitudes in reverse”: While Jesus’ Beatitudes move from what is lacking to the fulfillment of those needs, Paul starts with ideals behind which his hearers could infer the sorry realities: jealousy, arrogance, rudeness, selfishness, rage, resentment, and meanness. Love, he says, corrects deficiencies and perfects gifts, and is always something that happens in community.

A child comes home from school with a torn shirt and black eye. What happened? Well, somebody said something and somebody didn’t like it and one thing led to another and there was a fight. Hey, aren’t we supposed to be raising kids to be peace-loving Christians?

The most basic meaning of vocation . . . . is a call to seek the face of God, a call to holiness and the fullness of life itself. —Father Donald Senior, C.P.