"Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ." Saint Paul's words carry a double-command. One is to shape your life around Christ. The other is to be an example for others.

The words of the leper who approached Jesus--"if you wish, you can make me clean"--could be those of anyone who approaches the sacraments.

WHEN THE TRUNK of my sister’s car is loaded with junk she doesn’t even want to think about, she has an efficient method of making the problem vanish: She throws a blanket over the whole mess and walks away.

A COUPLE of years ago The New York Times Magazine published a cover story by Nicholas Kristof about "D.I.Y."--do-it-yourself--foreign aid. The article featured a number of American women who had taken responding to the needs of others overseas into their own hands. 

BY THE TIME Saint Paul got to writing to the Corinthians, he was already talking about the "church of God." But how did "the Way" of Jesus become the institutional church?

I'm glad we sinners have the world of divine justice to fall back on. Love and mercy flow more abundantly and indiscriminately there.

We acknowledge our faults before the Lord, who takes away our sins.

This is what the Gospel of Mark is about: following Jesus can be hard, sometimes extremely hard. To end the suffering of the world, his disciples will have to suffer themselves.

Only say the word and my servant will be healed. --Matthew 8:8