Trusting God comes easy for those who do it often and prepares them for the most difficult times.

The bishops of North America have called the church to create a "culture of discernment." In such a culture, people would develop the skills and habit of reflecting on the gifts they bring to the world.

“CHILDREN LIKE OLIVE plants around your table” may sound like a modern nightmare. Who can afford to feed, house, clothe, and educate the huge Catholic families of yesteryear?

IN THE COMEDY Last Holiday, Georgia Burns, played by Queen Latifah, is a quiet, dutiful, churchgoing woman who faithfully executes her duties as a clerk in a local department store all the while dreaming of being a chef. She is timid and restrained and rarely steps out of her comfort zone.

I had a friend whose father worked a lot of evenings and also traveled a lot for his job. He once told me, "I was always relieved when I heard Dad's footstep on the stairs coming up to our apartment.

Working in my dad's grocery store as a teen, I was taught that the customer is always right and to smile at them no matter what. One day as I was at the cash register, a stranger asked me for change for a $20 bill and then a ten and then a five. I was responding with my dazzling smile when my brother slammed the register drawer shut.

We ask to be made good and faithful servants.

You yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come. In the Hebrew scriptures, the "day of the Lord" points to the time when God's final manifestation will bring an end to the world, salvation for those who do justice, and judgment upon those who do evil.

Fear only two: God, and the man who has no fear of God. --Hasidic proverb