This week we explore sacred precincts. The sacred is not remote and disconnected from us. We are watered by its springs that bring new life in abundance.

Ours is an age where self-image causes many people problems. Because so much attention is focused on body size and shape, on what we’re wearing, how old or young we look, how expensive our car is, or what style of fashion we adopt, we can lose track of our true identity: temples of the Holy Spirit.

WHAT WOULD YOU INCLUDE on a list of holy places: Jerusalem? Rome? The local cathedral? We might agree that houses of worship, cloisters, shrines, retreat centers, and burial grounds are consecrated places.

“I get to empty the trash this week!” said my elated second-grade daughter. Her wise teacher had borrowed a lesson from Tom Sawyer and made a privilege of being the one “chosen” to carry the class trash to the big container at the end of the hall.

When Jesus Sanchez arrived, the building was a brick shell. It was his job to work with the carpenter to build walls; drywall, plaster, and sand; and repair and lay floors. He brought a team of eight guys, and they worked 10 hour days for three weeks straight (except Sundays).

No, you are not misreading the calendar by six months. This week the church celebrates the Feast of the Dedication of the Basilica of St. John Lateran, which is the cathedral church of the bishop of Rome, the pope.

We are the living stones of God’s temple. From this sacred house we lift up our prayers to God.

Today we celebrate another glorious feast: It is the feast of the Lord’s house, of God’s temple, of the city of the eternal king. . . . Let us ask ourselves what this house of God, this temple, this city . . . can be.