Our final month of summer may seem languorous, but the daily lectionary seems in a hurry to get someplace. We spend three weeks racing through the rest of the Pentateuch (Numbers, Deuteronomy) and some historical books (Joshua, Judges, Ruth), before winding up, surprisingly, in Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians. Enjoy the ride.

It was only Jesus, but they saw his glory.

Today the world commemorates what remains the ultimate demonstration of worldly might and power: the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, by the United States in 1945. Nagasaki was also bombed three days later. Seventy thousand Japanese men, women, and children were killed at once.

The old man leaned heavily on his cane. The coach saw him. He couldn’t understand the words he was speaking so animatedly to the youngster who must have been his grandchild. The coach knew that the child was a good player, but shy, unwilling to risk taking a shot.

We are called to the table of God's love and forgiveness.

Sacred tradition . . . and sacred scripture of both the Old and the New Testament are like a mirror in which the pilgrim church on earth looks at God, from whom she has received everything, until she is brought finally to see Him, as He is, face to face.