September bids us to get serious. We’ve had our academic break, vacation getaway, or simple fun in the sun. Responsibilities resume after Labor Day (3): time to re-shoulder the load. Over a dozen saints walk with us this segment, including America’s cheerful ascetic, Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos (Oct. 5). Only one woman is feted in September: Mary, honored on her Nativity (8), for her Most Holy Name (12), and as Our Lady of Sorrows (15).

Jesus has no tolerance for lip service. Pure hands are nothing compared with pure hearts in his eyes.

Those of a certain age remember the Ivory soap commercial that declared, without the least bit of irony intended, that its product was “ninety-nine and forty-four one-hundredths percent pure.” Wow, we thought back then: So, what’s in all the rest of the soaps we’re using?

The Pharisees, along with some religion scholars who had come from Jerusalem, gathered around him. They noticed that some of his disciples weren’t being careful with ritual washings before meals.

It took place after dinner at the retreat house, beginning innocently enough with the usual reminiscing about the old days in the seminary in the late '60s and early '70s, a time of change and challenge both in the church and in the country. The discussion turned to politics, civil rights, and the war in Viet Nam.

As a CEO of a major publishing house, he was a big fish in a big pond. His main publication was a world-renowned reference set. He had made it to the top by schmoozing and playing it safe. His main goal was to enjoy his privilege and keep the stockholders happy.

Ignorance of the law does not mean we are free from keeping it. It is our responsibility to know what the laws are. Ignorance is no defense. Maybe that’s why there are so many lawyers.

When I was a young teenager my friends and I formed the Eddie Haskell Fan Club. Eddie was the smarmy kid on the Leave It to Beaver television show who acted sweet and nice in front of parents and other adults but was selfish with his peers and mean toward kids younger than him.

Let us ask for God’s mercy and pray to God to make us better disciples.

What goes into a person can defile a person. Ask a drug addict or an alcoholic. But Jesus’ diagnosis is that there’s a deeper problem that comes from within. Spiritual impurity or moral defilement starts on the inside. It arises from the heart.