Finding housing near a university is never easy, but enrolling in a degree program from out-of-state made it all the more challenging. So it seemed practical to accept a room in the on-campus graduate dorm rather than hit the ground looking for a place to live.

There were more important things in high school, to be sure, than receiving an award at the annual achievement ceremonies. Things like clear skin or getting the attention of that attractive student in the third row or acing a critical exam to pull up a sagging cumulative average.

Is it a sin to be rich? We might well ask the question. So much of the gospel teaching seems to focus on the perils of acquiring wealth. The parable of Dives and Lazarus, as well as the man counting on his abundant storage in the barn, gives us a sense that the rich are damned, the poor blessed.

Is this “divorce Sunday”? I used to think of the occasional emergence of this set of readings in this way, a kind of Scriptural Open Season on all those who made the mistake of marrying the wrong person (or people, God help us).

My friend Rita recently came back from yoga class quite disturbed. Rita has an office job, and she finds the yoga stretches to be very useful in preventing back-related stress. But the yoga teacher from time to time slips a little “spirituality” into what my friend regards as an exercise class.

Where do wars come from? It sounds like the question a child would ask. Adults think they know the answer: Wars arise from the necessity to defend one’s homeland, perhaps. Or the desire to conquer or exploit a neighboring land.

Before launching into a dissertation on what we should be teaching our children, we might take a moment to distinguish between catechesis and religious education. Catechesis is the work of preparing a person for a full and sincere confession of faith in Jesus Christ.

Like most people on the road, when it’s time for a meal, I start scanning the shop windows for signs of life. On such occasions, an “open” sign floods me with hope that a warm meal and a cold drink are within my grasp. A “closed” placard, on the other hand, dashes my spirits and sets me back to wandering.

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?

Let’s begin with a few choice words about wives being submissive to husbands. It is instructive to consider that this reading appears once during the three-year Sunday cycle of readings and once during the two-year weekday schedule. That means it’s possible in a given year to receive this advice about the marital hierarchy twice.