Politics can be exhausting and indeed discouraging. A few weeks ago, when I asked my 18-year-old freshmen students if they’d registered to vote, half of them...
Works of mercy
“When you find yourself in a situation like mine, you tend to forget that you have value, that you’re worth something. . . . So once again thank you for that...
From 2015–2020, 136 people were executed by state or federal government in the United States. Even if judgments of their guilt were correct, is death an...
When Pope Francis surveys the world around him—the pandemic, a refugee crisis, leaps in digital technology, racial injustice, democracies in turmoil—his...
But how do you get through the pain?” Although tears fill her eyes, the woman’s voice is adamant as she directs this question to the leader of the bereavement...
Forty years ago, my mother gave me a ragged patch-work quilt made of earth-toned wools—warm except where it was moth-eaten or worn through. I first used it as...
They crowd together in the narrow kitchen—septuagenarians and octogenarians, Millennials and Generation Zs—preparing lunch for guests in an El Paso house of...
My four children were glued to the front room window when moving vans arrived across the street last summer. They watched each box and every piece of furniture...
I pulled out a bright green Naugahyde chair from the pile in the sparse room and started down the checklist in my mind. Let’s see. . . . The two bathrooms were...
The Christmas baskets were almost ready. Only a few donations were still needed. “If anybody can help,” the chairman announced, “We still could use a couple of...
