When I was a younger priest I used to think I knew a lot more than I do now. As I’ve gotten older, I am less and less sure about many things. There is one thing, though, that I know for certain. God hates death. It isn’t supposed to be here.

It’s been said often that we are rapidly leaving behind an era called Christendom for a very different one

Saint Augustine repeatedly warned his flock not to build on sand, meaning not to think life was going to be easy once a person became a Christian. Faith doesn’t magically make all of life’s challenges disappear. Instead, faith enables us to know and to see that with every challenge and every temptation God provides the grace and the strength necessary to endure.

Let us beg St. Paul in these unsettled days to pray for peace in the land he once walked, and to intercede in a mighty way for those who are now as he once was.