The things attainable — in this life, on this earth — are rarely enough for our deep longings.

Antisemitism has continued to rise around the world for the past decade, but what has unfolded since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israeli civilians demands our attention and response.

This time of year offers us a prime opportunity for getting serious about our own personal revival in the Eucharist.

Because we believe that Jesus is physically, bodily present in the “sacred species” (our term for the bread and wine which have been turned into the body and blood of Christ), we have several laws and customs pertaining to the Eucharist that ensure a sufficient degree of protection and reverence for Jesus’ presence in the Blessed Sacrament.

In receiving the Eucharist, a diverse group of individuals with varied backgrounds come together under a common love, a common faith.

I have no reason to believe Matthew Perry was schooled in St. Ignatius Loyola, but like a good Ignatian student, he would return to that moment to remember the certainty of God.

I always love watching the children approach the altar for a blessing on their way to learn about God during the Children’s Liturgy of the Word.

The National Religious Vocation Conference encourages us to take advantage of this special vocations promotion each November to celebrate religious life and each Christian’s foundational calling to discipleship.

When we are worried about something specific, we do well to take it to prayer, to ask the Lord to help us discern the path forward, to show us with whom we should be working, and then we roll up our sleeves and address it.

The synod’s more immediate goal was the less dramatic, but in the long run arguably more significant, objective of cutting back on clergy-only hierarchy.