CLARKSVILLE – St. Louis School principal Terry Weiss sat in her Clarksville office on the evening of Sept. 8 reading e-mails.

While parishioners at Towson’s Immaculate Conception were coming to terms with his retirement announcement in mid-November, Monsignor F. Dennis Tinder was talking about a greater transition.

A bustling section of downtown Baltimore is about to get a quiet spot for reflection and meditation when Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien breaks ground April 11 for the long-awaited Pope John Paul II Prayer Garden.

The location was new, but the crowd was familiar as Catholic Charities served its first meal to the poor and homeless at its new Our Daily Bread Employment Center June 4. Before the dining room opened at 10:30 a.m., 18 people who normally eat at Baltimore’s largest soup kitchen registered for employment training.

One educational observer said that Loyola College in Maryland’s decision to become Loyola University Maryland reflects its evolution, but the likely name change is a source of controversy for some alumni, who feel the current name more accurately describes the school’s intimate atmosphere.

Mary Catherine Bunting, the granddaughter of the founder of the Noxzema Chemical Co., never had to work.

One may think running 3,400 miles from California to Rhode Island would form a blister or two on a runner’s feet. Not so for one Loyola Blakefield, Towson, alumnus who changed running shoes every 100 miles to ensure his feet were as comfortable and fresh as possible during a five and a half month run to raise money for cancer survivors. “Blisters and foot soreness were not an issue,” said the slender Christian McEvoy, 24, who spoke to students at his alma mater, the School of the Cathedral in Homeland, Feb. 28. “I had some slight body aches and injuries, but nothing really stopped me.”

As a resident on a limited income at Catholic Charities’ Basilica Place Apartments Senior Housing facility in Baltimore, 73-year-old Herb Johnson doesn’t have a lot of change to spare.

Forty-eight years old seems too young to die. The hole a man’s death leaves in his family never seems to shrink as they forge ahead without him.

Green means two things at St. Vincent de Paul, Baltimore: air conditioning at virtually no cost, and heat in a way that spares the environment.