For lay Catholics, perhaps we focus too readily on what our religious give up over what they gain.

I like what I read in St. Anthony Messenger and enjoy other products from Franciscan Media. One question keeps coming back to me: Are you Franciscan or Roman Catholic?

I ask this because these days I feel much closer to the Franciscans than to the Roman Catholic Church in which I was baptized and yet is plagued by many terrible scandals.

This engaging drama, from director Fernando Meirelles and screenwriter Anthony McCarten, imagines the papacy of the Roman Catholic Church as never before.

We humans tend to compartmentalize just about every aspect of our lives, from what we do in mundane daily rituals to how we engage with entire holy seasons. There’s comfort in routine, to be certain. The cycle of holidays, holy days, and commemorative months provides us with a kind of rhythm in an often offbeat world. This month, for example, we mark the beginning of Lent with Ash Wednesday on February 26, we celebrate love in all its forms on Valentine’s Day, and we honor the contributions and legacy of African Americans all month long.

If there is glamour in being an immigration rights lawyer, it’s not evident in an eighth-floor waiting room in Lower Manhattan for those seeking authorization to stay in the United States. The nondescript room is set aside for immigrants from Brooklyn. It is half empty, with only a few dozen people waiting to be called this particular winter morning. Amid the conversational sounds of Chinese, Russian, and Spanish, the television set blares a speech from the president of the United States presented the night before, blaming immigrants for murders, rapes, and drug dealing.