A family faces the inevitable—Mom is dying. It’s only a matter of time, and her children will have to make some major decisions. So they gather to discuss what to do. One of the daughters says that she would like a traditional funeral at the parish church where Mom worshiped most of her life. One of the sons says that he would prefer not having a church service at all. Mom may have been religious and practiced her faith, but he would prefer not to. “Would you be willing to go to a church service for Mom’s sake? ” he is asked. He wants time to think about it.

Msgr. Ray East, a nationally known speaker and evangelist, thinks Pentecost is a perfect image of the Church. In fact, he thinks everyone should look up and memorize the second chapter of Acts. What takes place on Pentecost, he says, shows that “the diversity that exists in the Church now was present from day one. In fact, it was precisely because of that worldwide gathering that the Holy Spirit came, and that’s the birth of the Church. “

Back in August, my wife and children convinced me to take them to see the total solar eclipse. So I took the day off work, we drove two and a half hours south on rural Kentucky roads, and we found a great eclipse lookout spot—out in the country on the lawn of a small missionary Baptist church near Russellville. We felt the strange weakening of the sun’s warmth as the eclipse grew. At the moment of totality, we saw the colors of sunset all around the horizon and the sun’s blazing corona emanating from behind the black moon.

My neighbor of many years was recently arrested for viewing child pornography. I’ve known him and his beautiful family since they moved into our neighborhood; I had considered him a pillar of the community.

Why did they follow him? Why did they line up by the hundreds on a Detroit sidewalk or in New York, day after day, patiently waiting their turn to talk with him? This man was deemed not sharp enough to be a diocesan priest. He tried again and barely made it to ordination as a Capuchin Franciscan priest, and then without license to preach or hear confessions. Yet the faithful came by the thousands to hear simple counsel from this ordinary man. “Be confident in your faith, ” Solanus Casey would tell them. “Seek, and you will receive. “