I say a lot of Hail Mary’s. I am not sure what it is about the prayer. Maybe it is that I get to focus on the life of Mary, the peasant child, the young mother, the strong-willed socialite (more wine!), the prematurely-aged mourner, and the one who held all things in her heart. Maybe it is that I get to think of the theology: the Mother of Mercies, the greatest of all disciples, the Theotokos, the Holy Queen. Or maybe it is just that I firmly believe that there …

I am back in New York for the first time after having lived here for three years. I forgot what this place is like, and that it took me a year-and-a-half to get used to living here the first time. As it is now, I sometimes wish that I had never left it. Something about this place, the proximity of humanity with all of its triumphs and failures, it reminds me of the importance of who it is that Love is calling me to be.

2012.
Have you heard the bad news?
The world is going to end.
Yes. I know, I know: another 2012 joke.
Its overdone, used too much,
and while we used to laugh,
it is a little bit canned by this point.
But its true, you know.
The world is going to end.
Maybe not this year, but it will.
Your world is going to end.

I am thinking of the story in the gospel about the woman and the two gold coins (Lk 21:1-4). On the face of it, it is a story about an act of selflessness and faith. Every time we place money in a box, we do so with the hope that whoever takes it will put it to good use. For the woman in the story, though, it is an act of faith with very serious physical repercussions that left her completely at the mercy of others. We have to hope …