I was reading David Brooks’ “The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life,” when Pope Francis died. This paragraph, pulled from Brooks’ conclusion, struck me as almost the definition of the pope’s ministry to the Western world:

Let me just begin by explaining that we have an outdoor, wood-burning furnace on our hobby farm.

On a cold December night, the kids and I snuggled into pillows and blankets to watch “Mickey’s Christmas Carol,” my all-time favorite version of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.”

If you’ve ever felt the impulse to break free from everyday life and give back to humanity in a meaningful way, here’s a story for you.

I’m currently reading “The Good Life: Lessons from the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness,” by Robert Waldinger and Marc Schulz. The book has been cited in many articles I’ve read, so I figured it was time to go back to the source.

My family and I are just back from Canada. We visited Toronto last year and Winnipeg this year, and we’ll probably head back there a couple more times – possibly to Montreal or Ottawa or Vancouver – before the children’s passports expire.

On April 27, our family (belatedly) celebrated St. George’s Day. My husband (English) launches the same lecture series every spring when the patron saint of Ireland garners worldwide attention (it may have something to do with the green beer), while the feast of England’s dragon-killing patron goes largely unnoticed in this country. Thus, we must compensate.

In February, I went to Reserve to interview Sr. Felissa Zander, who has served in various capacities at St. Francis Solanus Catholic School for six decades.

Last month, Hospital Sisters Health System announced the impending closure of two Catholic hospitals – St. Joseph in Chippewa Falls and Sacred Heart in Eau Claire – along with 19 clinics serving western Wisconsin’s rural towns.