As summertime flows into fall, and pumpkin spice everything fills the senses —whether we wish it or not! – here can be wistful nostalgia for summer.

As I ponder this year’s Respect Life theme – “Mary, Mother of Life, pray for us!” – I can’t help but wonder who Mary is to each of us. Do we imagine her as Jesus’ mother?

This season, with somber hearts, we mark 25 years since achingly bright September skies were filled with the horrors of an evil still incomprehensible.

It’s hard to believe that the new school year is starting already. The beautiful summer we’ve had has gone by so fast, and once again our Catholic schools are filling with the energy, excitement and promise of a new year.

More than anything else, we long for home. Our deep ache for intimacy, security and comfort is, in the end, a longing for home, nothing more. We are forever restlessly searching for someone or something to take us home.

Recently, a youthful acquaintance shared with me his future career ambition to be “an influencer.” As a sign of my ever-increasing age, I was skeptical that the full-time influencer life is “a thing” for anyone other than celebrities.

Summer in Washington D.C. means many things. A quieter pace. Notoriously humid weather. A flood of summer interns. And droves of tourists!

I would like to respond to the opinion piece by Fr. Ron Rolheiser which appeared in the July 16, 2026, edition of the Superior Catholic Herald. Titled “The ‘narrow gate’ to a fulfilling life,” the article disturbingly waters down one of Jesus’ most stark and clear-cut warnings.

In the afterglow of a happy Semiquincentennial weekend, independence is still very much on my mind. The blessing of independence has been well worth celebrating and treasuring with a grateful heart.

When she was growing up, Sr. Ave Clark’s father told her to befriend the workers who were a regular part of her life: the sanitation men, the mail carrier, the bank tellers, etc.