I began writing this piece by googling “how do you make soil fertile?” which should tell you everything you need to know about my own abilities as a gardener.

It is so easy for us to forget that great faith does not require great intelligence. It does not require great knowledge of the world and its workings.

But I refuse to receive the junk mail. I don’t have space for it, in my head or on my counter, so after a day or two, I just throw it away without looking through it.

In the 1883 painting “Mass in a Connemara Cabin,” a small congregation of shabbily dressed faithful is huddled together in a sparsely appointed room.

This excerpt from Matthew’s Gospel has become a catchphrase in the Church. We give ourselves vertigo with the amount of head-shaking we do over “decline in numbers.”

I’m so busy and distracted that most days, I forget to eat — until nighttime, when I make some very questionable decisions, usually involving cake.

I once listened to Bishop Daniel Flores — a renowned scholar and prelate — give a 70-minute talk on the Trinitarian nature of God.

Sometimes the phrase “as natural as breathing” doesn’t always make sense. Maybe that’s because breathing isn’t always natural. Sometimes, it’s supernatural.