I have trouble talking about the loss without tearing up, as if the smoke and ash from Los Angeles traveled across the country to find me.

In Los Angeles, people stay for the movie credits. After the awful images of these fires are gone, they will stay to rebuild their city, too.

While I would never wish this disease on anyone, it has prompted a personal eucharistic revival of sorts within my own spiritual life.

“I want to be a companion to Sister Sheral on this journey for as long as I have breath,” Sister Maureen Sinnott writes.

The eyes of faith allowed us to see the people we served as people who shared in the purpose of life we all have been tasked with: to love and be loved.

Why did we fail, so often, to help?