In this last week of Ordinary Time before Lent, take time to reflect on the ordinary blessings in your life and cultivate gratitude for them.

We are talking about God, life, joys, sorrows, prayer and Jesus. The Holy Spirit comes and stays the whole time.

If we give the signal—our readiness, our openness—God lifts us up.

I could list all his scientific work, his writings on faith and science, his honors and degrees. But none of those are George.

While some parts of your life are dark, they are not beyond God’s ability to bring light into them. There is always hope, there is always the promise of new life, and suffering is never the last word.

Jesus did not always tell people who he was; he told them to come and see for themselves. It is the same way the church spread in the early centuries: by attraction.