God wanted a relationship with Job, as He wants a relationship with us all. We are persons, not furniture, so He left Job free – and vulnerable.

Signs of religious renewal popping up all over contemporary culture are being embraced by young men.

Senior Christians need to be writing their stories down, and sharing them, especially with their children and grandchildren. They need to be the exemplars of prayer and Bible study to nurture the signs of revival that are out there.

A time when a careless story told by careless people about “what goes around comes around” is interrupted again and again by a patient, passionate, persistent God, who is outraged by people making His story boring, and loves them with an outrageous love just to get their attention.

None of the heresies or divisions that have ever plagued the Church were ever simply stamped out. They were worn down, and eventually faded away, because of the consistent, persistent witness of believers.

Jesus is everything, or He is nothing. The next revival of Christianity in America will begin when a critical mass of us say the same thing.

There is, however, one thing in this life that certainly is in heaven, and that we can experience right now. That is love. Love, therefore, wherever it arises, however we experience it, is the clearest sign of what heaven is like.

The Bible and the Eucharist are both of central importance for any who seek a personal, saving, healing relationship with Jesus.

We don’t change our minds about the sin when we forgive. We change our minds about the pain.

St. Paul is concerned not just about protecting the vulnerable consciences of new believers, who can’t shake off all the trappings of their lives as nonbelievers all at once, but also about strengthening their understanding of the Bible.

In some it is such a powerful desire that they can’t stop talking about it. They go to Mass more and more because that is a place where heaven touches earth every day, every time that little bit of bread touches a believer’s hand.

These are the days when more people are reaching for Bibles, and hoping there is something in those pages that they – and their generation – have overlooked. It seems to be precisely the time for Great Catholics to step up, the kind of times that make Great Catholics great.

The Churches that have the best shot at providing vision and stability to whole communities – in some cases perhaps whole countries – are those that manage the danger of factions by agreeing on love of Jesus celebrated in the sacraments, and described in the Bible.

So, what if it is true that we don’t know the truth about ourselves or anything else, apart from our ultimate purpose. What if the Enlightenment of the 18th century got it wrong, and we have been misled for the last 300 years.