St. Isidore, who served as the Archbishop of Seville in Spain in the seventh century, wrote, “Prayer purifies us, reading instructs us. If we want to be always in God’s company, we must pray regularly and read regularly. When we pray, we talk to God; when we read, God talks to us. All spiritual growth comes from reading and reflection.”

Recently, many people have been reaching out with questions about vaccines. So, I thought it would be helpful to mention some of the most common ones and try to provide some answers.

Here are answers to some of the most frequently-asked questions about gardening in Colorado:

Is it true that container plants can survive outside over the winter?

As we all know, in Colorado, containerized trees, shrubs, and almost all perennials are subject to extreme cold, drying winds, and frequent freeze-thaw cycles. Extra protection and care should be provided to ensure root to crown survival.

An unexpected headline in the New York Times recently caught my eye: “A Disrupted Thanksgiving Leaves the Turkey Business Guessing.”

The article that followed discussed a question that is, according to the author, on the tip of everyone’s tongue — “Just how many whole turkeys will Americans cook this year for a holiday whose wings have been clipped by the pandemic?”

Can you come in?”

My grandma’s favorite question is one we now discourage her from uttering.

The impulse to swing open her door and her arms, honed over nine decades and stitched into her Irish-Catholic DNA, is not easily thwarted. Yet we have attempted to do so this year.

In 1535, King Henry VIII (reigned 1509-1547) pressured Parliament to pass the Act of Supremacy, recognizing the British monarch as head of the Church in England. Most Catholics are familiar with Henry’s schismatic action. The same Catholics are equally unaware that every bishop in the kingdom acquiesced to the king’s pleasure — save one.

Virginia State Health Commissioner Dr. Norman Oliver told a local news station in August 2020 that he planned to mandate COVID-19 immunizations for Virginians once a vaccine becomes available to the public. The following day, the Governor, Ralph Northam, pulled rank on the Commissioner and announced there would be no vaccine mandate after all. The Health Department walked back the Commissioner’s earlier comments while the Governor’s Office issued a statement focusing on vaccine accessibility and fair distribution, not a mandate.

When we first heard that Jorge Bergoglio would be our pope, his devotion to his namesake, St. Francis, became an opportunity to learn more about this beloved saint. Pope Francis’ reflection on the care of creation and our shared earth, “Laudato Si,’” (2015), was titled after a song of St. Francis. And so, it was to be expected, on that saint’s feast day this year, an encyclical on human community and solidarity was signed by Pope Francis.