In the fallout of the ensuing schism, it’s easy to forget that Martin Luther (1483–1546), soon-to-be-arch-heretic, was once a pious monk. An earnest student of the law and scion of Saxony’s nouveau riche, his life was abruptly altered when his family’s patron saint, St. Anne, delivered him from a frightful storm. He sold his things, changed faculties from law to theology, and settled in the Augustinian Cloister in Erfurt.

If God was taking care of me when I was in the military and killing people, then why was God not taking care of them at the same time?

Where is God when someone takes a life in self-defense? A just war presumes that soldiers on each side are acting in legitimate self-defense.

Where was God when Cain murdered his brother, Abel? When children are abused by family members, teachers, or members of the clergy? When elderly people are swindled out of their life’s savings?

I understand that parts of Jesus’ crown of thorns are in Jerusalem, Paris, and Rome. Who found them? Are these really from Jesus’ crown? Is there a devotion to them?

Several friends and I are doing the devotion “33 Days to Morning Glory. ” St. Louis de Montfort suggests that we detach ourselves from all things. What does he mean by that? From what? From whom?

Detachment is about living more and more honestly before God, in one’s own eyes and with others. I think you will best understand it by considering its opposite: inordinate attachment to someone or something.

Carmel Mission Basilica

The full name of this mission is San Carlos Borromeo del Rio Carmelo. St. Jun’pero Serra founded it in 1771. Of the nine missions Serra established in California, this was his favorite. He is buried here, and since his canonization, the mission church is home to his shrine.