Christians show their love for Christ in the love they show their neighbors. As we see the world through God’s eyes, we actually do put others’ needs ahead of ours. This is why, when the great novelist Flannery O’Connor was asked by one of her correspondents how he could experience God’s love, her reply was, ‘Give alms’…When we care for God’s favorites, . . . 

Repentance must be a way of life for the Christian. By honestly facing up to our own weaknesses, we acknowledge that as Christians we fail to live up to the teaching of the One who gives us life. Through repentance, we are saying we want to do better with God’s help.

Simply put, Christianity just makes more sense. Roman citizens could see that Christianity offered real tangible benefits that pagan religions did not. In the midst of the widespread plagues, urban squalor, and general hopelessness of Rome, Christians lived a profoundly different and more hopeful life. When people witnessed their flourishing families and healthy lifestyles, . . .

Christians need to change our whole vocabulary. We can’t talk about the Church as a building or a place we go. The word used in the New Testament for the Church is ecclesia, the same word used in the Greek Old Testament as “the assembly” of God’s people. We are the Church. Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant doctrine all teach this…We are the bride for whom Christ, the Bridegroom, gave Himself.