Teachers and children alike rejoice as school is out for the summer. We all welcome a change in pace even if that just means lighter traffic for our morning commute. Graduation celebrations give way to summer schedules, family vacations begin filling the calendar and many of us look forward to a slower pace after a busy spring. Even though camps, travel plans, weddings and time away fill our schedule, summer can also become a sacred invitation to rediscover God’s presence in the ordinary moments of life.

We celebrate the upcoming 250th anniversary of the independence of our nation. We celebrate, as sung in our national anthem, being “the land of the free.” This is certainly a patriotic celebration, but also a religious celebration.

Long before Deacon Gaten Armstrong was preparing for priesthood, two seminarians assigned to Montgomery parishes spent a summer beating him in basketball while talking trash and also talking discernment.

Family life is hard. In case no one has affirmed that for you lately, let me be the one. Whether you're in the stage of diapers and bottles, wiping faces and losing sleep or whether you're worrying about the children who have grown, the now-adults making their stumbling way through a suffering world, families will always be holy, hard and humbling schools of love. Sometimes we look to Scripture and ask, "Does anything here speak to my life today?"