Philadelphia caught my attention in 1995 when a group of homeless families were living in an abandoned cathedral. Even from the beginning they connected theology with what they were doing. They put a banner on the front of the cathedral that said, "How can we worship a homeless man on Sunday and ignore one on Monday."

I say let's be idealists. "Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not yet see" (Hebrews 11:1).

It's hard to hear the gentle whisper of the Spirit amid the noise of Christendom.

If we believe terrorists are past redemption, we should just rip up like 1/2 the New Testament because it was written by one.

I think of the Catholic worker movement and Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin and others.

I had come to see that the great tragedy in the church is not that rich Christians do not care about the poor but that rich Christians do not know the poor...I truly believe that when the rich meet the poor, riches will have no meaning. And when the rich meet the poor, we will see poverty come to an end.

When we realize that we are both wretched and beautiful, we are freed up to see others the same way.