People had taught me what Christians believe, but no one had told me how Christians live.

We have been mentored from the very beginning by Catholic folks who are invigorating the best of the monastic spirit.

But as I pursued that dream of upward mobility preparing for college, things just didn't fit together. As I read Scriptures about how the last will be first, I started wondering why I was working so hard to be first.

Only Jesus would be crazy enough to suggest that if you want to become the greatest, you should become the least. Only Jesus would declare God's blessing on the poor rather than on the rich and would insist that it's not enough to just love your friends. I just began to wonder if anybody still believed Jesus meant those things he said.

The more I have read the Bible and studied the life of Jesus, the more I have become convinced that Christianity spreads best not through force but through fascination.

The more I travel, the more I see how important it is to each population to see that their history of the good and the bad is remembered by others.

Our churches should attract the people Jesus attracted and frustrate the people Jesus frustrated.