The following is Ruthann J. Lemonius’s second place essay for the 2017 Friars’ Student Writing Awards contest:

By Google’s definition, reconciliation is “the restoration of friendly relations.” But because of the topic, the second definition seemed more fitting: “the action of making one view or belief compatible with another.”

MADRID, Spain – While Reconciliation is intended to allow Christ’s victory to overcome sin in our lives, what happens when shame over one’s sins is so great that it keeps people away from the sacrament?

How difficult is human relationship! How glorious, how deeply and universally sought-after it is! Our hunger for relationship can draw out the best and the worst in us. The deepest wrestling is with one another, in relationship — be it person to person, nation to nation, or Church to Church.  

OTTAWA – Reconciliation between the Catholic Church and indigenous peoples has been a lifetime journey for Harry and Germaine Lafond.

DAMASCUS – Fr. Alejandro León is a Salesian missionary who has lived more than 13 years in the Middle East, and in Syria since 2011 – precisely when its civil war began. He has said that being there during the war is “ a sign of mercy and the love of God,” even though it involves risking his own life and often being close to death.

VATICAN CITY – In a newly independent nation where more than 70 percent of the population is Christian, leaders of the Christian churches are indignant about the violence raging around them.

University students and other young adults from the Catholic and First Nations communities in Saskatoon are embarking on their own path of reconciliation, one they hope leads to a better future for themselves and for the environment.

WASHINGTON– Georgetown University last year stripped from a building the name of one of its past presidents, a priest who authorized the sale of 272 women, children and men – slaves sold to save the university from financial ruin in 1838.

WASHINGTON – It's been 57 years since the last film version of "Ben-Hur" hit movie theaters. That alone is, for most Hollywood types, reason enough for a remake.

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador – Salvadorans must not overreact to the Supreme Court decision to declare the country's amnesty law unconstitutional, said Auxiliary Bishop Gregorio Rosa Chavez of San Salvador.

Have you heard the one about the long-time politician preaching to Catholics about morals and obligations?

BAGHDAD – Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Louis Sako of Baghdad urged Iraq's leaders to put an end to the "institutional, economic and security deterioration" in the country.

During Lent, we are all like Jesus, starving in the desert and being asked to turn stone into bread. But we must choose each and every time to say no. Even in the “Our Father” we ask God to “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” But why must we face temptations during Lent and how do they shape us?
This Lenten season I decided to give up Facebook and YouTube videos. The reason was simple. I wanted to be more productive. So, I resolved to liberate myself from procrastination and to purposefully get work done.

DETROIT - When Fr. Benjamin Kosnac decided to start offering confessions 30 minutes before every Mass, he wasn't sure anyone would come. 

OTTAWA - The legal phase of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) on Indian residential schools is over, but the doors are now open to a new reconciliation phase, say Catholics involved in the process.