A huge, rough samurai once went to see a little monk, hoping to acquire the secrets of the universe. “Monk,” he said, in a voice accustomed to instant obedience, “teach me about heaven and hell.”

The little monk looked up at the mighty warrior in silence. Then, after a moment, he said to the samurai with utter disdain, “Teach YOU about heaven and hell? I couldn’t teach you about anything. You’re dirty. You smell. Your blade is rusty. You’re a disgrace, an embarrassment to the samurai class. Get out of my sight at once. I can’t stand you!”

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If you want to live longer and better, try religion. At least that’s the advice given by a leading researcher at Duke University who has written widely about the connections between religious practice and good emotional and physical health.

Harold Koenig, M.D., is both a psychiatrist and a research scientist whose studies of faith/health connections have brought him a wide reputation. Director of  Duke University’s Center for the Study of Religion/Spirituality and Health, Dr. Koenig has carried out many projects that compare people for whom religion is important with others who do not find it so meaningful.

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Wanted: a new mentality, a new attitude, a new way of being, a new culture. Nothing less than this kind of revolution is what the Church of Rome thinks Catholics need in our stance toward older people.

Also needed is a new spirituality, one that is based on continual rebirth. For this spirituality the key text is the dialogue between Jesus and Nichodemus. “How can a person enter back into his mother’s womb?,”  the would-be convert asks. Jesus answers that only through water and the spirit can that happen.

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Jim Wallis does not look like much of a prophet. In appearance, he does not remind anyone of Jeremiah, Amos, or John the Baptist. No beard, no special clothing and no fire in the eyes mark his looks. To all appearances, he is an ordinary middle-aged fellow of medium height, genial and approachable.

But, still, this man feels himself to be on a serious spiritual mission. Like the prophets of biblical times, he has a vision of things as God wants them to be. Following their model, he has dedicated himself to changing people’s hearts so that all of God’s children may share in the common wealth of American society.

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Among the images produced by the war in Yugoslavia, one of  the starkest is that of an old woman lying back in a wheelbarrow and pushed by male family members or friends toward the border of Albania . Though that woman is one among hundreds of thousands of refugees, she represents an entire people,  reduced to misery by the brutal forces that have swept over them.

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At age 19, Chris White chose to become a Baha’i. In doing so, he followed the religious faith of his mother who has belonged to that tradition all of her life. Now, some ten years later, Chris feels that he made the right choice because “things fell into place for me.”

Now ten years later, Chris is a candidate for a Ph.D. at Harvard in the field of religion. He also serves as a tutor to some of the sixty undergraduates choosing to major in this field.

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Two women, both middle-aged spiritual seekers, trying to find a deeper reality and to give it expression to a wide audience, appeared together last week as part of a book fair. Their presentations offered much to think about and pray over.

Joan Anderson told of leaving her husband and her home to live by herself for a time on Cape Cod. She did not want a divorce, nor did she cease caring about her husband; she simply felt the need of a radical change.

So, as she describes it in her new book, A Year By the Sea, Joan Anderson did things that established contact with the world in novel ways. She took a job in a fish market; she dug clams on the beach; she took long walks along the ocean’s edge; she went swimming with the seals.

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