The Holy Land is often referred to as “the fifth Gospel,” as it forever changes the way a person reads the Bible. For those who have never been there, when the Bible is read or proclaimed, it can sound like a fairy tale. But to be there and to see where everything happened makes it all come alive.

For many of us, as we begin Lent today, and turn our minds and hearts to repentance and conversion, the biggest obstacle to holiness, healing, becoming spiritually mature, looking more like Jesus, is our unwillingness to forgive.

Reading good books gets us out of the world of click-bait, newsfeeds and headlines that often make up the bulk the of the mental furniture in our minds. Those things are often like junk food for the mind, whereas good books are like power foods. Lent is, then, I think, a time to put some good food into our minds

Now, some might think this virtue is, well, not a virtue. How do we reconcile this with the virtue of humility? People who are magnanimous aren’t proud, since they consider everything they have and are as a gift from God. And since God is so good, His gifts are likewise good. The magnanimous person desires to use those gifts as best he can, not so that he is praised, but that God is praised through him.