Welcome to The Light, your quiet hour of reflection.
James Talarico, the Texas Democratic Senate nominee, has returned to the campaign trail after nearly two weeks away with the flu. He says he is feeling much better now, and his reappearance reminds us how even the most public of callings must sometimes yield to the simple, humbling demands of the body.
From the personal, we turn to the planetary. For decades, leap seconds have quietly stitched our atomic clocks back into alignment with the Earth's own wandering rotation, a small act of humility built into the architecture of time itself. Now scientists are questioning whether that practice has run its course, asking what it means to keep human precision tethered to a turning world that refuses to be perfectly punctual.
And across Africa, the Sisters of Our Lady of Apostles are answering a different kind of question altogether. Through gardens, tree-planting, and environmental education, these women are weaving care for the earth directly into their missionary vocation, understanding that tending the soil and tending the soul are not such separate things after all.
That is this hour's reflection. Carry the light gently.
