Welcome to The Light, your quiet hour for reflection.
A new survey reminds us that hardship has always been one of faith's most honest doorways. Americans who have walked through divorce or tragedy are turning to Scripture in greater numbers, finding there not answers exactly, but a kind of companionship in the ancient words, a sense of calling where there was once only loss.
That same tradition, though, carries its shadows. Father Michael Pfleger, the Chicago priest long known for his activism, faces renewed accusations of child sexual abuse. He denies the claims, attributing them to his political enemies. Whatever the truth, the story asks again what it costs when trust is broken by those who hold it most visibly.
And then there is the quieter question of how belief gets shaped before we even open a sacred text. The image most of us carry of Satan, red-skinned, horned, pitchfork in hand, comes not from Scripture but from centuries of artistic imagination, medieval theater, and borrowed mythology. The Bible's adversary is something stranger, more elusive, and perhaps more worth understanding honestly.
That's this hour's reflection. Carry the light gently.
