Amid the hustle and bustle of Christmas shopping outside a Giant food store in North Baltimore Dec. 7, a small group of School Sisters of Notre Dame joined teachers and students from Notre Dame Preparatory School in gently nudging shoppers to protect the environment.

Every Christmas our family presents my parents with a beautiful calendar full of grandchildren pictures. Everyone loves the calendar. Everyone except, well, maybe the person who knows the calendar is going to be her responsibility the next year.

Alas, like many other hymns, “For All the Saints” is an endangered species today, gutted by parish music directors and pastors who commit the grave sin of not singing a hymn in its entirety — or worse, who bowdlerize the lyrics to coddle the sensibilities of the Church of Nice.

LifeBridge Health announced Dec. 17 a new name for Bon Secours Baltimore Hospital: Grace Medical Center.

In 40 years of working with the addicted, I have learned that these negative  behaviors block the positive power of grace.