The era of “blue laws” restricted most business operations on Sunday. In the city, that meant Major League Baseball and National Football League games could not start before 2:05 p.m.

Catholic and Lutheran leaders came together for a service at St. Mary’s Seminary and University in Baltimore marking the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.

We haven’t had professional photos taken of the boys in almost four years, so I scheduled a shoot last week, got them all dressed up, went to the mall, and they posed for the camera.

In a split second, the place that we called home could have become one in a list of many: Sandy Hook, Oklahoma City, Columbine, the World Trade Center, the Boston Marathon and now Parkland. It only takes one person with malicious intent to uproot and destroy lives.

Silently and reverently, students from Maryvale Preparatory School pressed red flags into the ground outside their school as the names of victims of last month’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Fla., were read during a March 14 prayer service.