We must love our fellow Jews as brothers and sisters in a historic, unique collective family, and we must treat the non-Jew with the same dignity that we would wish and envision for ourselves. This is the real meaning of what it means to be "holy" in the "Holy Land" today.

When there isn't much love in my world, I've learned to take a look within myself. For, when I love me, then you become my neighbor... and the world becomes a neighborhood.

What is the major influence related to religious tensions crossing borders? Hint: It's about much more than a small church in Florida burning a Quran or a Danish magazine publishing cartoons of a revered prophet.

Loving our neighbors, whether next door or at our door step, doesn't require a change in profession, just a willingness to speak, to listen and to give. May Brendan's story challenge us this week to step out of comfort zone.

Voting should be an easy affair: people of faith should vote for the candidates whose policies would most embody a love of God and neighbor. It seems so easy, but it isn't if we are honest with ourselves and gracious toward those who disagree with our political persuasions.

If you wait to work for a cause until you're working with people who agree with you on everything, you'll wait forever, and the injustice will continue. So why not do something simple to show compassion for our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters?

It was hard for me to love these characters. More than once, I thought of putting the book down because these characters are so real, so raw, that they become dislikable and at the same time, curiously familiar. They remind me of the neighbors Jesus calls me to love.

Most of us do not love ourselves nearly well enough, and this is the cause of so much of the pain that is inflicted on others. When seen though a clear lens, "Do I love myself?" is an essential and illuminating question.

Let us be ready to accept the great mitzvah of loving one another. The light of God demands nothing less of us.

The Book of Joshua chronicles the way in which the land given by God has been taken by Israel. And now there are decisions to be made of life-or-death proportion concerning life in the new land.

This is Jesus' challenge: Love those who actively seek to kill you or those you love. Even they are your neighbor. This is radical, neighbor love in action. Go, and do likewise.