I realize now, with less than a month to go in Chicago, that I brought way too many clothes. Even if I wear a different outfit every day until I return home, I won't wear all the stuff I packed.

So I've had "stuff" on the brain these past few days. I appreciated reading the words of Fr. James Stephen Behrens, a writer for Living Faith, a Catholic daily devotion booklet.

In a Nov. 10 entry, he wrote: "When our Father Edmund moved on from this life to the next, several monks went to his cell to gather his belongings. Edmund was a tiny man. He glided through this life very lightly...Indeed, when the monks gathered the things he left behind, they fit into a paper bag. And there was still plenty of room in the bag."

How many paper bags will it take to fill your stuff when you die?

(S-R archive photo)