In most of the world, the poor and sick are ignored. In Lourdes, they are number one, and people say they are drawn there because they believe it is a place of great faith.

One of the beautiful things about a terminal illness is you are invited into the present, and your friendships become stronger. Your loved ones become more vital and more present. Each day becomes more beautiful. You walk through the valley of the shadow, and it’s riddled with light.

On October 11, the 19th-century missionary priest Father Damien will be canonized in Rome and remembered for dedicating his life to individuals with leprosy, a disease that still afflicts more than 250,000 people a year.

Membership in the church has declined in recent decades, but some Christian Science practitioners, as they are known, still treat large numbers of people through spiritual healing.

Have you ever had the feeling that your doctor doesn't have enough time for you, or, if you're a doctor, that you are under so much pressure it's hard to be compassionate with your patients? There is a physician in Northern California who thinks medicine is losing its soul, and she's trying to rescue it.