Watch excerpts from President Obama’s May 12 speech at the National Hispanic Prayer Breakfast, along with comments on immigration reform by Rev. Luis Cortes Jr. and Bishop Orlando Findlayter.

Brother Paul Quenon, who was inspired to write by his mentor Thomas Merton, says “the purpose of the monastic life in the modern world is to show that we don’t need a purpose. The purpose of life is life.”

An acclaimed new movie shows that a monastery is "at once a refuge and a very integral part of the world," says Jesuit priest James Martin, and that "the life of faith is not without doubt."

An interfaith coalition is launching a prayer and fasting campaign to protect federal funding for programs that help the poor.

Writer Mary Karr says what struck her about Catholicism "wasn't the grandeur of the Mass, it was the simple faith of the people" and "the carnality of the church. There was a body on the cross."

Watch much more of correspondent Judy Valente's conversation with Mary Karr about God, prayer, poetry, and the Catholic faith.

Jewish singer and songwriter Debbie Friedman, who died in California on January 9, once said that "spiritually if you don't have the opportunity to exercise your heart and soul you don't really fully understand all that you are."

View a gallery of images illuminating the psalms by Hebrew manuscript artist Debra Band.

"I see the future going in this direction, that more and more people will realize how important interreligious dialogue is."

"Part of what's in a pilgrim's heart is this longing for more in life and the idea of being on a journey," says Randy Haycock, a chaplain at Walter Reed Army Medical Center who leads monthly pilgrimages to Washington National Cathedral for Walter Reed's Warrior Transition Brigade.