Clearwater, Florida — “Be ready for the moment of your death. Are you ready?”

Father Charles Leke was encouraging us to get right with God at the Our Lady of Divine Providence House of Prayer last Tuesday morning. As a good shepherd does, Father Leke was pointing us in the right direction — even if it meant shaking up a beautiful Sunshine State day with harsh mortal reality.

Thanksgiving and Christmas are coming. But Ash Wednesday, that somber, sober day, is on my mind.

When John Boehner began his tenure as speaker of the House — the second Catholic to hold the post — he took a penitential posture in his opening speech. “In the Catholic faith, we enter into a season of service by having ashes marked on our foreheads. The ashes remind us that life in all its forms is fragile — our time on this Earth, fleeting,” he said. He knew then the job would be an uphill climb. One that required the kind of humility — and even serenity and wisdom — that politicians aren’t necessarily known for.

That was 2011 and the 112th Congress. Now, almost midway through the 114th four years later, Paul Ryan is reluctantly about to give in to pressure to take the job, as I write.

Having watched Speaker Boehner’s thankless struggle over the years, Ryan’s lack of enthusiasm is understandable. And so Ryan has set some conditions. Among them: “First, we need to move from being an opposition party to a proposition party. Because we think the nation is on the wrong path, we have a duty to show the right one. Our next speaker needs to be a visionary one.”

This sounds like leadership. And it’s much needed in the divided and rancorous House.

I suspect, given the abysmal public opinion ratings for Congress, most people probably found themselves nodding their heads when Ryan said: “People don’t care about blame. They don’t care about effort. They care about results. … Results that make a difference in their daily lives.”

Two weeks ago, I came to Clearwater for a two-week session of Bible study and rigorous prayer at the Cenacle of Divine Providence School of Spiritual Direction. As I headed here, the begging-Paul-Ryan-to-run-for-speaker business had just started in earnest, after California’s Kevin McCarthy took himself out of the running. Little did I know things wouldn’t be settled as I checked in for my return flight to New York.

The morning after Ryan’s conditions speech, my first Bible assignment for the day involved verses from Philippians. Paul writes there: “Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory; rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves, each looking out not for his own interests, but (also)_ everyone for those of others.” Doesn’t exactly make you think of Congress, does it?

And yet: While Congress isn’t going to be run by the Good Book, for a body that largely welcomed Pope Francis just last month, a little divine inspiration could be a healthy thing right about now. During his speech to Congress, the pope said: “Our efforts must aim at restoring hope, righting wrongs, maintaining commitments and thus promoting the well-being of individuals and of peoples. We must move forward together, as one, in a renewed spirit of fraternity and solidarity, cooperating generously for the common good.”

He continued: “The challenges facing us today call for a renewal of that spirit of cooperation which has accomplished so much good throughout the history of the United States. The complexity, the gravity and the urgency of these challenges demand that we pool our resources and talents and resolve to support one another, with respect for our differences and our convictions of conscience.”

I’m reminded of Boehner’s favorite pep talk mantra: “If you do the right things for the right reasons, good things will happen.” That’s accountability. Even our politics should be in service to ideals of sacrifice, humility and love.