Alleluia! Today Thomas asks the question an honest disciple sometimes asks: "Master, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?" And Jesus answers with: "I am the way and the truth and the life" (John 14:5-6). On this First Friday - the feast of a working man who built things with his hands and raised God in his home - that answer is enough. Do not let your hearts be troubled. You know the way.

📰 Quick Hits

1. The Man Who Raised God - and What He Teaches Your Family About Work

Today the world marks May Day, International Workers' Day, a celebration shaped largely by socialist ideology since the 19th century. The Church has a different answer. In 1955, Pope Pius XII deliberately placed the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker on May 1 to offer workers a truer vision: not liberation through ideology, but dignity through vocation. Joseph was a carpenter - in Greek, a tekton, a builder - who worked not for the state or for status but to provide for, protect, and serve his family. He never spoke a word in the Gospels. His whole life was action. Pope Pius XII said of him: "The humble craftsman of Nazareth not only embodies the dignity of the manual worker before God and the Holy Church, but he is also always the provident guardian of you and your families." Pope Leo XIV, in his first year as pope, has returned repeatedly to the dignity of work. His line for today: "Human beings are called to be co-workers in the work of creation, not merely passive consumers of content generated by artificial intelligence."

Faith Lens for the Home: What work do the adults in your family do? Name it tonight at dinner - not in a resume way, but in a Joseph way. "I build things. I teach. I serve. I protect. I create." Then ask your kids: "What does St. Joseph's work tell us about what makes any job holy?" The answer is not the job title. It is the love behind it.

2. DOJ Report: What It Means for Catholic Families That the Government Is Paying Attention

A 200-page report released Thursday by the Trump DOJ's Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias documents specific findings from across 17 federal agencies: pro-life protesters prosecuted under the FACE Act at rates far exceeding those for vandals who targeted pregnancy centers; Christian universities fined disproportionately compared to secular institutions; federal employees who sought religious accommodations during the COVID vaccine mandate subjected to invasive scrutiny of their beliefs. Whatever one makes of the politics surrounding the report, the underlying issue is not partisan: religious liberty - the freedom not just to hold a faith privately but to live it publicly - is always worth defending, and always worth knowing. The First Amendment applies everywhere. The Church has always maintained that the freedom to live one's faith is not a privilege but a right. That is as true under a Democratic administration as a Republican one.

Faith Lens for the Home: Ask your family tonight: "What does it mean to practice our faith - not just believe it privately, but live it at work, at school, in public?" Then ask: "What would you do if you were asked to act against your conscience at work or at school?" That is not a hypothetical for many Catholic families. It is worth practicing the answer at your dinner table before you need it somewhere else.

3. First Friday: The Sacred Heart Devotion and Why Your Family Should Start Today

Today is the First Friday of May - one of the nine consecutive First Fridays whose faithful observance carries with it the promise of final perseverance, attributed to Our Lord in his appearances to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque in the 17th century. The practice: receive Holy Communion on nine consecutive First Fridays in reparation for sins against the Sacred Heart, with the intention of honoring him. Many Catholic families have built their entire liturgical rhythm around this practice - planning ahead for Mass on the first Friday of each month, going to Confession beforehand, and offering the day as a household in reparation and love. If you have never started, today is the day. If you have lapsed, today is the day to begin again.

Faith Lens for the Home: The Sacred Heart devotion is the Church's answer to a world that has made everything transactional. Jesus shows his heart - wounded, crowned with thorns, burning with love - and says: this is what I think of you. Ask your family tonight: "What would it mean for our household to live as if we actually believed that?" Then go to Mass today if you can. If not, make a morning offering together and begin the nine First Fridays next month.

⛪ Family Saint Spotlight

St. Joseph the Worker - May 1

Carpenter. Father. Protector. The man God chose to raise his Son. He worked with his hands, said nothing in Scripture, and was trusted with everything. Pope Leo XIII called him the model for all workers. Pope John Paul II called his life "the Gospel of work." He is the patron of workers, fathers, carpenters, and the universal Church.

Ask at dinner: "Joseph worked every day to provide for Jesus and Mary. What is the work our family does together - seen and unseen - that holds our household together?"

✋ One Simple Action

If you can get to Mass this First Friday, go. If not, make an offering of your work today to the Sacred Heart - name it specifically: "Lord, I offer you this meeting, this commute, this hour with the kids, this difficult conversation." Joseph offered everything he did. Your ordinary Friday can do the same.

Enjoy the weekend living the faith in your domestic church. See you Monday.

📚 Read More

• St. Joseph the Worker and Catholic Social Teaching: NCRegister (https://www.ncregister.com/cna/the-story-behind-the-feast-of-st-joseph-the-worker) and CAPP-USA (https://capp-usa.org/2024/05/st-joseph-the-worker-and-the-dignity-of-work/)
• Pope Leo XIV on the dignity of work: OSV News / Catholic Virginian (https://catholicvirginian.org/slider/feast-of-st-joseph-the-worker-may-1-nine-quotes-from-pope-leo-xiv/)
• DOJ Task Force report on anti-Christian bias: Department of Justice press release (https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/task-force-publishes-report-eradicating-anti-christian-bias-and-restoring-religious-liberty)
• First Friday and Sacred Heart devotion: EWTN (https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/devotions/first-friday-devotion-419)

Joseph built things with his hands and raised God in his home. You are doing the same - in your work, in your kitchen, in your car, in your prayers before bed. Do not let your hearts be troubled. You know the way.

If Domus Daily is useful to you, please forward it to another Catholic parent who might benefit and invite them to subscribe at WeAreDomus.com/Daily.

Domus Formation offers daily prayer and formation resources for every phase of life in the Domestic Church - for families, for teens and young adults, for men and women, and for those in the back half of life. Whatever your season, there is a path for you at WeAreDomus.com.