Alleluia! Welcome to May - the month the Church has always given to Mary. Today's reading from Acts is one of the stranger and funnier moments in Paul's journeys: he heals a man lame from birth in Lystra, and the crowd immediately tries to worship him and Barnabas as Zeus and Hermes. Paul tears his garments: "We are human beings like you. We proclaim to you good news to turn from these vain things to the living God" (Acts 14:15). The Gospel adds the frame: "Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him" (John 14:23). Not gods. Just witnesses. And into those ordinary human lives, God makes his dwelling.

📰 Quick Hits

1. Pope Leo's Prayer Intention for May: That Everyone Might Have Food

Pope Leo XIV, just back from 11 days in Africa, has named his prayer intention for May: that everyone might have food. It is a simple, direct request - shaped, no doubt, by what he saw on the ground in Algeria, Cameroon, Angola, and Equatorial Guinea. May is also the month the Church dedicates entirely to the Virgin Mary. Those two facts together set the tone: a mother's care for her children, beginning with whether they are fed. Today's reading from Acts says that the living God gives "rains and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness." The Pope is asking us to pray that this promise reaches everyone.

Faith Lens for the Home: At dinner tonight, before you eat, name the intention aloud: "Lord, may everyone have food." Ask your family: "What does it mean to pray for something we can also do something about? What is one concrete way our family can respond to hunger this month - a food pantry donation, a family fast, a meal for a neighbor?" Let May begin with gratitude and solidarity at the same table.

2. An Illinois Family of Ten Walked 22 Miles for Mary - and Their Kids Led the Way

Saturday was the 13th annual Walk to Mary pilgrimage in Wisconsin - more than 10,000 pilgrims walking 22 miles from St. Norbert College in De Pere to the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion, the only approved Marian apparition site in the United States. Among them: the Allex family of Barrington, Illinois - two parents, eight children - completing the full 22-mile route for the first time in their ten years of participating. And it wasn't mom and dad who asked to do it. It was their 17-year-old daughter and 16-year-old son, who came to their parents and said: "We have big prayer intentions this year. We want to do the 22 miles." The intentions? College discernment. Where God is calling them. The family sat down together and said yes. Their mother Kym reflected: "I might not be preparing them for Harvard. I'm going to prepare them for heaven." Our Lady appeared to Adele Brise at Champion in 1859 with a message the Allex family has memorized: "Gather the children in this wild country and teach them what they should know for salvation."

Faith Lens for the Home: "I might not be preparing them for Harvard. I'm going to prepare them for heaven." Write that line down somewhere you'll see it. Ask your family tonight: "What is the most important thing we are preparing our kids for? And what are we doing - concretely, physically, sacrificially - to get them there?" The Walk to Mary is open to anyone, every first Saturday of May. Next year, consider it. This year, pray the Rosary tonight as your own small pilgrimage toward heaven.

3. Pope Leo on Iran: "How Do We Promote Our Values Without the Death of So Many Innocent People?"

Flying home from Africa last week, Pope Leo XIV was asked about the U.S.-Iran conflict. He did not take political sides. He asked the right question: "The issue is not whether there is regime change or not; the issue is how to promote the values we believe in without the death of so many innocent people." It is the oldest question in just war theory, asked fresh in the context of a conflict that has been declared "terminated" and yet remains unresolved. The Church does not tell governments how to negotiate. It does insist that every diplomatic path be exhausted before and during armed conflict, and that civilian life is never a negotiating chip.

Faith Lens for the Home: Ask your family tonight: "What does the Church teach about when war is just - and when it isn't? What makes a war moral or immoral?" The just war criteria are in the Catechism (CCC 2307-2317) and are worth knowing before your kids encounter them in a history class or a political argument. The Pope's question is a formation question: how do we hold our values without losing our humanity in the holding?

⛪ Family Saint Spotlight

Our Lady in May

No feast today, but May itself is the feast - the whole month given to Mary, who "pondered these things in her heart" (Luke 2:19), who stood at the foot of the cross, who was present in the upper room at Pentecost. She is the model of the Domestic Church: a woman who heard the Word of God and kept it, who gathered the disciples in prayer, who prepares for heaven. She is the one who says to every servant at every wedding: "Do whatever he tells you."

Ask at dinner: "What does our family do in May to honor Mary? Is there a devotion - the Rosary, a May crowning, a pilgrimage - we could begin or revive this month?"

✋ One Simple Action

Begin a family Rosary this week - even one decade per night. It is May. The month belongs to her. And if you want a structured daily companion for your household's formation, Domus has something for everyone in one place - including Hearth & Altar's daily prayer for families. Learn more at WeAreDomus.com.

📚 Read More

• Pope Leo's May prayer intention: EWTN News (https://www.ewtnnews.com/vatican/this-is-pope-leos-prayer-intention-for-the-month-of-may)
• The Allex family and the Walk to Mary: NCRegister (https://www.ncregister.com/cna/050226-walk-to-mary) and Walk to Mary (https://walktomary.com)
• Record turnout for Walk to Mary 2026: WBAY News (https://www.wbay.com/2026/05/03/record-turnout-13th-annual-walk-mary/)
• Pope Leo on Iran and just war: NCRegister (https://www.ncregister.com/news/pope-leo-xiv-iran-war-innocent-lives) and CCC 2307-2317 (https://www.usccb.org/sites/default/files/flipbooks/catechism/588/)

We are not gods. We are human beings like Paul and Barnabas - ordinary people into whose lives God has made his dwelling. A family walking 22 miles. A pope asking the right question. A month given entirely to a mother who prepares her children for heaven. Go and do likewise.