Alleluia! Paul is in Corinth and he is tired. He has been beaten, imprisoned, shipwrecked, and run out of city after city. He is ready to stop. Then the Lord speaks to him at night: "Do not be afraid. Go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many people in this city" (Acts 18:9-10). He stays 18 months. The Gospel adds: "Your grief will become joy... your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you" (John 16:20,22). Don't be afraid. Don't be silent. Your grief will become joy. That is the word for this Friday.

📰 Quick Hits

1. The Home That Made a Pope

EWTN published a piece this week on Pope Leo XIV's mother - a detail worth pausing on in the week after Mother's Day. She was a devout Catholic, a librarian, and an accomplished singer of sacred music. The home life she created - the books, the prayer, the beauty she cultivated in ordinary domestic space - helped inspire her son's vocation to the priesthood. He is now the Holy Father. She is not famous. She raised her family in Chicago and did what Catholic mothers do: she opened the door of the domestic church and let the faith fill the house. The Lord told Paul: "I have many people in this city." He had one in that Chicago home.

Faith Lens for the Home: Ask your family tonight: "What did the people who raised us give us that we didn't fully appreciate until later? What are we giving our children right now that they may not recognize for years?" The domestic church is always doing more than it knows. That is worth naming out loud.

2. What Catholics Actually Believe About Faith in Public Life

A Pew Research Center study released yesterday finds that 49% of U.S. Catholics say the government should enforce separation of church and state - meaning, roughly half believe faith should be kept private and out of public institutions. Sixteen percent say enforcement should stop. The Church's own social teaching holds a different and more nuanced position: that religious freedom includes not just the freedom to worship privately but the freedom to live and witness to faith in public life, in education, in civic institutions, and in the public square. The gap between what many Catholics believe and what the Church actually teaches on this question is real - and it matters for how we raise our children.

Faith Lens for the Home: Ask your family: "What does our faith say about keeping God private? Does 'separation of church and state' mean Catholics shouldn't speak publicly about what we believe?" The Lord told Paul to keep speaking - not to keep quiet. That is not a political instruction. It is a formation one.

3. "We Want Something to Live For and to Fight For"

Rhode Island Public Radio published a piece this week on the quiet Catholic revival happening at the University of Rhode Island - and mirroring a national trend. Campus Catholic attendance has grown from 15 regulars to 60 at weekly events. A student named Ciara Walsh put it plainly: "We want something to live for and to fight for. And I think the Catholic Church is that route." The chaplain, Fr. Ryan Simas, credits COVID's forced solitude: "That quiet time allowed them to ask deep questions. They tried the ways of the world and found them wanting." Georgetown data confirms the trend nationally: Gen Z now attends Mass monthly at higher rates (39%) than Millennials (33%) or Gen X (30%).

Faith Lens for the Home: "We want something to live for and to fight for." Write that down. Your children are asking the same question Ciara Walsh is asking - whether they say it out loud or not. Ask them tonight: "What do you think the Catholic faith is worth fighting for? What would you give up to keep it?" Their answer tells you where they are. It also tells you where to go next in their formation.

⛪ Family Saint Spotlight

St. Dymphna - May 15

An Irish princess of the 7th century, daughter of a pagan chieftain, who fled to Belgium with her confessor after her father - mad with grief after her mother's death - pursued her with violent intentions. She was martyred at around age 15 in Gheel when her father caught and killed her for refusing to renounce her faith and her dignity. In the centuries that followed, the town of Gheel became famous across Europe for something extraordinary: families there took mentally ill strangers into their homes and cared for them as members of the household. That tradition lasted for centuries and is still studied by psychiatrists today. St. Dymphna is the patron of those with mental illness, anxiety, and emotional disorders - and of their families.

Ask at dinner: "St. Dymphna's death gave rise to a whole town that welcomed the mentally ill into their homes. Is there someone our family knows who is struggling with anxiety or mental health - and what does it look like to welcome them rather than avoid them?"

✋ One Simple Action

If you or someone in your family struggles with anxiety, depression, or mental health - pray the novena to St. Dymphna this weekend. It is brief and available at ewtn.com. And tonight, name one person in your life who is struggling quietly. Pray for them by name. Then consider whether God is asking you to do what the families of Gheel did: open the door.

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

📚 Read More

• Pope Leo's mother and the home that formed his vocation: EWTN News (https://www.ewtnnews.com/vatican/the-holy-fathers-well-educated-mom-was-a-devout-catholic-librarian-and-accomplished-singer-of-sacred-music)
• Pew Research: Catholics and separation of church and state: Pew Research Center (https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2026/05/14/catholics-church-state-separation-survey/) and CNA (https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/pew-catholics-church-state)
• Gen Z Catholic revival at URI and nationally: Rhode Island Public Radio (https://turnto10.com/news/local/finding-faith-roman-catholic-church-diocese-of-providence-university-of-rhode-island-trend-gen-x-z-millennials-may-11-2026)
• St. Dymphna: Franciscan Media (https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-dymphna/) and EWTN novena (https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/devotions/novena-to-saint-dymphna-369)

The Lord told Paul: I have many people in this city. A Chicago mother raised one of them. A student in Rhode Island found something worth fighting for. A teenage girl martyred in Belgium gave rise to a town that welcomed the broken into their homes for centuries. Do not be afraid. Go on speaking. Do not be silent. Your grief will become joy. See you Monday.