Today's Domus Daily was pre-written before I went on a short trip with one of my sons. My intent was interesting and useful news that would stay fresh for when you're reading it. Know of my prayers for you on our trip.

God tells Ezekiel to mime going into exile - pack your bags in daylight, dig through the wall, go out with your face covered - so that a rebellious house that refuses to see might finally watch something and understand. Then the Gospel: Peter asks how many times he must forgive his brother. "Seven times?" Jesus: "Not seven times, but seventy-seven times." Then the parable of the servant forgiven a fortune who throttles the man who owes him almost nothing. The rebellious house won't look at the prophet. The forgiven servant won't remember what he was given. Today the Church buries a man who spent 79 years praying for the country that exiled him.

The deeper reflection on today's readings - and a daily prayer for your household - is waiting in the & Altar app and at andaltar.com. More after the news.

📰 Quick Hits

1. Today Is the Funeral of Father Benedict Chao - The Last Trappist Monk From Mao's China

At the Abbey of Our Lady of Joy on Lantau Island, Hong Kong, the Trappists bury Father Benedict Chao today. He died July 31 at 108 years old - 79 years in monastic vows, 77 years a priest. He was the last survivor of the generation of Chinese Trappists who endured Mao's persecution.

Born in 1918 in Hebei Province, China, Father Chao entered his monastery in 1941. He was ordained a priest in 1949 - the same year the communist revolution drove his community out. The monks were marched through the mountains of northern China, hands bound in chains or wire to the point of cutting bone, the sick carried by the stronger ones, beaten if they spoke, forced to forage like animals. Several died. The survivors eventually made it to Canada, then Hong Kong, where they were given 73 hectares of uninhabited land on Lantau Island - at the token rent of $20 per hectare per year - and built their monastery with their bare hands. Father Chao served as prior from 1974 to 1998. He spent the final decades of his life in prayer, silence, and intercession - for China, for the world, for the Church. The Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance said his death renewed their "reverence for those whose long lives continue to be offered entirely to God in silence, prayer, and work."

Faith Lens for the Home: A man marched into exile in chains spent 79 years praying for the country that exiled him. That is the parable of the unforgiving servant run in reverse - a man who owed everything and gave it all back freely. Ask your family: "What does it take to keep praying for people who have hurt you - not once, not seven times, but seventy-seven times, for 79 years? What does that kind of prayer do to the person praying?" Pray tonight for Father Benedict Chao - that God has given him the joy he spent his whole life seeking in silence. And pray for the Church in China, still under pressure, still present, still praying.

2. The Church That Refused to Die: Jimmy Lai Is Still in Prison - and Still Praying

While Father Chao's funeral takes place today in Hong Kong, another Catholic remains in a Hong Kong cell a few miles away. Jimmy Lai, 78, the Catholic publisher and pro-democracy advocate, has been imprisoned since December 2020 and was sentenced in February to 20 years for his newspaper work. His daughter Claire has said: "His faith is what protects his mind and soul." He draws the Crucifixion and the Blessed Mother in his cell. He reads the Gospel every morning. He has not stopped. The rebellious house silenced the prophet. The prophet kept praying.

Faith Lens for the Home: Two Catholics in Hong Kong, both imprisoned or exiled for their faith - one by Mao, one by Xi - both still praying. Ask your family: "What does it say about prayer that it persists even when everything else has been taken away? What is our family's prayer life like when nothing is being taken from us?" Say a prayer tonight for Jimmy Lai by name. His case is still before the courts. He can still be heard.

3. The Vatican Is Preparing to Gather Every Bishop in the World - About Your Family

This October 7-14, Pope Leo XIV will convene the presidents of every bishops' conference on earth in Rome, along with the heads of the Eastern Catholic Churches, to mark the 10th anniversary of Amoris Laetitia. The released framework states plainly: "Despite the challenges of contemporary life, families remain the primary setting in which the faith is handed on to new generations." The gathering will address how families today experience love, generate life, and hand on faith - against a backdrop of falling marriage rates, falling birth rates, and mounting cultural pressure on young people to avoid lasting commitments. This is not a committee meeting. It is a global Church looking hard at what is happening to the family and asking what to do about it.

Faith Lens for the Home: The bishops of the whole world are gathering because families like yours are the thing they are most worried about protecting. Ask your family: "What does our home communicate to a young person watching us about whether marriage, children, and faith are worth choosing? Would we want someone to model their future family on ours?" That question is the whole agenda of October, asked at your own table in two minutes.

⛪ Family Saint Spotlight

Sts. Pontian and Hippolytus - August 13

Two men who started as enemies. Hippolytus was an anti-pope - he broke from Rome over what he saw as laxity in discipline and set himself up as a rival bishop. Pontian was the legitimate Pope. In 235 AD, the Emperor Maximinus Thrax exiled both of them - together - to the mines of Sardinia. In those mines, face to face with death, Hippolytus reconciled with the Church. Pontian resigned the papacy so the Church in Rome could elect a new pope without a vacant see during persecution. Both died in the mines. Both are martyrs. The man who refused to forgive and the man he refused to forgive ended up dying for the same Lord, in the same place, reconciled.

Ask at dinner: "Hippolytus and Pontian were enemies who became martyrs together. What does that say about what suffering can do to old divisions? Is there a division in our family or community that might look different if we were both facing something hard together?"

✋ One Simple Action

Pray for Father Benedict Chao tonight - for the repose of his soul and for the community of Trappists on Lantau Island burying their oldest brother today. Pray for Jimmy Lai in his Hong Kong cell. Pray for the bishops preparing to gather in October, and for your own household's witness to what family life can be. And say the Gospel's number: seventy-seven times. Not because you have to. Because you were forgiven first.

📚 Read More

• Father Benedict Chao - death, funeral today, exile and life: OSV News (https://www.osvnews.com/hong-kongs-father-benedict-chao-worlds-oldest-trappist-monk-dead-at-108/) and Catholic Weekly Australia (https://catholicweekly.com.au/trappist-father-benedict-chao-death/) and The Dialog (https://thedialog.org/obituaries-2/hong-kongs-father-benedict-chao-worlds-oldest-trappist-monk-dies-at-108-he-survived-the-chinese-communist-persecution/)
• Jimmy Lai in Hong Kong: Catholic World Report (https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2026/02/09/secretary-rubio-other-leaders-denounce-jimmy-lais-tragic-20-year-sentence/) and NCRegister (https://www.ncregister.com/cna/catholic-activist-jimmy-lai-sentenced-to-20-years-in-prison-in-hong-kong-national-security-trial) and EWTN News (https://ewtn.co.uk/article-jimmy-lais-family-responds-to-20-year-prison-sentence/)
• Vatican October family summit - full framework: OSV News (https://www.osvnews.com/pope-leos-october-meeting-on-marriage-family-gains-urgency-amid-declining-birth-rates-in-west/) and The Catholic Thing (https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2026/07/08/vatican-unveils-agenda-for-global-family-summit-marking-amoris-laetitia-anniversary/)
• Sts. Pontian and Hippolytus: Catholic Culture (https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?date=2026-08-13) and Franciscan Media (https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saints-pontian-and-hippolytus/)

Ezekiel packed his bags through the wall so a house that refused to see might finally watch. A man who was marched through the mountains of China in chains spent 79 years praying for the people who chained him. A publisher draws the Crucifixion in a Hong Kong cell. The bishops of the whole world are gathering in October to talk about households like yours. Not seven times. Seventy-seven. The servant who remembers what he was forgiven forgives like this. Go and do likewise.