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 remember a girl found abandoned at birth, wallowing in her own blood, unwanted - and he washed her, clothed her, adorned her with gold, and made her his own. She took every gift and gave it to idols. God's answer is not to walk away: "I will remember my covenant with you, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you." Then the Gospel: the Pharisees test Jesus on divorce. He answers by going back further than Moses: "From the beginning it was not so." Today the Church remembers a man who took the abandonment of a concentration camp and answered it the way God answers Jerusalem - with a covenant nobody asked him to make.

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. Eighty-Five Years Ago Today: "I Am a Catholic Priest. I Want to Die for Him."

On July 30, 1941, at Auschwitz, a prisoner escaped from Barracks 14A. In reprisal, camp commandant Karl Fritzsch selected ten men to die by starvation. One of them, Franciszek Gajowniczek - prisoner 5659, a Polish army sergeant - cried out: "My wife! My children! I will never see them again!" From the ranks stepped a Conventual Franciscan friar, prisoner 16670: Father Maximilian Kolbe. "I am a Catholic priest. I want to take his place, because he has a wife and children." Fritzsch, startled that a priest would volunteer, allowed the exchange. Kolbe entered the starvation bunker with nine other men. For two weeks he led them in prayer and hymns as, one by one, they died. On August 14, 1941 - 85 years ago today - the impatient guards killed the four still living, including Kolbe, with an injection of carbolic acid. He was cremated the next day: August 15, the Solemnity of the Assumption of Our Lady, whom he had consecrated his entire priesthood to. Franciszek Gajowniczek survived the war, lived to be 93, and attended both Kolbe's beatification in 1971 and his canonization in 1982. Pope John Paul II declared Kolbe a martyr of charity - "no one has greater love than this, than to lay down one's life for one's friends" (John 15:13).

Faith Lens for the Home: Kolbe did not know Gajowniczek. He simply heard a father crying out for his children and stepped forward. Ask your family: "What would it take to be the kind of person who steps forward like that - not in the moment of the crisis, but built up over years of ordinary choices before it?" Kolbe's whole life prepared him for those fifty seconds. Ask what your family's ordinary choices are preparing you for.

2. Forty Days to Blessed Fulton Sheen: What You Need to Know

On Thursday, September 24, 2026, at 2 PM Central, Venerable Fulton J. Sheen will be beatified at The Dome at America's Center in St. Louis - forty days from today. Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, representing Pope Leo XIV, will preside. Sheen was declared Venerable in 2012, and in 2019 the Vatican recognized a miracle attributed to his intercession, clearing the final step before beatification. After September 24 he will be formally titled "Blessed" - one step from canonization as a saint.

Fulton Sheen was born in El Paso, Illinois, and ordained a priest at the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception in Peoria in 1919. He became one of the most influential Catholic evangelists in American history, reaching millions through his radio program "The Catholic Hour" and later his Emmy-winning television show "Life Is Worth Living" - at its peak drawing an audience of 30 million people a week, competing directly against Milton Berle in the ratings and often winning. He wrote more than 70 books. He raised millions of dollars for the missions. He preached the Gospel to a nation on the same screen where it watched everything else, and made it compelling.

Tickets for the beatification Mass are available now at celebratesheen.com. A pilgrimage from Peoria to St. Louis - visiting the cathedral where Sheen was ordained, his tomb, and the Sheen Museum - begins September 19 for those who want to make the full journey. If you cannot travel, the Mass is expected to be livestreamed; details will be posted at celebratesheen.com as the date approaches.

Faith Lens for the Home: Sheen used the most modern technology of his era - television - to bring people to Christ, at a time many Catholics feared the medium would only corrupt souls. Ask your family: "What does it mean that a saint-to-be used the most secular tool of his time to preach the Gospel? What does that tell us about how we should think about the technology in our own home?" Whether or not you can travel to St. Louis, watch a clip of "Life Is Worth Living" together this weekend. He is very good at what he does. Let him speak for himself.

3. Pope Leo's September Visit to France: Notre Dame, Lourdes, and a Private Meeting With Abuse Survivors

The Holy See Press Office has released the full schedule for Pope Leo XIV's four-day apostolic visit to France, September 25-28 - his fifth international journey as pope, and the first papal state visit to France since Benedict XVI in 2008. He will travel to Paris, Saint-Denis, Lourdes, and Metz. In Paris he will celebrate vespers with clergy and religious at Notre Dame Cathedral - the first papal visit since the cathedral reopened in December 2024 following its restoration after the 2019 fire - followed by a prayer vigil with young people at the Stade de France. He will then travel to Lourdes, where he will pray at the Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes - the site where the Virgin Mary appeared to Bernadette Soubirous in 1858 - lead a candlelit rosary procession, meet with the sick at the shrine's Accueil Notre Dame, and privately visit the Carmelite nuns of Lourdes. The trip concludes in Metz, the first papal visit there since John Paul II in 1988. As he did during his visit to Spain, Leo will also meet privately with several survivors of clerical abuse; the survivors themselves are helping organize the meeting, with further details still to come.

Faith Lens for the Home: Lourdes is not primarily about miraculous cures - though thousands have been documented and a small number formally recognized by the Church after rigorous medical review. It is about a young peasant girl who was believed by no one, and a spring of water that still flows. Ask your family: "What do we know about Lourdes and what happened there? Why do you think Mary appeared to someone so poor and unlikely?" Then ask about the harder part of the visit: "Why is it important for the pope to meet privately with survivors of abuse before praying publicly at a shrine of healing?" Both are part of the same visit. Both matter.

⛪ Family Saint Spotlight

St. Maximilian Kolbe - August 14

Born Raymund Kolbe in 1894 in Poland, he entered the Conventual Franciscans, was ordained a priest, and founded a massive missionary press apostolate - at its height, his monastery at Niepokalanów was the largest in the world, home to over 700 friars, publishing millions of copies of Catholic newspapers and magazines. He was devoted entirely to Mary Immaculate. When the Nazis invaded Poland, he sheltered thousands of refugees, including 2,000 Jews, at his monastery before he was arrested and eventually sent to Auschwitz. His last recorded words, spoken to the camp doctor administering the fatal injection, were reportedly calm. He raised his arm for the needle without resistance. He is patron of prisoners, drug addicts, families, journalists, and the pro-life movement.

Ask at dinner: "Kolbe ran the largest religious publishing operation in the world and still had room in his heart to shelter 2,000 refugees and, in the end, to die for a stranger. What does it look like to be both effective at big things and ready for small acts of total love?"

✋ One Simple Action

Say Kolbe's words tonight as a family: "I am a Catholic priest. I want to take his place." Then ask each person what it would mean to say something like that - not in a concentration camp, but in ordinary life, this week. And put September 24 on your calendar. Whether you go to St. Louis or watch from home, Blessed Fulton Sheen's beatification is worth marking.

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

📚 Read More

• St. Maximilian Kolbe and Franciszek Gajowniczek: NCRegister (https://www.ncregister.com/features/franciszek-gajowniczek-the-man-spared-by-st-maximilian-kolbe-at-auschwitz) and Vatican News (https://www.vaticannews.va/en/church/news/2018-08/maximilian-kolbe-martyr-auschwitz.html) and Auschwitz Memorial official account (https://www.auschwitz.org/en/education/e-learning/podcast/the-sacrifice-and-death-of-father-maximilian-kolbe/)
• Fulton Sheen beatification - September 24, tickets, pilgrimage: Vatican News (https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2026-03/fulton-sheen-to-be-beatified-in-st-louis-on-24-september.html) and Archdiocese of St. Louis (https://www.archstl.org/fulton-sheen-beatification-event-ticketing/) and Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Foundation (https://www.celebratesheen.com/news/beatification-details)
• Pope Leo's September France visit - Notre Dame, Lourdes, Metz: Vatican News (https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2026-08/pope-leos-packed-schedule-4-day-apostolic-journey-to-france.html) and NCRegister (https://www.ncregister.com/cna/vatican-releases-schedule-for-pope-leo-s-september-trip-to-france) and Angelus News (https://angelusnews.com/news/vatican/pope-france-visit-program/)
• St. Maximilian Kolbe feast: Franciscan Media (https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-maximilian-kolbe/) and Militia of the Immaculata (https://militiaoftheimmaculata.com/martyrdom-of-st-maximilian/)

God found Jerusalem abandoned and made an everlasting covenant with her anyway. A priest heard a stranger cry out for his children and stepped forward without knowing his name. Forty days from now, a man who preached the Gospel on prime-time television will be called Blessed. A pope will kneel at the spring where Mary appeared to a girl nobody believed. No one has greater love than this, than to lay down one's life for one's friends. Kolbe did. Go and do likewise, in whatever size your own fifty seconds turns out to be.