This issue was written earlier this week, to allow Suzanne and me to focus on our time with our son at his Air Force basic training graduation events.

Jesus says: "Stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come." Today the Church gives us St. Monica - a woman who stayed awake in a much longer sense, praying for her wayward son Augustine for over thirty years, through his years of drifting and disbelief, until he finally turned. She never got to see how the story fully ended in her own lifetime. She just kept praying.

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. Tonight: Free Webcast Kicks Off the Countdown to Fulton Sheen's Beatification

Tonight at 8:30 PM Eastern, the Sheen Beatification cause hosts a free live webcast marking exactly four weeks until Venerable Fulton Sheen is declared Blessed on September 24 in St. Louis. Pope Leo XIV - elected on Sheen's own birthday - has called him "a light of faith, hope, and love." Registration is free at kickoff.celebratesheen.com and includes a Sheen prayer card.

Faith Lens for the Home: Sheen spent his life waking people up to the faith through radio and television. Ask your family: "What would it look like for our household to help someone else stay awake to God this week?" Register for tonight's webcast together if you can.

2. Jimmy Lai Is Still in a Hong Kong Cell, Still Praying Every Morning

Catholic publisher and pro-democracy advocate Jimmy Lai, 78, remains imprisoned in Hong Kong under a 20-year sentence handed down this year. His daughter Claire has said: "His faith is what protects his mind and soul." He reads the Gospel and draws the Crucifixion in his cell every morning.

Faith Lens for the Home: Monica prayed for decades without seeing the answer. Lai prays daily without seeing freedom. Ask your family: "What sustains someone who stays faithful with no end in sight?" Pray for Jimmy Lai by name tonight.

3. Anti-Catholic Hate Crimes Rose in 2025, Even as Overall Hate Crime Fell

New FBI data shows overall hate crime dropped nearly 9% nationally in 2025 - but anti-Catholic incidents rose from 63 the year before to roughly 73-84, depending on the metric. It's moving the wrong direction while most other categories move the right one.

Faith Lens for the Home: Ask your family: "Have any of us felt uneasy about being visibly Catholic in public?" Pray for the victims and for the grace to stay visible anyway.

⛪ Family Saint Spotlight

St. Monica - August 27

Born around 332 in North Africa, Monica endured a difficult marriage to a pagan husband and spent decades in prayer and tears for her brilliant, restless son Augustine, who drifted through a heretical sect and a life of ambition before his famous conversion in a Milan garden. A bishop once told her, exhausted by her pleading: "It is not possible that the son of so many tears should perish." She died at Ostia in 387, having lived to see Augustine baptized. She is patron of mothers, wives, and all who pray for wayward loved ones without giving up.

Ask at dinner: "Monica prayed for over thirty years before she saw an answer. Is there someone - or something - our family has been praying for a long time without seeing results? What does Monica's story say to us about that?"

✋ One Simple Action

Register for tonight's Sheen webcast at kickoff.celebratesheen.com. Pray for Jimmy Lai and for Catholics facing hostility here at home. Then pray one decade of the Rosary for someone you love who has drifted from the faith - the way Monica prayed for Augustine, for as long as it takes.

📚 Read More

• Fulton Sheen beatification kickoff webcast, tonight 8:30 PM ET: kickoff.celebratesheen.com (https://kickoff.celebratesheen.com/)
• 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)
• FBI 2025 hate crime data - anti-Catholic incidents: Catholic Culture (https://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=70463)
• St. Monica: Franciscan Media (https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-monica/)

Stay awake, Jesus said - you do not know the hour. Monica stayed awake in prayer for thirty years before she saw her son come home. A publisher in Hong Kong stays awake in prayer every morning with no end in sight. Tonight, a webcast helps a new generation stay awake to a bishop who spent his life waking people up. Whatever you're praying for and haven't yet seen - stay awake. Keep praying.