In the desert, God tells Moses to mount a bronze serpent on a pole - anyone bitten who looks upon it will live. Jesus tells Nicodemus that this was a sign of himself: "Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son." Paul tells the Philippians the same mystery from the other direction: Christ "humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Because of this, God greatly exalted him." The lowest point becomes the highest. Suffering, freely accepted, becomes glory. That is what today's feast shows: not that suffering is good, but that it is never wasted when it is united to the Cross.

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. "A Son and Daughter's Appeal": Congress to Hold Hearing on Imprisoned Jimmy Lai

On Wednesday, September 16, Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), a Catholic and co-chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, will chair a hearing titled "A Son and Daughter's Appeal to Xi Jinping to Release Their Dad, Jimmy Lai." Lai, 77, is a Catholic media entrepreneur who founded the pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily in Hong Kong. Under pressure from Beijing, a Hong Kong court sentenced him in February to 20 years in prison on national security and sedition charges widely viewed by outside observers as politically orchestrated by the Chinese Communist Party to silence him. He endures prolonged solitary confinement in a Hong Kong prison. His children Sebastien and his daughter, who live abroad, will testify at Wednesday's hearing, appealing directly to Chinese President Xi Jinping for their father's release. Smith has called the case "an affront to justice everywhere," insisting that "promoting democratic ideals and free speech is not, and should not be, a crime."

Faith Lens for the Home: Lai has said his faith is what protects his mind and soul in that cell. Ask your family: "What does it mean to keep believing something is worth suffering for, even when the suffering doesn't end?" Pray for Jimmy Lai by name tonight, and for his children as they make their appeal Wednesday.

2. Pope Leo Quotes Christ From the Cross: "Forgive Them, for They Know Not What They Do"

At Sunday's Angelus, Pope Leo XIV built his reflection on forgiveness directly on Jesus's own words on Calvary - "Forgive them, Father, for they do not know what they are doing" - connecting it to Peter's question about forgiving "seventy times seven." Speaking two days after the 25th anniversary of September 11, Leo said: "Forgiveness is indispensable, and without it, we cannot live in peace... only forgiveness sets us free and restores the light, even where human material and moral poverty has darkened the horizon." He asked Mary, Mother of Mercy, to help Christians take that first hard step toward forgiving, "even when it is difficult."

Faith Lens for the Home: The Cross is the moment Christ forgives the very people killing him, in real time, without waiting for the wrong to be finished. Ask your family: "Is there someone we're waiting to forgive until they 'deserve' it? What would it mean to forgive before that - the way Christ did?"

3. Eleven Killed in a 98% Catholic Nigerian Village - the Same Night as the 9/11 Anniversary

More than 200 armed militants attacked Ayilamo, a farming community in Nigeria's Benue State that residents describe as roughly 98% Christian, predominantly Catholic. The assault began the evening of September 10 and continued into the early hours of September 11, killing four police officers and seven civilians before security forces drove the attackers back. It is part of a sustained pattern of violence against Christian communities across Nigeria's Middle Belt, which has claimed thousands of lives in recent years.

Faith Lens for the Home: A Catholic village bore real violence on the same night America paused to remember its own. Ask your family: "Do we know that Christians are still being killed for their faith today, not just in history books?" Pray for Ayilamo, and for the wider Church in Nigeria - lifted up, like the Cross itself, in a place the world rarely looks.

⛪ Family Saint Spotlight

The Exaltation of the Holy Cross - September 14

This feast dates to 335 A.D., when the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem was dedicated on the site tradition holds was Calvary, after St. Helena, mother of Emperor Constantine, is said to have discovered the relics of the True Cross there. It was restored again in 629 when Emperor Heraclius recovered the Cross after it had been captured by Persian forces. The feast doesn't mourn the Cross - it exalts it, lifts it up, because the instrument of execution became, in Christ's hands, the instrument of salvation. Catholic churches everywhere display a crucifix for exactly this reason: not despair, but the claim that God can turn even the worst thing into the way through.

Ask at dinner: "Why do you think the Church calls this feast 'exaltation' - lifting up in glory - instead of something more solemn? What does that say about how we should look at hard things in our own life?"

✋ One Simple Action

Pray for Jimmy Lai and his children ahead of Wednesday's hearing. Pray for the people of Ayilamo, Nigeria. And tonight, look at a crucifix in your home - really look at it - and ask God to help you carry whatever your own cross is right now, trusting that it, too, can be lifted up.

📚 Read More

• Jimmy Lai congressional hearing, September 16: Rep. Chris Smith's office (https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415827) and CECC statement on Lai's conviction (https://www.cecc.gov/media-center/press-releases/chairs-statement-condemning-jimmy-lais-conviction)
• Pope Leo's Angelus on forgiveness, full text: Vatican official text (https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/angelus/2026/documents/20260913-angelus.html) and OSV News (https://www.osvnews.com/full-text-pope-leo-xivs-angelus-address-given-sept-13-2026/) and Vatican News (https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2026-09/pope-leo-angelus-forgiveness-peace-love-conflict-gospel-peter.html)
• Ayilamo, Nigeria attack: P.M. News Nigeria (https://pmnewsnigeria.com/2026/09/11/benue-attack-four-policemen-seven-civilians-killed/) and Starconnect Media (https://starconnectmedia.com/tragedy-in-benue-4-police-officers-7-civilians-killed-as-security-forces-repel-herder-attack-in-ayilamo/)
• The Exaltation of the Holy Cross: Franciscan Media (https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/exaltation-of-the-holy-cross/)

God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, lifted up, so that everyone who believes might live. An imprisoned 77-year-old Catholic publisher is lifted up in prayer this week by his own children before Congress. The pope repeated Christ's own words from the Cross to a world still learning how to forgive. A Nigerian village bore real suffering the same night a nation remembered its own. The Cross was never about despair. Lift up whatever you're carrying today, and trust where it leads.