"If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile." Everything rests on that one claim. Then Luke names something easy to skip past - the women who "provided for them out of their resources": Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Susanna, "and many others." Quiet, unglamorous support that made the whole mission possible. A faith with no foundation is nothing. A mission with no quiet support behind it goes nowhere either. Today, the second of this year's fall Ember Days, is a good day to hold both truths at once.

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. EPA Will Test Drinking Water for Abortion Pills - and the Country Disagrees on Why

The EPA has launched a study that will screen drinking water samples nationwide for more than 1,400 substances, including mifepristone and misoprostol, the two drugs used in medication abortion. The method itself - a "non-targeted analysis" that checks whether a chemical's trace is present - is a real, long-used scientific tool; it detects presence, not quantity or risk. Pro-life groups like Students for Life, who have pushed for this for years, are calling it a "tremendous victory." Critics, including the Guttmacher Institute and several Democratic senators, argue the science is being stretched to serve a political goal, since agricultural and industrial pollutants pose far more documented risk and aren't drawing the same scrutiny.

Faith Lens for the Home: Both a real concern for creation and a real concern about the intent behind a study can be true at the same time. Ask your family: "How do we tell the difference between genuine care for God's creation and using science to make a point we already believe?"

2. Congress Passes Lindsey Graham's Sanctions Bill - Finished by the Colleagues Who Loved Him

The House passed the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act Wednesday, 262-159, sending it to President Trump's desk after the Senate approved it 86-11 last month. Graham spent more than a year building bipartisan support for the bill before his sudden death in July; his Senate colleague Richard Blumenthal, who co-authored it with him, worked to see it through. Graham's sister Darline, appointed to finish his Senate term, said simply after the vote: "This means so much to me and it meant so much to Lindsey."

Faith Lens for the Home: A man's work outlived him because people who loved him decided to finish it. Ask your family: "Is there something someone we love started that we could help carry forward - not because we have to, but because it mattered to them?" That's Luke's women at the tomb and in the towns, doing the quiet work that keeps a mission alive.

3. US Bishops Form AI Task Force, Take Magnifica Humanitas to Capitol Hill

Following their Administrative Committee meeting this week, the USCCB announced a new task force dedicated to protecting human dignity as artificial intelligence develops, explicitly drawing on Pope Leo XIV's encyclical Magnifica Humanitas. More than a dozen bishops then went directly to Capitol Hill to meet with lawmakers, urging safety guardrails on AI and support for the Kids Online Safety Act. Archbishop Alexander Sample of Portland said the bishops wanted to bring "the pressing issues on the minds and hearts of the bishops" directly to the people who write the laws.

Faith Lens for the Home: The bishops didn't just write a letter - they showed up in person, the way Luke's women showed up with their own resources, not just their good intentions. Ask your family: "What's one thing we believe about protecting our kids online that we could actually act on this week, not just talk about?"

⛪ Family Saint Spotlight

St. Joseph of Cupertino - September 18

Born to a poor Italian family in 1603, Joseph was rejected by the Franciscans for his lack of education and, by his own community's account, was so awkward and slow-witted that he was mocked even after finally being accepted as a lay brother. He was eventually ordained anyway. What followed startled everyone: Joseph began to levitate - reportedly rising into the air during Mass, prayer, and even ordinary conversation, dozens of times witnessed by others, including physicians and skeptics sent to investigate him. Church authorities, overwhelmed by the crowds his reputation drew, hid him away in remote friaries for the last decade of his life. He bore it all without complaint. He is, fittingly, the patron saint of aviators, pilots, and air travelers.

Ask at dinner: "Joseph was thought too slow and awkward to be a priest, and became one of the most extraordinary mystics in the Church's history. Have we ever misjudged someone's gifts because they didn't show up the way we expected?"

✋ One Simple Action

If you're keeping the Ember Days, today is the second of the three - a small fast or sacrifice, offered quietly. Pray for clarity in how our country tests and regulates what goes into our water. Pray for the Iranian and Russian civilians who will feel the weight of new sanctions. And see if you can find one piece of someone else's unfinished thinking, passion, or work that you could help carry forward.

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

📚 Read More

• EPA drinking water study - abortion drugs and other chemicals: WORLD (https://wng.org/sift/epa-to-track-abortion-drugs-in-americas-drinking-water-1789399933) and Live Action (https://www.liveaction.org/news/epa-abortion-drugs-chemical-tests-drinking-water) and Common Dreams, critical perspective (https://www.commondreams.org/news/abortion-pill-in-city-water)
• Lindsey Graham Sanctions Act passes House, heads to Trump: NBC News (https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/house-passes-russia-sanctions-bill-named-lindsey-graham-sending-trump-rcna598124) and CBS News (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/house-votes-russia-sanctions-bill/) and ABC News (https://abcnews.com/Politics/house-passes-russia-iran-sanctions-bill-championed-sen/story?id=136510615)
• US bishops form AI task force, visit Capitol Hill: OSV News (https://www.osvnews.com/us-bishops-form-new-task-force-over-ai-concerns-after-meeting-with-tech-titans/) and Catholic World Report (https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2026/09/16/u-s-bishops-launch-task-force-to-promote-human-dignity-amid-rise-of-artificial-intelligence/) and Catholic Sun on Capitol Hill visit (https://www.catholicsun.org/2026/09/17/in-ai-guardrails-push-us-bishops-advocate-for-kids-online-safety-act-at-the-capitol/)
• St. Joseph of Cupertino: Franciscan Media (https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-joseph-of-cupertino/)

If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile - Paul refuses to let anyone soften that. Women no one named for centuries funded Jesus's whole ministry from their own pockets. A senator's unfinished work was carried across the finish line by people who loved him. Bishops took their concerns straight to Capitol Hill instead of just writing about them. Whatever your family's foundation is, make sure it's real. Then go do the quiet work that keeps it standing.