Monday Message, June 22, 2026

BREAKING NEWS

Out of more than 3,000 submissions, the Diocese of Bridgeport won the following 2026 awards from the Catholic Media Association.

• Best Video – Catechesis: Diocesan and National News Organization – Honorable Mention – Directory of Catechesis, Diocese of Bridgeport, Institute for Catholic Formation
• Social Media Campaign: General Interest – Honorable Mention – First Witnesses, Diocese of Bridgeport, Institute for Catholic Formation
• Best Use of Graphics in Social Media – Honorable Mention – The Face of Prayer, Diocese of Bridgeport, Most Reverend Frank J. Caggiano
• Best Blog – Expression of Faith – Third Place – Institute Blog, Diocese of Bridgeport, Patrick Donovan Institute for Catholic Formation – These clear, concise essays for faith-formation leaders, catechists, pastors, and parents offer thoughtful perspectives on these ministry roles. Through self-reflection, the author engages typical experiences the target audience might encounter and gently suggests welcoming ways to handle a variety of situations.*
• Best Website – Diocesan – Honorable Mention – First Witnesses, Diocese of Bridgeport, Institute for Catholic Formation
• Best Diocesan Electronic Newsletter – Honorable Mention – Holiness at Home, Diocese of Bridgeport, Patrick Donovan, Todd Kellogg, and the Institute for Catholic Formation, Diocese of Bridgeport

Congratulations Team!

*Commentary is only made for first through third place.

KNOW

This morning, you will be assigned a task in LEAD, requesting that you inform the Bishop’s Office of the number of prayer cards you will need for distribution at the beginning of your fall classes. Your best guess is appreciated. The cards will be distributed at the Fall Forum in September. The bishop would like to give a prayer card to all faith formation students. The Institute team will supplement those cards with stickers for computers and water bottles so the young people can take the prayers of the Sacred Heart with them as they go. Be on the lookout today for the task and complete it this week, please.

Please spread the word about World Youth Day 2027. Details are here.

If you would like to go to the Listen, Teach, Send conference in August, please email the Institute. Details are here.

Welcome, Colin Petramale, to the Institute Team. Colin will work part-time for the Institute, focusing on OCIA and parish evaluation, and part-time for the Bishop’s office, focusing on spiritual programs. Colin’s email has changed to the diobpt.org domain.

We are slowly updating the calendar of events page.

REFLECT

Years ago, the homeroom teacher for Ace Number One stopped me in the hall. He asked if it would be okay for him to give our eldest a copy of Ray Bradbury’s Dandelion Wine. He has read it every summer since 1964 and thought our child would enjoy it.

It was a lovely gesture, and I am anxious to reread my own copy as she works her way through the book. If you have never read it, put it on your list.

There are two scenes I love. I’ll tell you about the second one another time, but in the early part of the story, set in the summer of 1928, about 12-year-old Douglas and his brother, Tom, the two boys are talking in their room. Tom tells Douglas that he has discovered that old people were never children, which strikes Douglas as both obvious and brilliant. Tom also points out that this is tragic because they cannot really do anything to help old people.

The two are amazed at Tom’s discovery. Because we live in the moment, this is partially true; because the children cannot conceive of anything beyond the moment, they see it as a fact.

For the boys, growing up seems to depend less on figuring things out completely than on coming up with new ideas. In fact, there is no reason to believe that adults have figured many things out, but rather that they have simply reached a consensus. But for the boys, summer is magic: growth happens without apparent change.

Do you remember summer? Not vacations to the beach, not getting out of school, but summer. That feeling that you have absolutely nothing planned, no list of chores, nothing written down or implied…tomorrow?

I don’t either.

Still, I find peace in remembering Catholicism 101: you cannot quantify grace.

So those moments of nothing have been replaced with moments of superficial importance. The “everything I have to do today” steps on the neck of “what will I do tomorrow?” and strangles it.

And I sometimes forget to find grace in the to-do list, emails, and phone calls.

Today, right now, I will close my eyes and remember. I will pray for patience. I will pray for the nothingness that surrounds me and the violence of busyness that consumes me.

I will pray in hopes that we old people aren’t so helpless after all.

~pjd

LAUGH