Monday Message, March 23, 2026

KNOW

We have a parish leader check in tomorrow. The link is here. We will talk about those who don’t make it. Kidding. We will talk about Ministry Day, youth day, the memo referenced below, and the Confirmation meeting in April.

A memo from the Bishop will go to all Pastors, DREs, Principals, and others today announcing this page, which will continue to be updated before the email goes out to all parents tomorrow.

If you have not yet sent in your list of email addresses for parents of first Holy Communion kids, do it today or those parents will not receive the email from the Bishop tomorrow.

If you have a Confirmation retreat coming up, please email Terri at St. Matthew Church.

If you have advice or resources on adult literacy (vis a vi formation), please email Jenny Dos Santos, who could use your assistance.

If you have advice or resources for the formation of children with special needs, please email Joya at St. Gregory the Great.

Youth Day is this Saturday. Please see this page for details.

Check out this page – all our digital adventures in one place.

A big thank you to everyone who helped make Ministry Day a great success. We had a great day, superb workshops, and, as one participant said, “You should tell everyone who was not here, they blew it. What a day!” Well said.

Please pray for Laura Kane, who lost her uncle on Saturday, and for Bill Staley, who begins his new adventure as the Director of Digital Evangelization for the diocese this week. Bill remains a big part of the Institute team, since he’s taking his social media responsibilities with him.

REFLECT

My wife is amazing. Anyone who knows her knows this. I married up in every sense of the word (except height). When she was pregnant with each of our children, I saw her do things that would have us mere men falter: manage the safe release of more than twenty thousand high school students from an arena, facilitate meetings with adults who behave like children, work full time, cook, clean, and wrangle our own children all by herself while I am an ocean away.

Yes, she is amazing. Pregnant or not. Women are amazing. We, men, should know that, respect that, honor that, and always remember that.

Even with all this amazingness, it pales in comparison to what we read in the Gospel this week. In Luke, chapter one, Mary sets out in haste. Having just learned she will be the mother of her Lord, an unwed mother at that, she thinks not of herself, but of her cousin, whom she has learned is now with child. She must go help. There is no choice. She must head out in haste.

Having been to the Holy Land and having made the journey Mary made (in an afternoon, in a van), I am drawn into that story. We celebrate the Annunciation in March, the Visitation in May, and the birth of Christ at Christmas. It fits nicely with our modern calendar, but let’s imagine for a moment that it actually aligns with history. Mary receives a visit from the angel, to which she gives her fiat, her “yes” to God. Then, hearing that Elizabeth, a cousin presumably, is with child, she forgets her own needs and heads out – in haste! For the next sixty or so days, she hikes her way up and down hills, through the valley of villages, across very dry land, traversing rocks, heat, and discomfort as she goes – all so she can be of service to someone else. The short van ride we made in air conditioning took her two months, though my hunch is that she probably would have stopped to help anyone else she saw in need. Still, I haven’t done anything “in haste” in some time, and that line reminds us of Mary’s single-mindedness. Elizabeth is first. May is second. It’s clear she was teaching Jesus from the get-go.

Once again, we turn to Ruth Mary Fox and her wonderful poem about this event. Let each of us commit to going “in haste” to someone in need this week. Let us bring Christ to others so they, too, may leap for joy.

Into the hillside country, Mary went
Carrying Christ.
And all along the road, the Christ she carried
Generously bestowed his grace on those she met.
But she had not meant to tell that she carried Christ
She was content to hide his love for her.
But about her glowed such joy that into stony hearts
Love flowed
And even to the unborn John, Christ’s love was sent.

Christ, in the sacrament of love, dwells in my soul each day.
A little space.
And then as I walk life’s crowded highways
Jostling men who seldom think of God
To these, I pray, that I may carry Christ
For it may be
Some may not know of him
Except through me.

Have a wonderful week.

LAUGH