& Altar ↗
Daily Reflections
Looking in the Wrong Direction
They ask Jesus when the kingdom is coming. He tells them to stop looking where they're looking.
Deacon Michael Halbrook
Faith, family, work, and life - all intertwined.
Permanent deacon of the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois. Husband, father of four sons, builder of Catholic technology, and writer of essays, fiction, and homilies.
& Altar ↗
Daily Reflections
Ten Were Healed. Only One Came Back.
Ten people receive the same healing. Nine keep walking. One turns around.
November 2026 at Domus: The Last Things, Ten Paths
November belongs to the Last Things and to the Holy Souls in Purgatory. Every Domus path walks through it in its own voice, with one shared thread: a Book of Names, opened on All Souls and read aloud on November 28.
What October Holds at Domus
Nearly every Domus path opens October with the same Gospel - the parable of the vineyard - and carries it somewhere different: a steward's ledger, a career, an ordination, a family jar on the table.
The Ember Days Are Back
Three days of prayer, fasting, and giving that the Church has kept since the fifth century, arriving September 16, 18, and 19. They were never abolished.