January 11, 2026
My dear Kirkland Catholics,
Pope Francis said this:
“Marriage, according to Christian revelation, is a gift from God to the spouses… Matrimony is always a gift! Conjugal fidelity rests on divine fidelity; conjugal fruitfulness is based on divine fruitfulness. Man and woman are called to accept this gift and freely correspond to it with the reciprocal gift of self.” — Address to the Roman Rota, Jan. 27, 2023.
This “semester,” our parish family will be focusing on vocations—specifically, the vocation to marriage. Fr. Val and I will launch a coordinated homily series over five weeks, beginning the weekend of January 17 and continuing through the Sunday before Lent. We are also tentatively planning a marriage enrichment retreat for our parish family during the final weekend of May this year.
The reason for this focus on the vocation to marriage is simple: the vocation of marriage—or the absence of it—affects every person. This includes children raised in loving, traditional families; single adults who are children of divorce; couples working through rocky marriages; and a celibate ministering within families and to parishioners. The precipitous decline in baptized Catholics seeking the Sacrament of Matrimony—choosing instead to cohabitate or to enter civil marriage only—has been the most significant sacramental “trend” in the American Church over the past thirty years or so. This certainly bodes poorly for the health of these marriages, but more importantly, it raises concerns about the “average” lived faith of these couples, at least at the time of their civil marriage.
Our parish family could fairly claim to be the “parish of vocations” within our Archdiocese, as we are joined together as Holy Family and Saint John Vianney—who is the patron saint of priests. Vocations must be said “yes” to daily in order to be lived well. It is our hope that our collective consciousness as a parish family will be raised regarding the importance of this Sacrament and the elements that inevitably lead to healthy marriages.
During this season, let us reflect on our own commitments and how we live them in union with the Lord Jesus, asking for His grace, healing, and the elevation of all that is properly human into that which shares in the divine.
With love in Christ,
Fr. Brad