NEW YORK. “The family that prays together stays together.” Although he popularized rather than originated that pithy saying, the sentence aptly sums up the message of Holy Cross Father Patrick Peyton (1909-1992), who advocated it both tirelessly and with great success.

We fled.

We woke up early, checked the weather reports, turned on the news and hastily packed the car, cramming in essentials: wedding photos, clothes, toddler toys, infant car seat in case the baby in my belly decided to come early.

And we left our home behind, a Category 4 hurricane barreling toward our beloved town.

The year 2020 has been a bad one for statues. We witnessed the tearing down of many in the South, originally hoisted in honor of former Confederate Army generals, and I was pretty okay with their removal.

COLORADO SPRINGS. Although weddings during the coronavirus pandemic look much different than in the past, couples are continuing to attend marriage preparation classes and enter into the sacrament of matrimony. Because so much of the diocesan marriage preparation program is available online, couples are able to finish the classes, including education in natural family planning (NFP), at their own pace while still observing social distancing requirements and travel restrictions.

Hot, mild, pickled, Pueblo, Hatch, bell, Anaheim, jalapeno, home grown. Peppers are loved by almost everyone. And if you don’t like to eat them, they can be beautifully displayed when strung and hung as ristras. Fall is the time to celebrate the pepper. We are very blessed to live in a state that farms some of the best peppers on the planet. Pueblo Chili #1! Boooo-Yah!

MONUMENT. The Colorado Springs Order of Malta will be sponsoring the First Saturday Devotions to Mary starting Nov. 7 at St. Peter Parish in Monument (www.petertherock.org.)

We will begin with praying the rosary at 8:40 a.m. followed by Mass at 9 a.m. A chaplain of the Order of Malta will be the main celebrant, and Masses will be held every first Saturday of the month. All parishioners in the diocese are invited to attend.

COLORADO SPRINGS. As the Catholic Church in the United States gets ready to celebrate Vocations Awareness Week Nov. 1-7, a parishioner in the diocese is preparing to enter religious life.

Holy Apostles parishioner Catherine Logan has been accepted as a postulant for the Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. She plans to enter as soon as she has raised enough money to pay off her student debt.

Every four years, Catholics face an intense dilemma in regard to the vote. There are ardently Catholic Democrats who wonder how their co-religionists could possibly choose a Republican candidate, and there are ardently Catholic Republicans who express precisely the opposite opinion.

Somehow, I have been expecting some event that would get things back to normal. Last spring, I thought it would be the arrival of warm weather. Later, I thought it would be the fall when children returned to school. Recently, that new marker was Christmas, with a vaccine approved for use. But this past Sunday, as I looked around at yet another socially distanced Mass, I finally accepted that no such event was coming. We will not, one Sunday all of the sudden, start sitting next to each other in pews, without masks like we did last February.