This past Saturday I spent the day at Gonzaga Prep for the Spokane Diocese Hearts on Fire Men’s Conference. It was the sixth time I attended the gathering since moving back to Spokane and this year the event organizers didn’t have to go far to find their headliner. Bishop Thomas Daly, the leader of the Diocese of Spokane, served as the main speaker as he delivered three different talks throughout the course of the day.
Bishop Daly spoke to the male faithful at the 2026 Hearts on Fire Men’s Conference at Gonzaga Prep. I took this photo during the bishop’s first talk.
Bishop Daly is a rock star and kept the nuggets of gold coming all day long. In fact, you didn’t even have to be Catholic to appreciate the insight that the seventh bishop of Spokane was dispensing. I thought I would share just a handful of the gems that Bishop Daly shared on Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026.
It is always a treat to listen to Bishop Daly speak. He was the headliner at the Spokane Diocese Hearts on Fire Men’s Conference.
– Although I had heard Bishop Daly say it before on a podcast, his anecdote of children listen to their mothers but watch their fathers never gets old. It is a reminder that dads have a high call to set the absolute best example for their children because you better believe that they are watching.
– Sometimes life can hit us hard and we find ourselves in desperation. It is possible that praying is the last thing we want to do. But Bishop Daly challenged us to pray when we don’t feel like praying. Whenever any anti-prayer thought enters our mind or heart, the only logical response is to drop down and pray. This even applies when times are really good and prayer might seem unnecessary or when we find ourselves in a prayer rut. Respond to any voice that says prayer is obsolete by—yes—praying!
– A good piece of advice for me to heed from Bishop Daly was his reminder that when we complain about something, we lose God’s graces we could have gained from it. I am fantastic at whining when I get a man cold (just ask Sidney) but if I could instead just take it on the chin perhaps I could recover from it with better perspective and heightened respect from my wife.
– To begin the retreat, Bishop Daly offered mass. During his homily he sternly told all of us men in the pews the following: Don’t be so occupied with fending off evil that you fail to do good. It is admirable to avoid doing bad things but we have to do more than refrain—we actually have to DO. If we just hide all the time, when are we going to evangelize or do all the good acts that Jesus commanded us to do?
– I easily could have stretched this blog post to 10 items but since I capped myself at a handful, let me end with the most fitting and all-encompassing thing that Bishop Daly said. The path of holiness is not beyond us. We can all take up our cross, do good, and live as saints. When Daly was about to become a bishop, he had a mentor who told him the following: “Remember Tom, 11 of the 12 apostles were martyred.” So is it going to be easy? No. But is it achievable? With God, anything is.
Bishop Thomas Daly offers mass at the Spokane Diocese Hearts on Fire Men’s Conference inside the Gonzaga Prep chapel. During his homily he would tell those in attendance to not become so occupied with evil that we don’t do good.
Thanks to Bishop Daly for speaking at the 2026 Hearts on Fire Men’s Conference and for being so open to all of us in attendance. May God continue to bless him. Don’t Blink.
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