February 2026 Monthly Letter: A Message From The USA-SR RC

Faith and Love

This year is already off to the races!  For us, it was filled with many activities and events.  We now turn our attention from toasts for the new year and making resolutions (How are you doing with your new year's resolutions?) to the month of love and cherishing the gift of our spouse.  You can't help but be inundated with the red and pink hearts everywhere you go.  Remember, the theme for this Teams of Our Lady year is "faith".  Faith in God, faith in your spouse, and faith in your team will strengthen you for the journey.  For the month of February, give your spouse the best gift of love and spend quality time with him/her in prayer and with a sit-down.  May God strengthen your faith together this month and beyond!

USA-SR Winter Meeting

Two weeks ago, we hosted the USA-SR team at our home in Texas.  We enjoyed three full days of meeting together, praying together, and reflecting and discerning together the wisdom of Fr. Caffarel.  Our meetings involved much discussion around the topics that are important to all members of Teams.  One of our core values is for the work we do to directly reach and impact the base teams in our Super Region.  The USA-SR team is committed to updating promotional materials for both potential members and spiritual counselors, developing consistent Responsible Couple training throughout the Sectors, adding more resources to the website and member portal, and refining training and formation for couples who say "YES" to any leadership or responsibility in the Movement.  We have hope and faith that these initiatives will help the unity among members of the Movement throughout the USA-SR and align ourselves with the goals and focus of the ERI (the International Leading Team).

Holy Hour for Marriage

We are grateful to those who joined us in person or held their own Holy Hour for Marriage on Sunday, January 18, 2026.  This was a beautiful way to end our USA-SR Winter Meeting gathered with other couples from the East Texas Region.  We heard from other teams and sectors who held their own holy hour in their area at the exact same time in order for all of us to be united in solidarity.  Thank you for your beautiful witness to marriage and to Teams of Our Lady.  Team members from Kingsville, Texas sent us a picture of their team gathered in the chapel after their holy hour.  

Formation - Assembling a Team

Last month, we introduced you to this graphic depicting how teams are formed.  We touched on the importance of the Information Meeting and having a well-formed (trained) Information Couple to lead these crucial meetings.  This month, we want to discuss the process that your Sector Responsible couple will go through to assemble a new team.

When we first became a Sector Responsible Couple, we had the erroneous belief that we could speed up the team assembly process and grow the Movement in our sector quickly and efficiently.  Oh, how naive we were!  Joining Teams is a discernment process and only moves as the Holy Spirit prompts hearts to move.  Each couple is asked to pray and discern if Teams of Our Lady is where they are being called.  Both spouses need to feel the call and should not be rushed or forced to make a decision.  After interested couples attend an information meeting, either the Information Couple or the Sector Responsible Couple contacts these couples for their response to this discernment.  For some couples, this discernment process is very short (a few days).  Other couples require weeks or months to discern.  A new team can not form until there are 5-7 couples who have all discerned "YES."

Another movement of the heart is with the Pilot Couple who will journey with this new team for 12 meetings.  A Pilot Couple must discern if they can make a commitment to attend another monthly meeting in addition to their own base team monthly meeting.  We will always say that being a Pilot Couple is the best role in Teams, but it does take time, discernment, and commitment.  A new team can not begin until they have been assigned a Pilot Couple.  If you are interested in being trained as a Pilot Couple, please contact your Sector Responsible Couple.

Ultimately, it is the Sector Responsible Couple who prayerfully assembles teams with the discernment and guidance of the Holy Spirit.  These are some general guidelines that Sector Responsible Couples follow:

• Pray for guidance from the Holy Spirit
• Look at couples' ages - varying ages mirrors a family and offers diverse perspectives
• Siblings or parent/child should not be on the same team
• 5-7 couples is the goal to form a new team, but 6 couples may be best practice
• Is there a spiritual counselor willing to journey with this team?
• Do the couples live in close proximity to each other?
• Do any of the couples have conflicting work schedules (i.e. lots of travel, night shifts, etc.)?

We continually receive inquiries from couples interested in joining this beautiful Movement (praise God!).  However, we need everyone to understand that it may take months or sometimes over a year to assemble a new team.  Please pray for all those couples who are discerning joining Teams of Our Lady and for the Spiritual Counselors and Pilot Couples who will be journeying with them.  Next month, we will discuss the piloting process.  Stay tuned...

Have You Registered?

For this new year, our goal is to get all active members in Teams to register with the Membership Portal on the website.  Have you registered?  If not, please watch for a personalized email sent to your inbox on 02/02/2026 with a registration link.  This Membership Portal is for members only and contains many valuable resources for your use.  We would like at least one couple from each household to register to access this information. 

On-Line 2026 Lenten Retreat

We are happy to share that Teams of Our Lady in Trinidad will again be hosting an on-line Lenten Retreat for married couples.  The on-line retreat will run every Saturday from February 21 through April 4, 2026 beginning at 6pm ET / 5 pm CT / 4 pm MT / 3 pm PT. After daylight savings begins on March 8, the start times will shift to 7pm ET / 6 pm CT / 5pm MT / 4pm PT.  Each session will last 2 hours.

Please share this information with your parish priest, family, friends, and any other network to invite married couples to attend.  All are welcome!  Please pray that this year's Lenten Retreat is successful and brings more intimacy and God's love within marriages.

We (Greg & Melanie) joined this retreat last year.  Each Saturday night, you walk through a guided video and are given discussion topics as a couple that reflect on your relationship, communication, and intimacy.  You only discuss with your spouse, not the entire group.  We found these sessions very challenging but also very helpful.  This was our opportunity for a quality sit-down each Saturday night.  We also purchased the "The Marriage Course Study Journal" from Amazon to help us fully engage in the material.  We encourage you to sign up and attend.

You can click on the graphic to register or on this link:  Click Here to Register

February 2026 Prayer Service

Please find the February Prayer Service prepared by Fr. Eli Lopez, USA-SR Spiritual Counselor, reflecting on the sixth chapter of the new 2025-2025 Study Topic, “Love is Much More Than Love”. 

We wish you a love-filled February!  Our Lady, Queen of Teams, pray for us!

Peace, Greg & Melanie