Aloha, with Apology

Fr. Paulo officiating Mass for homeschoolers

Aloha, Everyone!

May your Advent be filled with joyful expectations of the coming of our Lord!

My apology to all. I have to temporarily close this blog for lack of time to update it, mostly due to a densely streamed schedule in school. I do love learning and sharing what I learn, but the sharing part must come at a later time. Should that time not come at all through this blog, I am certain God will bring it to completion somehow. My husband's call to the diaconate formation is most crucial to him, to me and our children. (No, I am not saying that he will definitely make it, but we are giving it our best. Please pray for him; his name is Joe.) I must acquiesce to the will of the One whose voice is stronger than mine. Perhaps, we will encounter each other again.

Update: My husband was ordained into the permanent diaconate on January 31 of this year 2015. We thank you for your prayers! He has been assigned to the Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace in Honolulu, HI. Come visit the Cathedral Basilica if you are in the area! Mahalo!

The most visited post on this blog, which precipitated nearly 100,000 hits, is the one that has my poem for priests: Poem: A Tribute to Our Priests. You may copy it, all of it: Title, Name of author, and the full Content of the poem without rewording it or claiming is as your own, since it is how copyrights are protected and respected. I do thank you. 

This poem has been printed in numerous newsletters, church bulletins, and cards. It is recited at anniversary gatherings in celebration of a priest's birthday or ordination, which served as a gift for priests. It will be printed in my next book -- my gift for all priests.

I will be at Passionate about LIFE as often as time allows. You are welcome to visit the blog Spiritual Mom's Apostolate that I share with Esther Gefroh. My dearest friend Esther runs several blogs, the most popular one being A Catholic Mom in Hawai'i.

May God richly bless each one of us. May our journeys toward him be one of joyful experience and encounter of the God whose love is boundless, shapeless, and most inconceivably enormous. May we never turn away from strangers, but be a joyful light for them.

Aloha nui,
Easter Almuena

Happy Thanksgiving, Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ!

May the joy of Thanksgiving be not just a faint glow but a breaking of the feast that was the Thanksgiving of the God who gave all he's got.

May the heart of love be a welling of praise and thanksgiving to the Master of Creations, to the Greatest Lover of all, to the Best Friend one can have for all eternity.

May grace be outpoured to one and all that beauty may not only be in words but in gestures of true thanksgiving to our Lord, whose grace knows no bounds.

May God forever bless you and yours!

St. John Crysostom, September 13

"If Christ is with me, whom shall I fear? Though the waves and the sea and the anger of princes are roused against me, they are less to me than a spider's web. Indeed, unless you, my brothers, had detained me, I would have left this very day. For I always say: Lord, your will be done; not what this fellow or that would have me do, but what you want me to do. That is my strong tower, my immovable rock, my staff that never gives way. If God wants something, let it be done! If he wants me to stay here, I am grateful. But wherever he wants me to be, I am no less grateful."

St. John Chrysostom
September 13

Pono, Living the Aloha Spirit

Aloha!

What you will read are the last paragraphs of Fr. Daren J. Zehnle's blogpost and homily. This homily was delivered at the 6:00 a.m. Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace on the 2nd of September, the day before Fr. Daren left for his present home Springfield, Illinois. Fr. Daren has been a regular visitor to the Islands -- mostly Oahu for about seven years now -- and he hopes to one day become a kama'aina. He already is to many of us, who have known him for many years now, and even to those who had just met him when he was here on Oahu for a 17-day visit. His spirit embodies aloha as we Islanders know it. He blends in -- perfectly! Perhaps, if you didn't know that he was a visitor, you might have thought that he was a local.

The homily below touches my heart in a special way. I have always regarded Communion of Saints as one of God's most beautiful inventions. Pono most certainly gives communion of God's saints a definitive message that we love each other in the spirit of righteousness -- always with God's spirit -- and letting that spirit live on as we encounter more brothers and sisters -- even those who are not so like us -- and always, with an ultimate loving and natural gesture and desire to walk hand in hand towards our heavenly home, as brothers and sisters in Christ would! Our brother and sister saints in heaven would agree, as they pray for pono to become more and more a reality in our daily life here in our earthly home.

Praise our Lord and Master for Pono!

A few days ago I walked past a young man wearing a t-shirt that read, “Keep Calm and Live Pono.”  That simple phrase stuck with me.  It is taken, in part, from that poster of the Ministry of Information and, of course, from the motto of the Kingdom and State of Hawai‘i: “Ua Mau ke Ea o ka ‘Aina i ka Pono,” “The life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness”. 

Pono is generally translated as either “righteous” or “righteousness.”  Biblically speaking, to be righteous is to live in right relationship with God and in right relationship with man, it is to live as one should be living.  As you know, pono can also mean goodness and morality and duty and virtue and proper.  In short, we might well say that to live pono is to live justly and we know that the “one who does justice will live in the presence of the Lord.”  So it is that we could paraphrase the motto of Hawai‘i: “The life of the Christian is perpetuated in righteousness” because the one who lives justly will make their way to the Father’s house. 

To live pono is to live a life of love, a life of aloha; it is to conform ourselves always to Christ crucified, to love as he has loved.  It is this law that has been placed within us and that we must observe carefully because it will save our souls.  May the Lord strengthen us in this holy endeavor and bring us safely into his presence.  Amen.

On What is Right and Moral

Simple. Straight to the point. There are no in-betweens when we speak of and practice what is moral and what is right.

Source: FB

Upcoming movie: Restless Heart: The Confessions of Augustine

Published on Jun 13, 2012 by ignatiuspress
430 AD. The Roman Empire is beginning to crumble. The Vandals and other marauding tribes spill through the gaps in Roman defenses. And one of the greatest saints of the Christian church stands between his flock and the barbarian invaders. As he attempts to negotiate between the proud Roman authorities and the implacable Vandal king, Bishop Augustine recalls his own life before Christianity...
In this stirring and epic new film on the life of St. Augustine of Hippo, follow the great saint as he rises from his reckless days as a youth to his accomplishments as a renowned but dissolute orator. Though worldly success and riches come his way, including a position in the imperial court of Milan, satisfaction and peace elude him. It takes a confrontation with the Christian bishop Ambrose and the countless prayers offered by his patient mother, Monica, to break through his intellectual pride.
Starring Alessandro Preziosi, Monica Guerritore, Johannes Bandrup, and Franco Nero.
Coming Fall 2012. Find out more at www.RestlessHeartFilm.com

Video: Why Become a Priest