PLEASE PRAY FOR HAWAII

Tsunami to hit our islands. Please pray for us.

Honolulu Advertiser

Ash Wednesday at Cathedral

Procession at Ash Wednesday Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace, with Bishop Larry Silva as the presider. The five altar servers are my children. It is always a joy for them to serve at Mass, an honor to do as homeschoolers.

(video is less than a minute long)

Pope Benedict's Message this Lent

The pope speaks of justice and injustice. Justice is usually defined as giving to everyone what is their due. But what human beings need most is not something that can be guaranteed by law. The pope writes “Just as man needs bread, so does man have even more need of God.” And what is injustice? “Injustice, the fruit of evil, does not have exclusively external roots; its origin lies in the human heart, where the seeds are found of a mysterious cooperation with evil.” So addressing the exterior causes of injustice is not enough. We need to look at our hearts. The pope points out that there is nothing we can do to free ourselves or make up for our faults. We receive justification as a gift.

“But now the justice of God has been manifested apart from law … the justice of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction; since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, they are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as an expiation by his blood, to be received by faith” (3, 21-25).

“Conversion to Christ, believing in the Gospel, ultimately means this: to exit the illusion of self-sufficiency in order to discover and accept one’s own need – the need of others and of God, the need of His forgiveness and His friendship.”

“Thanks to Christ’s action, we may enter into the ‘greatest’ justice, which is that of love (cf. Rm 13, 8-10), the justice that recognizes itself in every case more a debtor than a creditor, because it has received more than could ever have been expected. Strengthened by this very experience, the Christian is moved to contribute to creating just societies, where all receive what is necessary to live according to the dignity proper to the human person and where justice is enlivened by love.”

My prayers for a very blessed and joyful Lent!

Italized text by Sr. Margaret Kerry, FSP

Sr Margaret Kerry, fsp
50 St Paul’s Ave
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617-522-8911
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Thank you, Sr. Margaret!

Fr. Daren and dinner tonight

picture found at Spiritual Mothers Apostolate in Hawaii

I know I have once again disappeared from view. I have been busy working on a project for Fr. Luis Eduardo who will be here in the Diocese of Honolulu at the end of February. He will be doing some filming for EWTN on the islands of Oahu and Moloka'i.

But tonight, I will be meeting Fr. Daren Dzehnle of Servant and Steward and Esther G. of A Catholic Mom in Hawaii for dinner; it is a reunion. We have coming with us Fr. George Busto, C.O., Sr. Gioan Lihn, FSP, Esther's mom, and my oldest daughter Cyrene. I intend to enjoy the evening of fun and relaxation.

Our God be praised!

Contest for Priests

Source: Wikimedia

A great contest exclusively for our beloved priests!

Prize: A trip to Rome, at the closing of the Year of the Priest, June 7-11 2010. Includes airfare to Rome (from all major cities of North and South America and Europe), lodging and meals. Those priests who live in Italy will be awarded a trip to the Holy Land.

Description, rules and forms are found at Catholic.net.

Thanks to Kelly Thatcher of The Lady in the Pew for the link!

What's really going on in Haiti?

Sister Maria Sylvita Elie tells us the real scoop (CNS). Though many people have donated millions of money to help the Haitian people, so little is being done, so little is seen in terms of efforts and supplies.

Fr. Gabriel Michel, Haitian-born priest, visited his hometown to have a look at the situation of the people there. As he was about to start prayer, he broke down and cried. Story here.

My diocese has published the USCCB release regarding the restructuring of Haiti.

We continue to pray for Haiti.