Sunday, Sept. 27 is Priesthood Sunday, a special day set aside to honor the holy priesthood. On this day, we are asked to reflect upon and affirm the essential role of the priesthood in the life of the Church. Without priests, the Mass could not be offered and sacraments could not be celebrated. Today, we make time to honor and thank our parish priests for saying yes to Christ, and yes to our One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. We wish to express our sincerest appreciation to our priests at MSOS by praying for them in a special way in Our Prayers of the Faithful. We appreciate our priests and support them today for  having given their lives to Christ.

Today’s Gospel (Matthew 21:28) has us seeing two sons who were asked by their father to: “Go out and work in the vineyard today.”  The first son refused but later went to work in the vineyard.  The second son agreed to work in the vineyard but he did not go.

The Gospel is from St. Matthew 20:1-16a. The call to the vineyard (to the Church), through God's gift of faith and the sacrament of baptism, is a gift for which we can never sufficiently thank God. If we remain in the vineyard and labor honestly, that is, if we cooperate with the actual graces God is continually giving us, we are assured of reaching heaven when our earthly days are ended. The work we have to do in God's vineyard is the fulfilling of the duties of our state in life. By carrying out these duties faithfully and honestly we are doing the will of God and earning heaven.

His master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to. Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant, as I had pity on you?’ Then in anger his master handed him over to the torturers until he should pay back the whole debt. So will my heavenly Father do to you, unless each of you forgives your brother from your heart (Mt 18:32-35).”

"Amen, amen, I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything for which they are to pray, it shall be granted to them by my heavenly Father. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them (Matt 18:19-20)." The Gospel is from St. Matthew 18:15-20. Unfortunately, there are far too many Christians today who pay no heed to the serious obligation of encouraging an erring brother to give up his sinful ways. They shrug it off by saying : "I have more than enough to do to keep myself from sin" or "am I my brother's keeper"? The answer is in this lesson we have just read. We are our brothers' keepers, and even if we have many temptations and inclinations to sin we shall not overcome them if we have no time to think of our neighbors' need.

The Gospel is from Matt. 16:21-27. In foretelling his sufferings and death, Christ intended to prepare his disciples and other followers for what he knew would be for them a severe crisis of faith. He also took occasion from it to remind his disciples, and all others who would follow him, of what their attitude to suffering and death should be. He told them, and us too, that we must be ever ready to accept sufferings in this life, and even an untimely death if that should be demanded of us, rather than deny our Christian faith.

When Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" They replied, "Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter said in reply, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." Jesus said to him in reply, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Matt. 16:13-20).

The Gospel is from St. Matthew 15:21-28. There is a lesson, a very necessary one, for all of us in this episode of Christ's public life. It is the necessity of perseverance in our prayers of petition. Prayer is an essential part of our Christian life, and the essential part of prayer is that of adoration and thanksgiving, but prayer of petition has a big part in our daily prayers. We have so many spiritual and temporal needs, needs which we cannot provide by ourselves. Christ himself has told us to ask Him for these needs: "ask and you shall receive."

Updates AUGUST 10, 2020 UPDATE: EXTENSION OF DISPENSATION FROM SUNDAY MASS OBLIGATION: Due to the ongoing Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic, Bishop Larry Silva extends the dispensation of all the people of the Diocese of Honolulu and all visitors to the Diocese of Honolulu from the obligation to attend Sunday Mass through October 31, 2020. All who are able to attend Sunday Mass without putting themselves or others at serious risk of infection are encouraged to do so, but are not obliged to do so.

The Gospel is from St. Matthew 14:22-33. Our Lord sent His disciples to row across the lake, knowing that they would meet strong, gale-force head-winds and be in danger. He did this because He wanted to strengthen their faith and trust in Himself. He intended to come to them at the right moment, working two miracles — walking on the water and calming the storm. This He did and the result was as He had intended — their faith in Him was strengthened, they declared He was the Messiah, the Chosen of God.

The Gospel is from St. Matthew 14:13-21. This miracle was an act of kindness and loving thoughtfulness on the part of Christ. He saw the people's need - it was late for them to return to their homes and they had had nothing to eat all day - and He worked a miracle to provide for this need. The miracle also helped to convince the people of Galilee - the news spread around quickly - that He was the expected Messiah, but especially it prepared the way for the announcement of the greatest miracle of all - the miracle of the Eucharist.

The Gospel is from St. Matthew 13:44-52. The lesson of these two parables is as true for us today, as it was for those Palestinians to whom Christ spoke. All Christians are called on to imitate the two wise men, and surrender all their earthly possessions if necessary in order to gain eternal life. Does this "giving all" mean that we are all expected to abandon the world and take on the religious vows of poverty, chastity and obedience? There are many who do just this. But it is not the only way, nor the normal way, to purchase the eternal treasure. Heaven is within the reach of all, who follow the ordinary vocations of life and partake of this world's joys and pleasures within the framework of God's commandments, but never lose sight of the goal toward which they are moving.

The Gospel is from St. Matthew 13:24-43. Today's parable is Christ's answer to the question so frequently asked: "Why does God permit evil to triumph so often in this world, why are the wicked allowed to prosper?" The triumph of the wicked is short-lived, the reward of the Christian who suffers from their wickedness is everlasting. The very wickedness and injustices of evil-doers are one of the ways that God uses to perfect his elect. It is only on a battlefield that a true soldier can be proved. 

The Gospel is from St. Matthew 13:1-23. Christ's description of His audience, that day in Galilee, is unfortunately as true today as it was then. His message of salvation has been preached to a great part of the world's population, but the proportion of those who accept it and live up to it, is about the same today as it was then. There are millions of men and women today, in what was once Christian Europe, who are like the seed sown on the unplowed path. They refuse to accept the message, they have no thought for their future, they are content to end in the grave after their few years of misery and hardship on this planet.

Long before any thought of a pandemic, the Diocese of Honolulu and the Hawaii Catholic Conference offered sessions last fall on our Catholic Advance Healthcare Directive (AHCD). In those sessions, we had several questions on POLST and offered inconsistent answers. To remedy this, we have prepared the attached Catholic Moral Guide to Completing the POLST (attached). For more information on POLST, go to Kokua Mau’s website. https://kokuamau.org/polst/

Elections in 2020 are going to be very different!  Gone are the days when you go to ballot booth.  Now, whether or not you like it, the ballot comes to you.  To find out how that is going to work, you can watch the video (at right) produced by the Office of Elections.  In order to ensure that as many people vote as possible, we wanted to provide you with a few reminders.  First and foremost, (1) make sure that you are registered to vote.  You should have received a few mailings already from the Office of Elections including a signature capture card.  (2) Hopefully you received, and returned, that signature capture card.  (We can talk about security and safety at another time, but know that we have our concerns.) If you did NOT receive anything in the mail, please contact the Office of Elections directly.

The Gospel is from St. Matthew 11:25-30. Pagans and Jews had the same hardships of life to face as we have, and even greater ones. They earned their daily bread by the sweat of their brow and body. Their illnesses were more frequent and less bearable than ours, for they had not the medical help that we have. Death came to young and old then as it does now, but for them it was a final parting from loved ones, and no hope of a future happy meeting served to lighten their sorrow. All their crosses were crushing weights, sent to make life more miserable. Life on earth was passed in gloom and darkness and there was no shining star in the heavens to beckon them on or give them hope.

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The Gospel is from St. Matthew 10:37-42. In the first part, Christ tells his representatives, his delegates the Apostles, and those who succeed them, that they must be prepared to undergo great sacrifices, even death itself, if called on to do so for the sake of Christ. It was not only the Apostles who gave their lives gladly for Christ. There are thousands of martyrs who, during the first three centuries of the Church, not only accepted but welcomed death for Christ's sake, because they were convinced that it was the door to eternal life, the only life that mattered. Nor did occasions for martyrdom cease when the Church was granted freedom by Constantine, the first convert Roman emperor. Here and there, down through the centuries, the followers of Christ have been persecuted because of their belief in him, and many of us can be proud that we have had among our ancestors men and women who died for the faith.

The Gospel is from St. Matthew 10:26-33. What our Lord said to His Apostles applies to all Christians in the practice of their faith. By the very fact of living our faith openly and fully we are apostles by example. If we are always truthful and faithful to our promises, if we are honest in all our dealings, if as employers we pay a just wage and treat those working for us not as "hands" but as whole men and women, if as employees we give an honest day's work for an honest day's pay, if we live chaste lives whether in single life or in marriage, we are true Christians. Above all, if we have true love of God and show our appreciation of all that he has done for us, and if we prove that love, by helping his other children, our neighbors, we are a light shining in the darkness, because we are helping others to see the true meaning of the Christian religion.