A HAPPY AND BLESSED BIRTHDAY! PENTECOST is the birthday of the Church! Let us rejoice and be glad! As promised by our Risen Lord, and out of His great love, He gave us the Holy Spirit who remains always with us. Someone said that the Holy Spirit is the Present Tense of God! As the whole world still suffers from the corona virus, through the eyes of our faith, we are seeing and experiencing how the Holy Spirit is actively present in assurance that God never leaves us. Through His Spirit, the Lord teaches us lessons on living our gospel values and virtues especially in the very concrete situations in which we find ourselves. Thanks be to God for the reopening of our Churches this Pentecost Sunday.

Please watch these three important videos on Faithful and Safe Guidelines for Returning to Church from our Diocese of Honolulu.

The Gospel is from John 16:16-20. Jesus said to His disciples: "A little while and you will no longer see me, and again a little while later and you will see me." What a promise! These words must have brought them a great deal of comfort. Of course, they did see Jesus again when He appeared to them in the upper room.

Peace be with you! Those are the words of the risen Jesus as he breathed out the Holy Spirit upon his Apostles, sending them out in the power of the Spirit to proclaim that He is risen from the dead, and is always with us. Just as the Apostles encountered Jesus physically in the Upper Room on the night of the Resurrection, we encounter him physically in the Holy Eucharist. Now that it has been deemed safe for us to gather again in our churches to physically encounter the risen Lord in Holy Communion, we rejoice that the Spirit will open the way for us once again. Our gathering for the Eucharist after so long a time without being able to celebrate together, while it will be a joyful event, will also have restrictions, because we want to be sure that all who attend are kept as safe as possible from infection. After consulting with the Priests’ Council, it was decided that, while the parishes are not ready to open this coming weekend, we will open for public worship the weekend of May 30/31, which is Pentecost Sunday.

The Gospel is from St. John 14:15-21. In this discourse at the Last Supper, which was His last will and testament, our divine Lord promised His Church, through the Apostles, that the Holy Spirit would be with it until the end of time. The Spirit of truth will be directing it and effectively aiding it to preserve the faith, the doctrine, and the morals which Christ taught His Apostles.

"Do not let your hearts be troubled." (John 14:1) Be at peace, Jesus said. Don't be afraid. It's the most common command in the Gospels. Much of the time, Jesus says it when the disciples catch a glimpse of His glory. Think about His transfiguration, or when He walked on water. But this time, Jesus reassures them because He is leaving. They were used to having Him walk with them in one way, but once He was gone, He'll be with them in a new way. Jesus wanted His friends to know that even though He would not be with them in bodily form, He wasn't really leaving them alone. He would be with them through the Holy Spirit living inside them. He would be with them in His Eucharistic presence. He would be present in their brothers and sisters in the faith. They just needed to learn to see Him in a different way.

The Gospel is from St. John 10:1-10. One of the oldest paintings of Christ, in the Roman catacombs, represents Christ as carrying the injured, straying sheep gently on His shoulders back to the sheepfold. This is an image of Christ which has always appealed to Christians. We have Christ as our shepherd—He tells us so himself in today's gospel—and we do not resent being called sheep in this context. There is something guileless about a sheep, but with Christ as our shepherd and the "good shepherd" who is sincerely interested in the true welfare of His flock, we have reason to rejoice.

The Gospel is from St. Luke 24:13-35. The two disciples from Emmaus are to be found, along their journey, talking to "Jesus in person, but their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him" (Lk 24:16). Why did the Lord not tell the disciples straight away who He was? Indeed, in the dialogue that the liturgy presents to us today, it almost seems that Jesus did all He could to avoid revealing His true identity. At the end of the journey, "He made to go on" (Lk 24:28). Jesus didn’t want to play games with His disciples, but He sought to educate their hearts, and also ours, so that we won’t be " slow’!"  The Risen Lord uses so much gentleness with us! He doesn’t oblige us to "believe" but He offers us the instruments that enable us to judge based on the infallible measure of our own hearts.

Grace and Peace in our Risen Lord!   Today is the eighth and final day of the Octave of Easter.  On this grace-filled day we celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday.  The Lord Jesus told Saint Faustina “On that day (the 8th day of Easter each year) all the divine floodgates through which grace flow are opened. Let no soul fear to draw near to Me, even though its sins be as scarlet.  My mercy is so great that no mind, be it of man or of angel, will be able to fathom it throughout all eternity.”  At this time of the corona virus pandemic gripping the whole world, and the costs to human lives and the economy are rising, who would not want to experience the super abundance of this Divine gift of mercy that God wants to pour forth upon us?

My dear Brothers and Sisters in the Risen Lord: Needless to say, Brothers and Sisters, these are devastatingly difficult times in which we live, the rising human and economic costs of COVID 19 virus throughout the world. We are getting used to words like lockdown, social distancing, shelter in place, quarantine, curfew, etc. The reality we are in today presents us with new challenges on how to live a lively faith, in solidarity of heart and mind with all the people in the world. We are concretely living the other aspect of being Church, that of communion of saints sans being physically gathered. The Holy Spirit makes it possible for we are members of the corporate Body of the Risen Christ.

Today we begin Palm Sunday listening to the story of Jesus being welcomed into Jerusalem with great joy and exultation! "Hosanna!" they cried out. "Hosanna in the Highest!" Jesus was treated as He should have been treated. People were excited to see Him and there was much excitement. But this excitement quickly turned to shock and horror as we enter more deeply into today's readings.

“We all have within us some areas, some parts of our heart that are not alive, that are a little dead….But if we become very attached to these tombs and guard them within us and do not will that our whole heart rise again to life, we become corrupted and our soul begins to give off, as Martha says, an ‘odor’ (see John 11:39), the stench of a person who is attached to sin. And Lent has something to do with this. Because all of us...can hear what Jesus said to Lazarus: ‘He cried out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” (11:43).

Dear Sisters and Brothers, Grace and Peace! The whole world is facing unsettling times because of the COVID-19 crisis. As children of God, Sisters and Brothers of our Lord Jesus, we firmly believe that there is a purpose as to why we are experiencing this pandemic. However, despite the negative consequences of this contagion, we hear and read positive things happening all over the world. The spirit of compassion, caring, cooperation, solidarity, having more time to bond as a family, prayerfulness and other gospel values are intensely being practiced by an outpouring of the world's population. It is only God who knows when this will end. Surely, there is healing happening at different levels of human relationships, in society, in nature, for we are all interconnected. Our Lord is with us. That is His name “Emmanuel.” In His time, this crisis will end. There are a vast number of opportunities nowadays that God wants us to optimize to bring about the Christ-like character in us. We are in lockdown here in Oahu. Thus, our Parish Office and our two schools are physically closed until the end of April. Our Principal at the upper school and Director of ELC have received guidelines as to how to proceed given the situation. As the need arises, kindly call our Parish Office at 734-0396 and leave a message, and I or Fr. Pat will get in touch with you as soon as we are able to respond to your request. Fr. Pat and I are praying for all of you in our private adoration and Mass. Keep us also in your prayers. Let us continue holding on to the hands of Christ and our Blessed Mother, Star of the Sea. As the Psalmist said “weeping may last for the night, but a shout of joy comes in the morning.” (Ps. 30:6) In our Bread of Life, Fr. Frankie, SSS Pastor

How’s your eyesight? What do you see when you look at the world around you? That seems to be the issue in today’s Gospel. As the story opens, we meet a man whom everyone assumes is a sinner because he is blind (John9:2). But by the end of the story, Jesus says that those who claim they can see are really the ones in darkness.

Honolulu’s Bishop Larry Silva, in consultation with his priest advisors, canceled all public Masses effective noon, March 17, through March 31. The decision was made at an emergency 3 p.m. online presbyteral council meeting on March 16. The bishop will meet with his advisors again on March 27 to reassess the Mass cancellations and to decide whether to continue them. The March 16 emergency meeting was prompted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommendation that gatherings of 50 or more be canceled and the advice of local health and government officials. Just four days earlier, the Office of Worship had issued guidelines stating that “at this time, there will be no cancellation of Masses.” The memorandum, “Cold and Flu Season and the Coronavirus Outbreak,” has been updated several times since it was first sent by the diocesan Office of Worship on Jan. 31 to Hawaii clergy and parishes.

The Gospel is from St. John 4:5-42. This gospel, about the Samaritan woman, is exceptionally rich. Every time we read it we are passionately moved by that intense conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman. When Jesus asked a Samaritan woman who had come to the well to give Him a drink, more was going on than Jesus just looking to quench His physical thirst. As St. Therese of Lisieux wrote, “When He said, ‘Give me a drink,’ it was for the love of His poor creature that the Creator of the universe was seeking. He was thirsty for love. We might wonder why. Why would Jesus desire the love of someone who was not only a Samaritan, but who also had a checkered past.

My dear Sisters and Brothers, Peace and Grace in our Savior! I will never forget when I went to the Mountain of Transfiguration in the Holy Land with a pilgrim group. A profound feeling of peace enveloped my entire being. On top of a mountain, we certainly get a wider perspective and view. Our eyes roam very far into the horizon and, as the view leaves us breathless, it is as though so much is soaking through the pores of our skin, drowning us in its noise and materialism. That is why, like Peter, James and John, we need a mountain top experience with Christ to catch a vision of something better, to widen our perspective, to have a glimpse of the glory of Jesus’ divinity.

The Gospel is from St. Matthew 4:1-11. This incident in our Lord's life, his forty days and nights of fasting followed by temptations, has been chosen as a reading for this first Sun- day of Lent for our edification and encouragement. Lent is a period of preparation for the central Christian events of Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

The Gospel is taken from St. Matthew (5:38-48). The lesson we have to learn from today's Gospel hardly needs any emphasizing. We must, if we are truly Christian, forgive those who offend or injure us. We must love all men, whether they be friends or enemies. G. K. Chesterton says : "We are commanded to love our neighbors and our enemies; they are generally the same people. But it is my neighbors, those among whom I live and work, who are liable to injure me and thus become my enemies.”

Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place.” Christ is not abolishing the ten commandments, but he is demanding of his followers a more perfect, a more sincere, fulfillment of them. The whole moral value of any legal observance (the Mosaic law included), comes from the interior disposition of him who observes or keeps the law.