Enhancing our Catholic Home: On the Inside



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Pentecost

May 23-24, 2015

Readings can be found at:



Questions, Comments, Suggestions?

Contact Kristina: kdeneve@ or

808-230-6767

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6th Sunday of Easter

May 9-10, 2015

Readings can be found at:



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Contact Kristina: kdeneve@ or

808-230-6767

What?! It’s Still Eastertime?!

By: Kristina M. DeNeve

Adult Faith Formation Coordinator

Diocese of Honolulu

I know it’s been a month ago already, but we are still celebrating the Easter season. Indeed, so important is Jesus’ death and resurrection that every Sunday Mass for the entire year is a “little Easter,” time set aside to reflect and think about this mystery of all mysteries. It’s not surprising then, that Eastertime lasts for a full 50 days!

Today’s Gospel of the vine and branches ties us (literally!) to the Resurrection event. God is vine and you and I are branches. We literally do not exist if we are cut off from the nourishment of the vine that is Jesus. Similarly, what happens to the vine impacts us, little, offshooting branch that we are.

Connect this metaphor with the reality of the Resurrection and the message becomes shocking. Jesus, the vine, died. We are branch so we too withered and died (at our baptism). Three days later, Jesus the vine was again alive, yet transformed and different from before. We, baptized Christian branches, we too are to become transformed and different. Today and tomorrow and the next day and….

Why Christians Need Pentecost

By: Kristina M. DeNeve

Adult Faith Formation Coordinator

Diocese of Honolulu

Sometimes when I collaborate with Protestant/non-denominational churches, I am struck by how, in sharing the Gospel message, they overwhelmingly stress how Jesus died for our sins. (Of course, Catholics believe this too.) However, during these gatherings, I rarely hear about the Resurrection, let alone the Ascension or Pentecost. This saddens me.

The truth is that Jesus’ story did not end at the cross. Ultimately, the Resurrection eclipses the cross. The Resurrection completes the Good News. Death did not hold Jesus and death does not hold us as baptized Christians.

And, yet, the Resurrection still isn’t the end of the story. Jesus himself tells us in today’s Gospel that we literally have God the Advocate inside us. Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit, God’s very self, into us.

The importance of Pentecost for Christians cannot be overstated. Because of Pentecost, the Bible becomes the Living Word of God. Pentecost is what allows the bread and wine to become the Body and Blood of Christ. The descent of the Holy Spirit, celebrated at Pentecost, is literally what empowers us to live our lives as Christian, to really, truly follow Jesus.

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5th Sunday of Easter

May 2-3, 2015

Readings can be found at:



Questions, Comments, Suggestions?

Contact Kristina: kdeneve@ or

808-230-6767

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Trinity Sunday

May 30-31, 2015

Readings can be found at:



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Contact Kristina: kdeneve@ or

808-230-6767

The Trinity as a Starting Point for “Evangelizing”

By: Kristina M. DeNeve

Adult Faith Formation Coordinator

Diocese of Honolulu

Jesus commands the disciples in today’s Gospel to spread the Good News to all peoples. Beyond including a reference to baptizing in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, what does today’s Gospel really have to do with Trinity Sunday?

Well, while the world’s religions have much in common, Christianity is the only religion proclaiming God is three Persons. Three Persons in one. God, eternal mystery, made and continues making all creation. But that is not the end of the story. Unfathomable mystery, God literally became a human being, all while maintaining his full divinity. But that is still not all. God, unexplainable mystery, literally resides in you and I, working in and through our lives, through the Body of Christ, the Word, the Sacraments, etc…

As today’s Gospel emphasizes, we are called to share our faith. Sharing what the three Persons of God mean to us is actually a great place to start. Do you relate more to one of the Persons of the Trinity than the others? How do you relate to each Person? What does God mean to you in your life?

Connecting the Ascension to Daily Life

By: Kristina M. DeNeve

Adult Faith Formation Coordinator

Diocese of Honolulu

For most of us, the Ascension only means that Jesus no longer physically appears to people. However, there is much meaning deeper than this.

The Ascension marks the in-between times in our lives, the times when we know and can feel something new and good happening, but it has not fully blossomed yet. Like the butterfly emerging from the cocoon, new life exists, but it still needs time and struggle. Cut the butterfly free from its cocoon and it will actually die. “In-between” time is critical for new life to flourish.

We are in the in-between time of the Ascension when we graduate from school. We are in the Ascension when we pack and move. We ascend those first few weeks with a new baby (or even a new puppy!). When we finish chemo treatment. And so forth.

During Ascension-time, we know deep in our bones that everything will turn out okay, even though we don’t know exactly what is happening or what life will soon be like. We need Ascension time before we can flourish under Pentecost.

John’s Version of a Beatitude Speech

By: Kristina M. DeNeve

Adult Faith Formation Coordinator

Diocese of Honolulu

There are no beatitudes in John, so today’s Gospel stands out as THE one and only criterion for discipleship. Ironically, we hear “the Golden Rule” so often we hardly pay attention to it nowadays. The Golden Rule is so incorporated into our societal mindset that atheists are as likely as Christians to share this moral as the one they try to live by.

Unfortunately, hardly any of us, Christian or not, does a very good job of actually loving others. Every day, all the time, in big ways and small. (Know that I am not talking about allowing oneself to continue to be abused.) More unsettling, we Christians are commanded to do this not only for family and friends, but for people we vehemently dislike, even for enemies.

This is why this Gospel is proclaimed today, during Eastertime. The only chance we have of actually living out the Golden Rule is by following Jesus….to the cross, to the tomb, to new life. Follow Jesus and the world sees something qualitatively different than someone who is “trying to be a good person.”

Inserts for Bulletins, Newsletters & Websites

Ascension

May 16-17, 2015

Readings can be found at:



Questions, Comments, Suggestions?

Contact Kristina: kdeneve@ or

808-230-6767

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