Enhancing our Catholic Home: On the Inside



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FREE Evangelization Inserts for Bulletins, Newsletters & Websites

Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

January 1, 2017

Note that these reflections can be found in Word and pdf at inserts

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Contact Kristina kdeneve@ or

808-203-6767

Living Catholic in the 808:

A Mother’s Love

By: Edwina Fujimoto

Religious Education Coordinator

St. Benedict Parish, Captain Cook

(How does a parent survive the unthinkable?  Breanna Fujimoto, the beautiful daughter of Edwina Fujimoto was fatally injured in an automobile accident last September. In the midst of her great sorrow, Edwina offers us her reflection on our Blessed Mother.)

“Mary, Mother of God, was told a sword will pierce her heart and I think about how she had to watch her son be scourged, ridiculed throughout the streets carrying his cross and then crucified...and I think of the pain in my heart...nothing compared to hers.  That sword must have stabbed, twisted, shaken, pulled out and stabbed again.

The pain in the hearts of moms and dads when they lose a child just doesn't go away -- at least this is what other moms and dads have shared.  I don't like it but I don't want to lose it either.  My pain is like nothing I've ever felt before and I've lost loved ones.

God would never hurt us so deeply if for nothing.  Mary hurt, but without her sorrow we would not have our salvation.  I am thankful to have been blessed with Breanna for 21 year; the pain is worth it.  The love and joy she filled me with is more than I can measure, even greater joy than the heart-wrenching pain I feel now.”

FREE Evangelization Inserts for Bulletins, Newsletters & Websites

Epiphany of our Lord

January 7-8, 2017

Note that these reflections can be found in Word and pdf at inserts

Questions, Comments Suggestions?

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Living Catholic in the 808:

In Need of Epiphany

By: Kristina M. DeNeve

Adult Faith Formation Coordinator

Diocese Of Honolulu

I was working on my laptop at a neighborhood McDonalds. I seated myself along a row of tables beside a homeless man. I was so proud of myself, smug even – smiling and offering him warm eyes, even a helping hand when he got up to leave and dropped his belongings.

Later, in my car, I couldn’t find my cell phone. It wasn’t in my usual purse pocket. As I began to search more frantically, I quickly decided the homeless man had stolen it when I got up to refill my soda. How wrong I was! (It was in my computer bag where I put it, of course.)

Now, I’ve walked with God my entire life. I know him and love him. But, without a second thought, I blamed the least of my brothers for my own carelessness.

The truth is I still need the Epiphany in my life, for God to make himself known. The Epiphany is not simply a long ago event. It’s today. Jesus breaks into my life and reveals himself to me every single day. Yet I still need Jesus to break into my little world so I will change, truly change – to become the person who doesn’t automatically jump to bad conclusions about others – or even myself.

Living Catholic in the 808:

Being An Evangelist in a Post-Truth World

By: Rafael Mendoza

Deacon Candidate

Diocese Of Honolulu

We are living in a world of tumultuous change, leading to a dramatic shift in cultural values and a broad spectrum of moral issues. These are challenging days, taking place right in our homes, workplaces, and communities. There is your truth and my truth; there can be no such thing as absolute truth.

In fact, Oxford Dictionaries had selected “POST-TRUTH” as the 2016 International Word of the year. According to the definition, it is an adjective “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.”

Evangelization must fit into this worldview!

Take heart that the early Christians faced the same challenges. They experienced what we are experiencing. As with them, we too can persevere to share the Good News of salvation. In 2 Tim 4:1-5, Paul wrote “proclaim the word; be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient; convince, reprimand, encourage through all patience and teaching. For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine but, following their own desires and insatiable curiosity, will accumulate teachers and will stop listening to the truth and will be diverted to myths.”

Over the coming weeks, we’ll dig deeper into evangelizing in this “post-truth” world.

FREE Evangelization Inserts for Bulletins, Newsletters & Websites

2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time

January 14-15, 2017

Note that these reflections can be found in Word and pdf at inserts

Questions, Comments Suggestions?

Contact Kristina kdeneve@ or

808-203-6767

Living Catholic in the 808:

Our Lives Evangelize Those Who Think with their Feelings

By: Rafael Mendoza

Deacon Candidate

Diocese Of Honolulu

Pope Francis, in November 2013, wrote, “An evangelizer must never look like someone who has just come back from a funeral…. May the world of our time, which is searching, sometimes with anguish, sometimes with hope, be enabled to receive the good news not from evangelizers who are dejected, discouraged, impatient or anxious, but from ministers of the Gospel whose lives glow with fervor, who have first received the joy of Christ.” (Evangelii Gaudium, paragraph 10, emphasis mine)

Pope Francis suggests that living Catholic today requires us to shift our approach - today’s generation is completely different from previous ones. “The challenge lies before us to reach a generation that hears with its eyes and thinks with its feelings” (Paul Copan, True for You but Not for Me).

While we have the same message, it’s time to change our methods. How we live our lives must take center stage today. People need to see the incarnation of the Gospel in our lives more than to hear the proclamation of the Gospel through our words. They need to experience the love of Jesus more than they need to be informed that Jesus is love. Their lives are more likely to be changed through the heart than through the mind.

FREE Evangelization Inserts for Bulletins, Newsletters & Websites

3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time

January 21-22, 2017

Note that these reflections can be found in Word and pdf at inserts

Questions, Comments Suggestions?

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808-203-6767

Living Catholic in the 808:

Making the Facts of Salvation Real

By: Rafael Mendoza

Deacon Candidate

Diocese Of Honolulu

There are many ways to begin to share our faith. You could invite someone to Mass, engage in an intellectual discussion, or go see a Christian movie. However, sharing your story is one of the most powerful starting points. Your faith story is precious; God can and will use your story as an instrument of salvation in another.

Pope Francis encourages us, “Today, there is a kind of preaching which falls to each of us as a daily responsibility. It has to do with bringing the Gospel to the people we meet, whether they be our neighbors or complete strangers. This is the informal preaching which takes place in the middle of a conversation. Being a disciple means being constantly ready to bring the love of Jesus to others and this can happen unexpectedly and in any place: on the street, in a city square, during work, on a journey. This is a personal dialogue, when the other speaks and shares his or her joys, hopes and concerns for loved ones or so many other heartfelt needs. (Evangelii Gaudium, n. 127).

The Gospel means little unless it has changed one person. Your personal story makes the facts of salvation concrete, real, specific and personal. Tips on sharing your story next week!

FREE Evangelization Inserts for Bulletins, Newsletters & Websites

4th Sunday of Ordinary Time

January 28-29, 2017

Note that these reflections can be found in Word and pdf at inserts

Questions, Comments Suggestions?

Contact Kristina kdeneve@ or

808-203-6767

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