An Installation Mass for a Priest at his new Parish

The following photos were taken today at the installation Mass of the new pastor, Father Khanh at Saints Peter and Paul Roman Catholic Church, by the bishop of Honolulu, His Excellency Bishop Larry Silva.

Renewing ourselves this Advent

Fr. Khanh Pam-Nguyen 

St. Stephen Catholic Church, Nuuanu

“Comfort, give comfort to my people, says the Lord.

Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her

that her service is at end…” (Isaiah 40:1-2a).

God paints a picture of hope for his people of the present time. Though the message above is thousands of years old, it comes to us new because God is capable of making things new. He himself is ever-new, ever-fresh.

The Lord comforts us in our journeys. Understanding this is a gift that is renewing to the heart and mind. Undoubtedly, part of that understanding is willingness to engage in the mission to bring God’s comfort to his people. No one is exempted; for, by virtue of baptism, the call has been powerfully and wonderfully laid within us. The baptismal birthright allows us to recognize the natural flow God intends for his children to follow; in this case, because we have received God’s comfort, we are to share that comfort with others.

To be a comfort to people is to understand also the need to embrace God fully, to surrender to him completely knowing that his kingship shall reign in our lives; that God can be trusted to govern us with justice, mercy, and infinite love; that God will take care of our needs; that God will lead us to the path of eternal light.

In our journeys to God, let us continuously be engaged in the renewal of our relationships with him. Let us continue to be in tune with his Word. Let us be passionate also in allowing grace to work for us as we read writings inspired by the Holy Spirit that make us grow.

A joyful Advent to all!



More resources for Advent, or anytime of the year:

1. In Conversation with God by Fr. Francis Fernandez

I cannot be happier than I already am for having purchased the series In Conversation with God. Of seven volumes that cover the Latin Church's liturgical readings, it is a companion to a spiritual journey that accentuates God working in the ordinariness of life. You can be sure to see yourself working in the mundane with God's vigor and grace.

2. The Way, Furrow, The Forge By St. Josemaria Escriva (a priest who founded Opus Dei)

This one is a three-volume set of writings by St. Josemaria meant to ensure anyone a heightened desire of intimacy with God. The counsels are simple yet deep enough to jar the mind and heart that they may listen more attentively to the voice of God. When one desires to follow, it is a good beginning of a journey that leads to both challenges and joys. This book is worth having in a journey to one's final end, where end itself is bliss of eternity. 

"What a marvelous time in which to renew your desire, your nostalgia, your real longing for Christ to come — for him to come every day to your soul in the Eucharist. The Church encourages us: Ecce veniet! — He is about to arrive!" (St. Josemaria Escriva, The Forge, 548).

The Multiple Identities of the Priest

Picture source

A seminarian friend John Nahrgang recently attended a ten-week summer program for diocesan seminarians at the Institute of Priestly Formation (IPF). IPF, based at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, was created nearly 20 years ago as a program to assist bishops in the area of formation for candidates for the priesthood. He shared the following:

"The program takes its motto from a beautiful quote from Fr. Pedro Arrupe, SJ, a former superior general of the Jesuits:

Nothing is more practical than finding God, than falling in Love in a quite absolute, final way. What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination, will affect everything. It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning, what you do with your evenings, how you spend your weekends, what you read, whom you know, what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in Love, stay in love, and it will decide everything.

That quote has stayed with me, as well as this gem from one of the founders of IPF and an expert on Ignatian spirituality, Fr. George Aschenbrenner, SJ:

Diocesan priestly spirituality builds on a renunciation of this world, with all its goodness and all its allurements… Through an ongoing, graced, expansive experience of God’s love, a whole shift of an individual’s center of gravity occurs.  Gradually more and more identified in God’s love alone, the priest experiences a certain disengagement from the world as an identity center – precisely because he is so fully engaged with the fire of God’s love.

These two insights highlight what I have come to believe God was asking of me at this time in my spiritual formation - a paradigm shift, both in the way I have viewed myself in relation to Him and in the way I interact with Him in my spiritual life, above all in prayer.  And the impulse of this shift has its starting point in Divine Love.  

At IPF, we were blessed with a great mix of meditation, spiritual direction, fellowship, worship, classes, lectures, apostolic service and small-group discussion.  The quality of instruction was tremendous.  Our instructors had deep background in parish ministry, spiritual direction, psychology and deliverance ministry.  Here's just one example of the very sound teaching we got at IPF.  The priest interviewed here was with us for all ten weeks and frequently gave us talks - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-3_Jdz8H3Y 

A major part of my education at IPF came through a more thorough understanding of the multiple identities of the priest.  There are five: beloved son, chaste spouse, spiritual father, spiritual physician and head and shepherd.  Here are some insights I learned from each of them.  I hope you find them insightful and edifying as you pray for the priests of our Church. 

1. BELOVED SON

A priest must understand that before anything else he is a beloved son of God the Father by virtue of his baptism into Christ (this of course goes for all Christians as well). When God the Father looks upon me, He desires that Christ's sonship be lived out in me.  I had so much lived experience outside of the light of faith that it was extremely difficult for me to accept that truth. For a long time I sort of relegated myself to praying for an occasional "mountaintop" spiritual experience. 

As a beloved son of God the Father, I must imitate Jesus in receiving everything from the Father "in the classroom of dependence."  Put another way, "in my spiritual poverty."  Put yet another way, "in the midst of my unfulfilled desires."  For me this was a crucial insight for understanding better the concept of holiness.  

Holiness is a vocation for everyone since everyone is capable of humbling himself/herself in imitation of Jesus in the Father's classroom of dependence: I can do nothing on my own authority; as I hear, I judge; and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me" (Jn 5:30)

Beloved sonship is a fundamental identity for a future priest.  It enables a child of God to receive God's love, which must happen before he can communicate it to others.  First and foremost, I must know that I'm loved by my Father in Heaven.

2. CHASTE SPOUSE

A second identity is Chaste Spouse.  We know that priests are married to the Church.  What does that really mean though?  And how is it lived out?

I must be vigilant, because I'm also a creature of attachment whose affections bond me to others (or things).  If I don’t contemplate Christ and have my life deepened and absorbed by Him, I will become self-absorbed and absorbed into the values of the world.  And priestly ordination doesn't automatically protect me from absorption pointed in the wrong direction.  Jesus, of course, is the example par excellence.  The Church is more a bride of Christ than any espoused couple on earth.  That also means that a priest is more truly married than a man married sacramentally to a woman.  Priestly celibacy is not sterile, but fruitful.  Fruitfulness for a celibate priest is measured by spiritual children, meaning a harvest of souls brought closer to God and ultimately to heaven through his service.  Priests guide souls to the Cross and receive the love of God there, which opens up the path to spiritual resurrection in their lives.  There is no Resurrection without the Cross; thanks to the Resurrection the Cross becomes the Tree of Life, for Jesus and for the rest of us.  

The love that is first received as Beloved Son, is shared as Chaste Spouse.  Being a spouse is also about being attracted.  I must be not only be attracted to the love of God and receive that love so that I may share it, but I must also be attracted to souls who want union with God.  Out of my love for God and love for souls come a desire to draw others into the communion of the Trinity that I myself experience.  Those who want to share in it are fertile (spiritually speaking).  This is the heavenly meaning of being a Chaste Spouse.

Since the Chaste Spouse is oriented towards the spiritual growth of many souls, he must guard against the desire to be desired by any particular person (insert "attractive woman" here).  Although romantic love is an objective good, the celibate priest has already offered his celibacy as a gift to God, and so romantic involvement with a woman would constitute infidelity. 

Asceticism is about wanting more, not less.  I say no to the less, so that I can say yes to the more.  It’s not about hating the less, but about being aware of a desire, bringing it to the Lord and letting Him know that I want Him more.  The heart of a Christian ascetic says, “Lord, I acknowledge to You that I want (fill in the blank) right now, but I want You more.”

3.  SPIRITUAL FATHER

Notice that there's a progression to the first three identities.  Good fathers are good because they are good sons and good spouses.

A priest is a father after the image of the Heavenly Father. The heart of spiritual fatherhood is a pastoral charity that says, "I want what is best for you all the time." This is also the true meaning of genuine love.  A spiritual father guides others to the Father in the classroom of dependence and encourages them.

4.  SPIRITUAL PHYSICIAN

The Spiritual Physician convinces people who are at the Cross that they're being loved there.  He knows how to help a person receive love exactly where they are most wounded spiritually.  And the more wounded one is, the more she is attacked in sin, and the more ready she is disposed to believe the lie in sin/suffering that she's not loved, when sickness comes, and the less willing she is to believe in the good news.  But Christ can do all things, as Msgr. Tom Richter from the Diocese of Bismarck showed us through his beautiful exegesis of Jesus and the woman at the well.  Msgr. Richter taught us how wonderful of a spiritual physician Christ was with the woman at the well.  She came to the well at the hottest point of the day to avoid the shame of being seen by others. She was carrying a big burden.  Jesus entered and evoked holy desires in her heart. She became aware of these desires and related them back to Jesus. Then, in a surprising turn of conversation, he said, "Bring your husband.”  This part of the Gospel confuses a lot of people but Jesus went right to her place of woundedness, the ball of cancer.  Jesus said, "Let’s talk about that."  Brilliant!  He answered her question: "Ok, here’s how we get at it.  I’m a physician.  Here’s your cancer.  Let’s deal with it."  And the very thing that had filled her life with shame no longer did.  She ran off liberated.  She was no longer self-focused in her misery.  Instead, she joyfully ran off to tell others in the village about this Spiritual Physician.

A spiritual father is comfortable with the human mess.  He’s not shocked in the confessional.  He’s a calming presence in the midst of the human mess.  He assures people that God is in control here.  A spiritual father has a disdainful respect for spiritual disease (sin).  The kind of respect that an epidemiologist has for a vial of bubonic plague in the lab.  Evil is real.  Sin is real.  But Jesus is not intimidated by sin, and neither should the priest be as a spiritual physician.

5.  HEAD AND SHEPHERD

This is an identity specific to ministerial priesthood.  It's about governance and obedience, particularly obedience predicated upon the desire to serve God through the Church.  And guided as well by pastoral charity.

A shepherd guides his flock towards a destination.  The priest heals, teaches, feeds, forgives, encourages, corrects and consoles with the overriding purpose of leading souls to receive love at the Cross.  It's about leading souls to the Resurrection via the Crucifixion.  So that all the people can be united with the true Christ, who then offers all to the Father so that the Father can be glorified.  That’s the ultimate end of all of this.   

The two vices opposed to true pastoral charity as exhibited by the shepherd are hardness of heart and false compassion.  Jesus was never mean, and the priest should imitate him.  There were times he was indignant or angry on account of injustice, but he was never mean.  His anger was above all directed at hypocrisy.

Typical new priest: 32-year-old cradle Catholic who prays Rosary, takes part in Eucharistic adoration

The typical member of the priestly ordination class of 2013 is a 32-year-old cradle Catholic who has three or more siblings and prayed the Rosary regularly before entering seminary, according to a survey of 366 of the 497 men slated to be ordained to the priesthood in the United States this year. The survey was conducted by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate. 

 Read article here.

Video: Fr. Barron on Spirituality of Advent

Hau`oli Lā Hānau to Fr. Manny Hewe!

May God continue to pour out blessings upon you.

May God continue to strengthen you.

May your days be filled with God's joy.

Mahalo for all you do!

Holy Family Celebration 2012

Holy Family Church, November 25

Thank you, Dann Ebina, for these photos!

Advent reflections on my blog Passionate about LIFE.

St. John Crysostom, September 13

"If Christ is with me, whom shall I fear? Though the waves and the sea and the anger of princes are roused against me, they are less to me than a spider's web. Indeed, unless you, my brothers, had detained me, I would have left this very day. For I always say: Lord, your will be done; not what this fellow or that would have me do, but what you want me to do. That is my strong tower, my immovable rock, my staff that never gives way. If God wants something, let it be done! If he wants me to stay here, I am grateful. But wherever he wants me to be, I am no less grateful."

St. John Chrysostom
September 13

Vatican Officials: Priests have to be saints

The following is a letter from the Congregation of the Clergy provided by Zenit.

Dear Priests,

on the forthcoming solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (June 15, 2012), as usual, we shall celebrate World Day of Prayer for the Sanctification of the Clergy. The expression found in Scripture “This is the will of God: your holiness!” (1 Thess 4:3), though addressed to all Christians, refers to us priests in particular, for we have accepted the invitation to “sanctify ourselves” and to become “ministers of sanctification” for our brothers. In our case, this “will of God” is, so to speak, doubled and multiplied to infinity, and we must obey it in everything we do. This is our wonderful destiny: we cannot be sanctified without working on the holiness of our brothers, and we cannot work on the holiness of our brothers unless we have first worked on and continue to work on our own holiness.

Ushering the Church into the new millennium, Blessed John Paul II reminded us that this “ideal of perfection”, which must be offered to everyone, is normal indeed: “To ask catechumens: ‘Do you wish to receive Baptism?’ means at the same time to ask them: ‘Do you wish to become holy?’”[1]

On the day of our Priestly Ordination the same baptismal question surely resounded in our heart, calling for a personal answer; but it was also entrusted to us so that we might address it to the faithful, cherishing its beauty and preciousness. This does not mean that we are not aware of our personal shortcomings, or of the faults committed by some who have brought shame upon the priesthood before the world. Ten years later – considering that the situation has grown ever more serious – we must let the words pronounced by John Paul II on Holy Thursday of 2002 resound in our heart with greater strength and urgency: “At this time too, as priests we are personally and profoundly afflicted by the sins of some of our brothers who have betrayed the grace of Ordination in succumbing even to the most grievous forms of the mysterium iniquitatis at work in the world. Grave scandal is caused, with the result that a dark shadow of suspicion is cast over all the other fine priests who perform their ministry with honesty and integrity and often with heroic self-sacrifice. As the Church shows her concern for the victims and strives to respond in truth and justice to each of these painful situations, all of us – conscious of human weakness, but trusting in the healing power of divine grace – are called to embrace the ‘mysterium Crucis’ and to commit ourselves more fully to the search for holiness. We must beg God in his Providence to prompt a wholehearted reawakening of those ideals of total self giving to Christ which are the very foundation of the priestly ministry. ”[2]

As ministers of God’s mercy, we know that the search for holiness can always begin again through repentance and forgiveness. But we also feel the need to ask for it, as individual priests, on behalf of all priests and for all priests.[3] Our faith is further strengthened by the Church’s invitation to cross the Porta fidei again, accompanying all of our faithful. As we know, this is the title of the Apostolic Letter with which the Holy Father Benedict XVI called the Year of Faith that will begin on October 12, 2012.

It may be useful to reflect on the circumstances of this invitation. It takes place on the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council (October 11, 1962) and on the twentieth anniversary of the publication of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (October 11, 1992). Furthermore, the General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops will be held in October 2012, and its theme will be “The new evangelization for the transmission of the Christian faith.”

We will therefore be expected to work in depth on each of these “chapters”:

– on II Vatican Council, so that it may be accepted once again as “the great grace bestowed on the Church in the twentieth century ”: “a sure compass by which to take our bearings in the century now beginning ”, “increasingly powerful for the ever necessary renewal of the Church”[4];

– on the Catechism of the Catholic Church, that it may be truly accepted and used as “a valid and legitimate instrument for ecclesial communion and a sure norm for teaching the faith”[5];

– on the preparation of the next Synod of Bishops in order that it may truly be “a good opportunity to usher the whole Church into a time of particular reflection and rediscovery of the faith.”[6]

For the time being – as an introduction to this work – we can meditate briefly on this indication provided by the Pope, towards which everything converges: “It is the love of Christ that fills our hearts and impels us to evangelize. Today as in the past, he sends us through the highways of the world to proclaim his Gospel to all the peoples of the earth (cf. Mt 28:19). Through his love, Jesus Christ attracts to himself the people of every generation: in every age he convokes the Church, entrusting her with the proclamation of the Gospel by a mandate that is ever new. Today too, there is a need for stronger ecclesial commitment to new evangelization in order to rediscover the joy of believing and the enthusiasm for communicating the faith.”[7]

“The people of every generation”, “all the peoples of the earth”, “new evangelization”: before such a universal horizon, we priests must ask ourselves how and where such statements can come together and stand. So we can begin by recalling that the Catechism of the Catholic Church itself begins with a universal outlook, recognizing “Man’s ‘capacity’ for God”[8]; but it does so choosing – as its first quotation – the following text of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council: “The root reason (“eximia ratio”) for human dignity lies in man's call to communion with God. From the very circumstance of his origin man is already invited to converse with God. For man would not exist were he not created by Gods love (“ex amore”), and constantly preserved by it  (“ex amore”); and he cannot live fully according to truth unless he freely acknowledges that love and devotes himself to His Creator. Still, many of our contemporaries have never recognized this intimate and vital link with God, or have explicitly rejected it.”  (“hanc intimam ac vitalem coniunctionem cum Deo”)[9].

How could we forget that, with the text quoted above – and in the richness of the wording chosen – the Conciliar Fathers intended to speak directly to atheists, upholding the immense dignity of the vocation from which they had departed? And they did so with the same words used to describe the Christian experience, at the peak of its mystic intensity! The Apostolic Letter Porta Fidei also begins stating that it “ushers us into the life of communion with God”, which means that it allows us to become directly immersed in the central mystery of the faith we are called to profess: “To profess faith in the Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – is to believe in one God who is Love ” (ibid. n. 1).

All this must resound in a special way in our heart and in our mind, making us aware of what is the greatest tragedy of our times. Christianized nations are no longer tempted to surrender to a general sort of atheism (as they were in the past) which results from having forgotten the beauty and warmth of the Trinitarian Revelation. Today it is especially priests, in their daily worship and ministry, who must refer everything to the Trinitarian Communion: only by starting from it and by immersing oneself in it can the faithful really discover the face of the Son of God and of His contemporariness, and really reach the heart of every man and the homeland they are all called to. Only this way can us priests restore contemporary man’s dignity, the sense of human relationships and social life, and the purpose of the whole of creation. “Believing in only One God who is love ”: no new evangelization will really be possible unless us Christians are able to surprise and move the world again by proclaiming the Nature of Our God who is Love, in the Three Divine Persons that express it and that involve us in their own life.

Today’s world, with its ever more painful and preoccupying lacerations, needs God- The Trinity, and the Church has the task to proclaim Him. In order to fulfil this task, the Church must remain indissolubly embraced with Christ and never part from Him; it needs Saints who dwell “in the heart of Jesus” and are happy witnesses of God’s Trinitarian Love. And in order to serve the Church and the World, Priests need to be Saints!

From the Vatican, March 26, 2012 Solemnity of the Annunciation of the B.V.

Mauro Card. Piacenza, Prefect

Celso Morga Iruzubieta, Tit. Archbishop of Alba Marittima, Secretary   

Father Dave Travers to Retire

Father Dave is second from the left 

Read Hawaii Catholic Herald article here.

I am a daily Mass attendee at Saints Peter and Paul Church.Father Dave has been the pastor there for as long as I can remember.

It came as a bit of a surprise to find out that our beloved Father Dave was retiring. Surprise, because I didn't think Father ever wanted to leave Sts. Peter and Paul.   He is one of the kindest, gentlest, funniest priests we have been blessed to have here in Hawaii. He is also the kind of priest who never judges anyone and has taught his parishioners not to judge others either because as he often reminds us "we don't know the whole story".

Father Dave is really going to be missed at Sts. Peter and Paul church. He loves that parish so much. He often reminds all of us that it is the best parish around. He may be a little biased but Sts. Peter and Paul Church is a very joyful parish and I think it has a lot to do with the pastor who has been at the helm for 16 years.

So I take this opportunity to bid Father Dave a fond aloha but hope to see him around more now that he is retired....and I would also like to say aloha and E komo mai to the new pastor!

Fr. Donald Calloway Invites You To His Free Talk

“Discovering The Immaculate Conception:  Unlocking the Hidden Keys
to Becoming a Saint.” by Father Donald Calloway

We are so excited to annouce that Fr. Donald Calloway has agreed to do a talk exclusively to the email subscribers of the the Courageous Priest Apostolate.  We are calling it “Discovering The Immaculate Conception: Unlocking the Hidden Keys to Becoming a Saint.”
This wasn’t easy.  Father is so busy he has been given his own event cordinator.  The event cordinator told us that she can’t believe we got ahold of him; let alone to have him agree to give a talk.
This will be given live over a telephone conference service.  So, there will be no flying, no driving, no hotels, no expensive restaurants.  All you need is a phone, the telephone number and a pin code.  Trust us this will be very simple.
We are doing this to kick off our first ever special event called  ”The Immaculate Conception Bootcamp: How to be a Saint in a Sinful World.” What this entails is a hard hitting, no holds barred prepartion with the purpose of preparing the way to the Immaculate Conception Feast day on December 8th.  Fr. Calloway’s talk will not be the only special scheduled event.  So, stay tuned and keep coming back for special post geared to leading us to the Immaculate Conception.

Here is what you must do to listen for the free talk with Fr. Calloway.

Email Subscribers:  Simply watch your email from Courageous Priest.  The information will be in an email titled “Fr. Calloway’s FREE Talk.”  The information will be in the email delivered on Wednesday and Friday.
Non Email Subscribers:  This is important.  The only way you will receive to this information is through an email given only to Courageous Priest Subscribers.  Do you see the box to the right of this post, titled “FREE! Subscribe to Follow Courageous Priest”?  Just enter your primary email address in the box.  Then go to your email inbox and opened the email titled “FeedBurner Email
Subscriptions.”  Click on the link to confirm.  It’s simple, quick and your security is guaranteed.  We have used Google’s subscription service since 2007 and never had any privacy complaints.

DATE: Saturday, November 19th – Book mark this date!

• 5:00 PM Eastern
• 4:00 PM Central
• 3:00 PM Mountain
• 2:00 PM Pacific

Who: Fr. Donald Calloway, MIC; hosted by John Quinn co-founder of Courageous Priest
Where:  Over the phone on a conference call
Cost:  FREE
Why:  Kick-off for “Immaculate Conception Bootcamp”
Why Only Subscribers?  It is a thank you gift to our faithful 3500+ subscribers.  Subscribers are the life blood of this little apostolate.  And, yes, it is a honest bribe to get more subscribers.
How Many People will be there?  You can call us crazy, but we expect full capacity.  With over 1000 dedicated phone lines this will be Fr. Calloway’s single biggest live presentation, excluded Catholic radio and EWTN appreances.  What alot of people will be doing is having some friends come over to their house or if possible some will be three waying a friend.  That would be smart.  We can’t wait!

 Who is Fr. Calloway

Fr. Donald Calloway will kick off the "Immaculate Conception Bootcamp" with a talk exclusively available to Courageous Priest subscribers.

Fr. Donald Calloway, MIC, a convert to Catholicism, is a member of the Congregation of Marians of the Immaculate Conception.  Before his conversion to Catholicism, he was a high school dropout who had been kicked out of a foreign country, institutionalized twice and thrown in jail multiple times.  After his radical conversion he earned a B.A. in Philosophy and Theology from the Franciscan University of Steubenville, OH, M.Div. and S.T.B. degrees from the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, DC, and an S.T.L. in Mariology from the International Marian Research Institute in Dayton, Ohio.
He has written many academic articles and is the editor of two books: The Immaculate Conception in the Life of the Church (Marian Press, 2004) and The Virgin Mary and Theology of the Body (Marian Press, 2005).  He also is the author of the book Purest of All Lilies: The Virgin Mary in the Spirituality of St. Faustina (Marian Press, 2008). His radical conversion story is now shared in his latest book, No Turning Back: A Witness to Mercy
____________
We can’t wait to have Father Calloway lead us during our first ever  ”The Immaculate Conception Bootcamp: How to be a Saint in a Sinful World.” 
Please go ahead and share this with a friend or Facebook it.
God bless,
John Quinn & Jeff Gares
Founders of Courageous Priest

Farewell and RIP, Msgr. Daniel J. Dever

November 2nd is a special day for priests and those who have been a part of the Catholic educational system in Hawai'i. Because it is All Souls Day, it makes it more special to celebrate the life of a good priest and a good man, Fr. Daniel Dever. On that day also, he would have celebrated in person his 86th birthday. The gathering of the faithful at the 6 p.m. funeral Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace celebrated -- as he probably looked on and was among those present -- his very life, a life well lived.

I didn't know Fr. Dever, but the homily of Fr. Gary Secor gave a wonderful image of what a beautiful priest he was. In a gist, Fr. Dever lived his life not for himself, but truly and wonderfully, for Christ.

About Fr. Daniel Dever by Patrick Downes, Editor of the Hawaii Catholic Herald.

"Why Priests are Happy and Sometimes Not"

"...Most priests are in fact happy BEING priests. A few, in fact a very small minority, are unhappy and regret making promises of celibacy and obedience..." Read Father Trigilio's complete article over at his blog Black Biretta.

H/T The Curt Jester

A Good Priest...

"...A good priest knows the love of Christ. He has received the priesthood for the sake of his salvation. His vocation requires that he be in the presence of the Lord and be his instrument. He is required to be charitable, when he is, like the apostles, a weak man who may be as ambitious for worldly honor and security as the next man. As he matures as a priest, he comes to realize that his priesthood is his only path to heaven. He also comes to know that, if he selfishly hoards the gifts of grace lavished upon him, he will fail his sublime vocation. A priest above all should know the justice and mercy of God...."

Reverend Jerry Porkorsky is a priest of the Diocese of Arlington, VA., on loan to the Diocese of Lincoln, NE,. as the Finance Officer. He was ordained in 1990 with a Masters of Divinity from Mount St. Mary’s Seminary, Emmitsburg, MD., and holds a Master of Arts in moral theology,
Pontifical College Josephinum, Ohio. He is a c0-founder of Adoremus, a society for the renewal of the Sacred Liturgy.

Hawaii’s international clergy

More and more of the Islands’ parish priests are coming here from other countries

Read the article in the Hawaii Catholic Herald here

Prayer to be Said at the Priest's Communion

Bishop Larry Silva

Prayer to be Said at the Priest's Communion

O Lord may Thou find shelter
and rest gently
within the heart of Thy priest...

Make him, O Lord,
a priest according to Thy Heart:
meek, humble, zealous,
so that all he does will be
for Thine honor and glory.
Mold him into a man of prayer
and labor,
insensible to earthly things
and sensible only to Thy love,
and to the graces of the Holy Ghost.
Amen.

Thank you, Esther, for sending me this prayer.

Aloha, Fr. Khanh Hoang

Fr. Khanh Hoang,
Deacon Fred and Deacon Modesto,
Margaret and Carl Berger, Mela and Eric Kim, and the diaconate formation group

The news that a good priest leaves a diocese or a parish brings many of us an unpleasant feeling. On the other hand, though it is not exactly a time of rejoicing over God's unfolding of mysteries, we can put our trust in him knowing that he has the best of plans, and even the best of interests.

Fr. Khanh Hoang has been with our diocese for many years now; I would say about ten. He served at St. Jude's Church and had been our Vicar for Clergy after that. He leaves the Diocese of Honolulu this Thursday, May 26. He flies to California and embarks on a cross country trip from there to Florida, where his new parish awaits him.

Our aloha, mahalo, and prayers are with you, Fr. Khanh! May your vacation be as rejuvenating as God desires it to be!