It’s been a busy week for me trying to juggle my day-job, home chores, and my ministry work. However, the Lord is ever kind and solicitous, granting me just enough energy to somehow get through these past few days... and everything came together for a very spiritually fruitful and eventful week.
Today, June 13th, is the Feast of St. Anthony of Padua (d. 1231), the Patron Saint of my parish church… so there was obviously a lot of planning and activities going on in our church during the past couple of months. We held our Feast Day celebrations this evening and leading up to it was our monthly Rosary for Peace on the first Saturday of June, followed by a special Saints & Holy Relics Presentation that especially featured St. Anthony. I'm happy to report that the Saints definitely took center stage in our Kailua parish during this week and we were all very blessed for it.
+ First Saturday Rosary for Peace, June 7th
Our Saint/Relic of the Month for our
+ First Saturday Rosary for Peace, June 7th
Our Saint/Relic of the Month for our
First Saturday Rosary was Bl. Joseph-
Marie Cassant, whose personal motto
was, "All for Jesus, all through Mary."
Our Rosary for Peace was offered in the presence and intercession of Bl. Joseph-Marie Cassant (d. 1903), via a 1st Class [bone] Relic of the holy Trappist Monk that I brought into our Day Chapel this month. I shared with the people in attendance how this youthful Blessed continually surrendered himself to God, through the intercession of Our Lady; how despite living in obscurity, and with intellectual shortcomings, his generous practice of faith made a deep, positive impact on his spiritual brethren around him (and in the world, too)... eventually leading to Joseph-Marie's Beatification in October 2004.
+ Saints & Holy Relics Presentation, June 12th
19 Relics from various Saints & Blesseds
were on display during my 6/12 talk at St.
Anthony of Padua Church in Kailua. Among
the Saints represented were St. Benedict of
Francis of Assisi, St. John Paul II, St. Rita
of Cascia, St. Lucy of Syracuse, and
The organizers for the Feast Day thought it would be a great idea to showcase the life of St. Anthony of Padua for our parishioners, as part of the planned schedule of events. So I was invited to faith-share about our Patron Saint, but rather than just speaking about him, alone, I took the opportunity to conduct my standard Saints/Relics presentation so I could speak about the Church's teachings on Saints, in general. Plus, I was able to share about the lives of many other holy souls but featured the life of St. Anthony more prominently towards the end of my talk.
A closer view of the 1st/2nd Class Relics on
display during the presentation/exhibit.
In attendance at the presentation were 19 Sacred Relics of various Saints and Blesseds, which I exhibited for the education and veneration of the audience. The turn-out was great with about 40 people attending – almost half were parishioners from other parishes, some from as far away as the other side of our island, which pleasantly surprised me. We were happy to welcome them.
Our parish members and guests from other
parishes viewing & venerating the relics.
The presentation was again well-received, judging by the positive feedback I received from many of the attendees, including invitations to speak at another parish and to a women's group. In addition, there were two separate testimonies concerning a mysterious fragrance of flowers and a spice-like aroma (incense?) that were noted during the presentation. I simply believe the fragrances were tangible signs of the spiritual presence of our Blessed Mother and Our Lord, coming to be with us for spiritual encouragement.
+ The Feast of Saint Anthony of Padua, June 13th
The shrine-reliquary of St. Anthony of Padua
in our church (center)... and photos from our
potluck dinner in honor of our Saint, that was
held in the church courtyard after Mass.
And finally, this evening we celebrated our illustrious Patron Saint with an evening Mass in his honor, followed by a potluck celebration of various ethnic foods. Hawaii is a melting pot of many differing racial backgrounds so there wasn't a shortage of differing food items, which ranged from American Fried Chicken to Vinha D'Alhos, a Portuguese dish of vinegar-marinated pork with onions and potatoes.
Local comedian, Frank Delima, performing in
our parish's gathering hall after our dinner.
During the dinner we were entertained with lovely Hawaiian music, but the highlight of the evening was Frank DeLima, a local comedian/celebrity who is best known for light-heartedly poking fun at Hawaii's many different ethnic traditions. It was all in the spirit of fun, though, and his comedic program was hilarious and had the crowd howling with laughter. It was a fun way to end an evening of festivities.
So with that shared, our annual Feast Day Celebration just keeps getting bigger and better... 'can't wait to see what next year's event organizers have in store for us!
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