Dear Friends,

The “road less traveled” is not the smoothest road. Anyone who takes being a Christian seriously will eventually find him or herself on that road. I don’t just mean because of the challenges that come from without, whether persecutions, hostility or suffering personal loss because of your beliefs. Often the most difficult part resides within our own spiritual journeys. God has a way of being very exacting of his children. And for good reason: He wants us to live the abundant life. It’s just that sometimes it seems as though He makes the grade in the road especially steep!

Dear Friends,

“Half-time goes by, suddenly your wise, another blink of the eye, 67 is gone, the sun is getting high, we’re moving on.” 100 Years sung by Five for Fighting Lord Jesus, Eternal High Priest, Thirty-five years have passed since that day when my name was called at the Cathedral and I responded: Here I am. Well Lord, here I am, still, despite myself---

Dear Friends,

The “devil is in the details”. In this case I am referring two recent films that feature Satan as best supporting actor. I always find it amusing how Hollywood is firmly atheistic but believes in the Devil. A devil without a God seems like a losing proposition. Still, Satan’s greatest success, via the Enlightenment, was to get society to accept that he doesn’t exist, except as a metaphor.

In his Preface to The Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis wrote: “There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall into about devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe and feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves (the devils) are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight.”

Aloha Friends,

They are too few and far between, saints from our corner of the globe, our portion of the Body of Christ. But when they do happen, they are impactful. This week we can rejoice as we celebrate the feast day of another good guy who worked among us and has washed his robes white in the blood of the Lamb and made it to the rolls of the sanctified. Wednesday, we celebrate the feast day of Joseph De Veuster, known as Fr. Damien, who was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI and now known as Saint Damien of Molokai. The road to canonization for Damien was a little long and at times quite bumpy. But he is a man for our times as he was a strong advocate for the proper care of the sick and treatment of the most vulnerable among us. We need his intercession as we try to rise to the challenge of providing adequate and just health care in our country and face potential epidemics that might again require forms of quarantine.