Do you REALLY have a Guardian Angel?

It is a certain teaching of our Faith that each of us has a Guardian Angel

"Every one of the faithful has his own special guardian angel from baptism. (Sent. certa.)" (Ott, L. (1957). FCD. 120–121)

Furthermore, "According to the general teaching of the theologians, however, not only every baptized person, but every human being, including unbelievers, has his own special guardian angel from his birth. This view is biblically founded on the words of Our Lord. Mt. 18:10" (ibid)
  
Mt 18:10 - "See that you despise not one of these little ones: for I say to you, that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father who is in heaven."

A look at the Early Church Father's understanding of Mt 18:10 further reveals the Church's teaching

“Therefore are they not to be despised for that they are so dear to God, that Angels are deputed to be their guardians” (St. Anselm)(Catena Aurea, Thomas Aquinas, S., & Newman, J. H. (1841).

 “I esteem it, O my God, an inestimable benefit, that thou hast granted me an angel to guide me from the moment of my birth, to my death.” (St Augustine, De dilig. Deo. Medit. c. xii)( Haydock, G. L. (1859). Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary)

Moʻolelo & Kanikapila: The Hawaiian way of learning

Hawaiians have always learned through storytelling. In Hawaii the storytelling tradition is called Moʻolelo. It is the way our history, culture, myths, and tradition has been passed down through the generations. It is very similar to how Catholics have learned through the tradition passed down from Jesus and apostles throughout history! 

We also love to get together with our instruments and Kanikaplia (Jam Session) So much of our Hawaiian music tells stories of long ago and so we learn through our music as well. 

This picture was taken a month ago (July 2016) out on the island of Kauai. I sat and listened to some great wisdom from a Hawaiian man who knows much about the history, culture, and tradition of Hawaii. He also happens to be studying to be permanent deacon in the Church! 

Dragons in the Bible!?!

My son is now old enough to ask interesting questions about our Church and about the Bible. He asked once if dragons were real and if they were in the bible... Hmmm? Of course this question led me to research and put together a bible study on the topic. The link below will download a PDF with a quick study on 'Dragons' in the Holy Writ. A vast majority of the information was taken from a fascinating book by Hart, H. C. (1888). The Animals Mentioned in the Bible (pp. 79–82). Enjoy the study! 

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

Hoa‘aina in Makaha

My ʻohana had the chance to visit Hoa‘āina in Makaha last week (7/11/16) to work on a diocesan project, the 'One ʻOhana Confirmation' video. It is next in the series of the already 'award winning' diocesan catechetical videos about the sacraments!!!

I hope to have a streaming version of the video when it is complete so I can post it here for everyone to see! 

Journey w/ Chris Stefanick & ʻReal Life Catholic' Ministry

This past week (7/7/2016) I had the tremendous honor of going on an off roading journey with Chris Stefanick of Real Life Catholic Ministries (http://reallifecatholic.com) through the coffee fields in Numila, Kauai down to a special ancient fish pond and beach once owned by King Kamehameha V

It was an awesome day. It will be a part of a great new TV show on EWTN called 'Real Life Catholic' Once I get the EWTN air date of the show I'll let everyone know


Check out one of the previous episodes of ʻReal Life Catholic' Here - https://youtu.be/uG4KfEb3LHs

Day 1 of the Faith Formation Conference complete

The first day of the Oahu Diocesan Faith Formation Conference (6/17/16) was great! My first class was on Catholic Art of Building Virtue and the 2nd was on Biblical Typology and Mariology. Thank you to all that attended my classes. In the next week or please come back to this site to see specific post made with the audio recordings of each class as well as the downloadable handouts

(Picture is with Mrs. Jayne Mondoy, Director of Rel. Ed. for the Diocese of Honolulu, and all around cool person :) )

Dr. Edward Sri, of the St. Augustine Institute, on Oahu!

Started off our Oahu Diocesan Faith Formation Conference by listening to a lecture by Dr. Edward Sri. It was excellent! I'll be teaching 3 classes for the conference tomorrow and Saturday. Hope to see you there this weekend 6/17/16 - 6/18/16!

The Paradoxes of Christianity


"There had suddenly come into my mind another explanation. Suppose we heard an unknown man spoken of by many men. Suppose we were puzzled to hear that some men said he was too tall and some too short; some objected to his fatness, some lamented his leanness; some thought him too dark, and some too fair. One explanation… would be that he might be an odd shape. But there is another explanation. He might be the right shape" -- GKC
Baby Matthias was baptized this past Sunday (3/13/2016) at Blessed Sacrament Church in Pauoa. Mahalo to Fr. Richard McNally, ss.cc.for doing the baptism

The sacrament of Baptism makes us part of the mystical body of Christ (CCC 1272), cleanses us from original sin through the regeneration by water (CCC 1213), and is necessary for Salvation (CCC 1257) For a biblical look at the Sacrament of Baptism CLICK HERE 

'Building Virtue' (St. Anthony's in Kalihi Faith Formation)

This past Saturday (3/5/2016) I had the honor of speaking at the St. Anthony's (Kalihi) Faith Formation Conference. I spoke on the art of building virtue to help us lead moral catholic lives. 

Please click on the links below for a MP3 recording of the talk as well as the printed class material that accompanies the talk.

Fishing Fridays at the Alii Agriculture Farm


This year we began a new family tradition of visiting the Ali'i Agricultural Farm in Wahiawa each Friday during Lent to catch dinner! The farm has three well maintained ponds filled with farmed catfish, tilapia, and grass carp. It cost $15 to rent a bamboo pole which includes all the bait you will need. At the end of the day you simply pay the fair market value of fish you want to keep. Thats it!


It has been a wonderful way to teach the children how to catch and prep fish. It has also been an awesome and unique tradition to add to our family practice during lent


Look the farm up on Yelp for more information.

LA Religious Education Congress 2016

After a long journey I am finally home from the 2016 LA Religious Education Congress in Anaheim California. I had the opportunity to meet so many awesome people who truly have a desire to love and serve our Lord. It was an honor to be able to share some of knowledge on catechetical methodology with those that came to my break out sessions. 

Mahalo for your patience as I was putting together the notes from each of my presentations. You will see two links below. One for my 'Using Technology to Deliver Ancient Truths in the Modern World' and another for me 'Reaching the Multitudes' 


Please be sure to visit those links at the end of the week as well (By March 6th) I will create a Screen Shot Video personally reviewing the Powerpoint presentations as well as sharing some further insights on the topics.


Lastly, please contact me if you would like to schedule a ZOOM conference to go over any aspect of the technologies I went over in order to better fit your needs. You can contact me at  nativecatholic@gmail.com as well as directly at 808-223-3249




Hawaiian Cowboy at the LA Congress

What do Hawaiians do in Los Angeles? They do old school Cowboy yodeling of course! Joshua Kapika is an awesome Hawaiian musician from St. Michael's parish in Waialua! Be on the lookout for his periscope channel coming soon. For now enjoy the video of his impromptu performance.




Big mahalo again to all of those who participated in my conferences at the LA Congress. If you are looking for the links to notes for the classes Please CLICK HERE