Holy Family Catholic Church

830 Main Street, Honolulu, Hawaii 96818

Telephone: 422-1135 Fax:423-0389
Email: HFC830@gmail.com and Sebchacko@hawaii.rr.com
First Sunday of Advent

Mass Schedule

PASTORS CORNER

Monday-Saturday: 7:15 AM
Saturday Vigil: 5:00 PM

We have had a wonderful Liturgy and celebration for

Thanksgiving. We thank God for all who we are. What
we become is our gift to God. Let us start this season of
Advent and Christmas, with a greater desire and determination to make full and good use of the gift of life and
all the talents that God has given us. Judgment will be
based on what we have accomplished through the gifts
and talents that God has given us.

Sunday: 8:30 AM, 11:00 AM &

7:00 PM
1st SundaySamoan Mass-2 PM
3rd Sunday-Pohnpeian Mass-2 PM
Confessions Saturday:
4:004:45 PM
and after daily Masses
First Friday of the Month
Benediction

2014 THE YEAR

OF THE
CONSECRATED
LIFE
Come Follow me.
Matthew 4:19

WEBSITES
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November 30, 2014

Holyfamilyhonolulu.org
Hfcahawaii.org
Catholic.com
Catholic.net
Catholic.org
Hictv.com
Catholictv.com or

Last Sunday The Church elevated six persons to Sainthood. Four are from Italy and two from India. They are:
Giovanni Farina, Ludovico Casoria, Nicola DaLongobardi, Eufrasia Eluvathingal and Kuriakose Chavara.
These are men and women who used their God-given
gifts and talents for the glory of God and for the betterment of lives of their brothers and sisters in the Lord.
Our own Saints Damien and Marianne are great examples for us to follow.
Our Scripture Readings encourage us to be Watchful and
be Alert for the revelation of Jesus Christ. Let us therefore prepare ourselves for the celebration of Christmas
and once again commit ourselves to Christ and His Gospel of Love and Service. Fr Sebastian

St. Nicholas
The absence of the hard facts of history is not necessarily an obstacle to the popularity of saints, as the devotion to St. Nicholas shows. Both the Eastern and Western Churches honor him, and it is claimed that after the
Blessed Virgin, he is the saint most pictured by Christian artists. And yet, historically, we can pinpoint only the
fact that Nicholas was the fourth-century bishop of Myra, a city in Lycia, a province of Asia Minor. As with many
of the saints, however, we are able to capture the relationship which Nicholas had with God through the admiration which Christians have had for himan admiration expressed in the colorful stories which have been told. Perhaps the best-known story about Nicholas concerns his charity toward a poor man who was unable to provide dowries for his three daughters of marriageable age. Over the centuries, this particular legend evolved into the custom of gift-giving on the saints feast. In the English-speaking countries, St. Nicholas became, by a twist of the
tongue, Santa Clausfurther expanding the example of generosity portrayed by this holy bishop.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR

Dec. 2-Tuesday-Meet in Church
6:00pm-Our Lady of Perpetual Help Devotion
7:00pm-Bible Sharing
Dec. 5-Benediction-After 7:15 am Mass
Dec. 8-The Immaculate Conception of the
Blessed Virgin Mary HOLIDAY OF
OBLIGATION. Masses 7.15 AM and 6.30 PM
Dec. 12-Our Lady of Guadalupe
Note: Holy Rosary is recited before each Mass
during the weekend and at 6:50 am Monday to
Saturday before the 7:15 am Mass.

Our Weekly Offerings

November 23, 2014
Thank you for your generous
contribution for the past weekend.
5:00 PM
8:30 AM
11:00 AM
7:00 PM
ALL Souls

TOTAL

$1,318.73
$2,474.50
$1,192.13
$1,347.29
$125.00

$6,457.65

A BIG MAHALO to all those who participated in our Thanksgiving Mass. Special thanks to all those who were involved
in the various parts of the Liturgical Service. It was once again a great occasion
when we bore witness to the US Motto:

E Pluribus Unum,..From Many, One.

SAMOAN ANNUAL MASS.
Next Sunday the Samoan Community
from Oahu will celebrate their Annual
Mass at 1.30 in the afternoon. The Mass
will be celebrated by integrating the Samoan Culture and the Catholic Traditions. It will be more colorful than the
Samoan participation in our Thanksgiving Mass. The Mass will be followed by a
Competition of Christmas Carols and
Hymns. All are welcome.

CHRISTMAS ANGEL TREE.

Our Annual Christmas Angel Tree Appeal for gifts for needy Children will begin this Sunday. Please contact Tony and
Debbie Fikac for more information. Last
date for bringing in the gifts will be December 21. Telephone: 222-8048

Church Bulletin: EditorJoe Padron, Phone 423-2439. Bulletin deadline is Tuesday 12:00 noon. Please
email notice and picture if applicable to pad.ronjoe@gmail.com

Catechism
If I Have Nothing to Confess, Should
I Still Go to Confesstion?
Answer: Your question, it seems to me, can be
summarized like this: How can I receive the
graces of confession when I am not falling into
obvious sin (the kind I used to experience so often)? This is a good question, because of a
widespread bad habit. The bad habit is thinking

that confession only exists for those times when

we sin so grievously that we experience a spiritual earthquake. Without a doubt, this is the

primary purpose of the sacrament to open a

way of reconciliation for a baptized Christian.

Religious Ed, RCIA & Youths

The Real Meaning of the
Twelve Days of Christmas

Holy Family Catholic Academy News

(Excerpt from the Catholic Herald)
Assistant Principal Mrs. Carol Chong proudly accepts her catechist certificate from Dr. Mike Rockers,
Superintendent of Hawaii Catholic Schools, for her
successful completion of the extensive catechesis
coursework offered through the University of Dayton. Dr. Rockers was on hand to congratulate Mrs.
Chong personally for her accomplishment and for
modeling lifelong learning. Grant funding for continued professional development was received from
the Father Daniel Dever Hawaii Catholic Schools
Leadership Development Fund in conjunction with
the Augustine Educational Foundation. Mrs. Chong
has begun to share her new knowledge with other
faculty members via hybrid courses that integrate the
Echoes of Faith curriculum with Education, an online
professional development resource. We congratulate
Mrs. Chong for her accomplishment and for modeling lifelong learning for the Holy Family community.
(Reported by Christina Malins, Principal)

The Twelve Days of Christmas celebrates the offi-

cial Christmas season which starts liturgically on

Christmas Day and ends twelve days later on the
Feast of the Epiphany. My true love refers to God,
me is the individual Catholic. The twelve lords a
leaping are the twelve basic beliefs of the Catholic
Church as outlined in the Apostles Creed. The eleven
pipers piping are the eleven Apostles who remained
faithful after the treachery of Judas. The ten ladies
dancing are the Ten Commandments. The nine
drummers drumming are the nine choirs of angels
which in those days of class distinction were thought
important. The eight maids a milking are the Eight
Beatitudes. The seven swans a swimming are the
Seven Sacraments. The six geese a laying are the
Six Commandments of the Church or the six days of
creation. The five golden rings are the first five
books of the Old Testament called the Torah which
are generally considered the most sacred and important of all the Old Testament. The four calling birds
are the Four Gospels. The three French hens are
the Three Persons in God or the three gifts of the
Wise Men. The two turtle doves represent the two
natures in Jesus: human and divine or the two Testaments, Old and New. The partridge is the piece de
resistance, Jesus himself, and the pear tree is the
Cross.

NEW PARISHIONERS: Newcomers are encouraged to register with the parish and are welcome to participate in all parish activities and ministries. Registration forms are available in the back of the Church.

What the Our Father Teaches Us About Prayer

Some two thousand years after institution, the Our Father still has much to teach us about prayer. Below are
some lessons that various saints and doctors of the Church
have gleaned from the first Christian prayer over the centuries.
They that are heavenly: In his commentary on the Our
Father, Aquinas sees in the second clausewho art in
heavena clue as to how we out to prepare for saying the
Our Father. And this preparation ought to be in the form
of an imitation of heavenly things, since the son ought to
imitate his Father, Aquinas writes. He quotes from 1 Corinthians 15:9, a reference to our imitation of Christ:
Therefore as we have borne the image of the earthly, let
us bear also the image of the heavenly. Aquinas emphasizes the contemplative aspect of this preparation: So
also this preparation ought to be through contemplation of
heavenly things, because men are wont to direct their
thoughts to where they have a Father and others whom
they love.

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Prepare a pure heart: Such preparation also has a

moral dimension, according to St. Gregory of Nyssa,
who takes his cues from the opening address and the
third clausehallowed be thy name. Gregory writes,
See how great a preparation you need, to be able to
say boldly to God, O Father, for if you have your
eyes fixed on worldly things, or court the praise of
men, or are a slave to your passions, and utter this
prayer, I seem to hear God saying, Whereas you that
are of a corrupt life call the Author of the incorruptible
your Father, you pollute with your defiled lips an incorruptible name. For He who commanded you to call
Him Father, gave you not leave to utter lies. But the
highest of all good things is to glorify Gods name in
our lives. Hence He adds, Hallowed be thy name (as
cited in the Catena Aurea commentary).
Confidence in Christ: According to Aquinas, the Our
Father reminds us in a special way that when we pray
Christ is before the Father interceding and advocating
on our behalf. The Our Father is, after all, the very
words Christ Himself delivered to his disciples. As
Aquinas puts it, Furthermore, this prayer is even more
worthy of confidence in that He who taught us how to
pray, graciously hears our prayer together with the Father. This insight, in turn is drawn from St. Cyprian,
who wrote, It is a friendly and intimate prayer to beseech God with his own words, for the prayer of Christ
to ascend to His ears.
Desire much, say little: Augustine sets down this
principle for all prayer, To use much speaking in
prayer is to employ a superfluity of words in asking a
necessary thing; but to prolong prayer is to have the
heart throbbing with continued pious emotion towards
Him to whom we pray. For in most cases prayer consists more in groaning than in speaking, in tears rather
than in words. But He sets our tears in His sight, and
our groaning is not hidden from Him who made all
things by the word, and does not need human words.
The gold standard of prayer: Expanding upon the
above principles, Augustine declares that the Our Father is the standard by which to measure other prayers.
We can use other words and say other prayers, but ultimately we should be able to find expression for them
in the Our Father. As Augustine puts it, And whoever
says in prayer anything which cannot find its place in
that gospel prayer, is praying in a way which, if it be
not unlawful, is at least not spiritual.