Hawaii Catholic Herald

Newspaper of the Diocese of Honolulu

Christina Capecchi: Two survivors, one love story

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Twenty Something Zach Zarembinski was 18 when he suffered a massive brain bleed during a high school football game. He was rushed to Regions Hospital in St. Paul, Minnesota, and placed in a coma. Nine days later, 16-year-old Isabelle Richard arrived at the adjacent children’s hospital on the same campus after a near-fatal car crash […]

Christina Capecchi: Whispering pines: In Advent, listening for the Holy Spirit

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Twenty Something The sun was setting by the time we reached consensus on our Christmas tree. We’d decided on a cedar that hadn’t been anyone’s first choice — safely neutral, conflict averted. Now we were dragging it home in the dark — tired, cold and hungry. Suddenly we heard a shimmering sound in the top […]

Christina Capecchi: Giving it up to God

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Twenty Something It was a Monday afternoon in November when Debbie Champeau got the call. The 17-year-old, a senior at Pius XI Catholic High School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, left school immediately, taking two buses to get home. There, she found her mother and grandmother parked by the telephone, distraught. They feared the worst: that Debbie’s […]

Christina Capecchi: Hardship helps us build resilience and compassion

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Twenty Something There’s something about pumpkins. Lumpy and bumpy, impossibly orange, harbinger of harvest. Instant cheer on a front porch with a hint of moonlit mystery. An invitation to trick-or-treat treaters that later nods to the pilgrims — centerpiece for a table of plenty, symbol of gathering and gratitude. When we moved to the country earlier […]

Christina Capecchi: Life, anchored in music and faith

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Twenty Something It began as a low hum on the horizon, barely perceptible. Then a pulsing rhythm rose from the river — the brass and beat of a live band drifting through the humid summer air. The Capitol was coming. The steamboat curved along the Mississippi like a grand dame entering a ballroom — confident, […]

Christina Capecchi: Evangelizing with beauty

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Twenty Something When the chaos rises — the living room buzzing with four kids, piano pounding, guitar strumming, high-speed chases underway — Katie Murray’s eyes land on the “Annunciation” print framed above the couch. It is a pivotal scene in salvation history, summed up in Mary’s upturned wrist and bowed head. “Every time I look […]

Christina Capecchi: Even in rough seas, the ship will hold

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Twenty Something “Don’t give up the ship.” Those five words were the dying command of Capt. James Lawrence during the War of 1812. Mortally wounded in battle at sea, he gasped this final order to his crew as the ship slipped into enemy hands. Lawrence didn’t live to see what his words would spark — […]

Christina Capecchi: Savoring the gift of taking your time

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Twenty Something As I write this, I am keeping company with a mama robin on our backyard balcony, so I’m treading lightly. Tapping, not pounding the keyboard. Sliding, not slamming the door. Basking in the breeze. We planted raspberries in the garden below her nest, where she is now incubating her eggs. It all feels […]

Christina Capecchi: We are one body in Christ, helping and being helped

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Twenty Something The journey from a suburban Home Depot to our new country home spanned 11 miles and three helpers, winding over the river and through the woods. In the end, three crabapple trees successfully reached their destination — their trunks an inch wide, their potential infinite. It started in the parking lot, where I […]