KALAUPAPA DIARY I have lost a step or two since my high school running days — 60 years ago — but I still enjoy watching track and field on television. I particularly like to watch the relay races where the first runner grabs a stick (baton), takes off like a bat out of hell, passes […]
Father Patrick Killilea, SSCC: Star of Wonder
KALAUPAPA DIARY “O star of wonder, star of night, star with royal beauty bright. Westward leading, still proceeding, guide us to thy perfect light.” (John Hopkins Jr., 1857) I am not exactly known as a stargazer but I do recall times in my high school years when, during class time, I caught myself looking out […]
Father Patrick Killilea, SSCC: COVID coping in Kalaupapa
KALAUPAPA DIARY Legend says that “trees are the record keepers of the earth. They are busy gathering information and holding volumes of wisdom and knowledge. Branches layer themselves with information and their leaves capture your words and actions as you walk by them.” It is also written that “the banyan tree represents a time of […]
Father Patrick Killilea, SSCC: Wind in the willows
KALAUPAPA DIARY Some people awake to the sound of an alarm, some to the call of one or more roosters and some have a natural awakening. It was that way for me last week during this lockdown because of the coronavirus. One morning I awoke to the memory of childhood days and “The Wind in […]
Kalaupapa diary: To bee or not to bee
By Father Patrick Killilea, SSCC Special to the Herald KALAUPAPA, Hawaii — I had just finished sharing the Gospel of the day when I felt this thing on my left hand and figured it was just a pesky fly. So I swatted it with my right hand only to feel a sharp sting and then […]
Moon over Molokai: My life in Kalaupapa
It was 5:15 a.m. approximately as I stepped out onto the front porch, then onto the lawn facing those great green pali to the south. To the west over Maunaloa hung the full silvery moon, lighting up the landscape and the pali and shimmering on the harbor waters. It was time to prepare for the […]