Hawaii Catholic Herald

Newspaper of the Diocese of Honolulu

Mary Adamski: Mary did you know

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It’s time to think about Christmas. Nooooo, you say? Time to get past it, you think? If you are a malingerer like me, the decorations may not have found their way back into the closet and some gifts and goodies are still heaped here and there unassimilated.

Mary Adamski: Mercy, mercy, me

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VIEW FROM THE PEW “Mercy, mercy, me. Things ain’t what they used to be.” That’s the song running through my head this week. Seems like a post-Vatican II musical version of the Kyrie Eleison? Not. It’s lyrics from a 1970s song by blues singer Marvin Gaye. It was the title of the Mackey Marianist Lecture […]

Mary Adamski: All saints, all souls

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VIEW FROM THE PEW Seeking a text that would set the tone for a column this month, I found this: “People can expect gruesome scenes, horrifying sights, gory details and startling scares.” It’s clearly not biblical text, although ours and other religions could promise those possibilities in their teachings or their history. Nor is it […]

Mary Adamski: Let there be peace on earth

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VIEW FROM THE PEW It was a week with a couple of encounters with road rage of the tail-gating, one-finger salute, scared that it might escalate kind. It was a month of vacation in a mainland city where 24 homicides in one month matched the record set there 25 years ago. It was a time […]

Mary Adamski: The Body of Christ. Amen.

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VIEW FROM THE PEW Mostly we Catholics aren’t arena-event kind of Christians. We cherish the comfort of our own parish, a cozy gathering where we gravitate to the same side of the church and talk to the usual cluster of familiar faces. Way too many seats are empty because many alleged Catholics won’t spare an […]

Mary Adamski: America, America

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VIEW FROM THE PEW “America, America, God mend thy every flaw, Confirm thy soul in self control, thy liberty in law.” Not the text for an invocation at a national political convention later this month, but it would sure be fitting there. We sang that patriotic prayer at Mass July 4, sending the congregation forth […]

Mary Adamski: Mercy in a suffering world

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VIEW FROM THE PEW Know how you tend to clip things out of publications when they are something you agree with? My collection from rail transit bashers got so unwieldy I actually ditched it, and I can’t quite decide to do the same with the Trump cartoons … yet. Last month I got out the […]

Mary Adamski: April moon, divinely shining

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VIEW FROM THE PEW It’s time for the full moon Thursday and that can inspire romantic, poetic visions of strolling alongside moonlit waves. Or activate superstitions held by some law enforcement officers and others about moonbeams setting off weird behavior, lunacy. This full moon of April is profound beyond those earthly interpretations. Millions of people […]

Mary Adamski: As salaam alaikum

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VIEW FROM THE PEW “If you’re lucky enough to be Irish, you’re lucky enough.” That’s just one of the uncountable adages, proverbs and witticisms that come frothing to the top of the deep pool of ethnic memory as St. Patrick’s Day approaches. The poetry and music, the long-winded blessings concluding with “May the good Lord […]

Mary Adamski: Happy Valentine’s Day!

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VIEW FROM THE PEW Standing in the greeting card section at Longs and reading Valentine cards set my thoughts scattering in diverse directions. What would St. Valentine, the third century martyr whose name is perpetuated with this holiday, have thought about some of these sentiments, especially in the naughty variety, or even the ones with […]