A Day Trip to Heaven on Earth - EWTN Filming of Divine Mercy

To say a group of us were privileged to go on a pilgrimage to Molokai would be a real understatement. We were extremely blessed to be able to travel to Molokai and do our small part to contribute to a new EWTN project currently underway. My dear friend Easter graciously inquired if my mother and I would be interested in going to Molokai with Ricardo and Danielle B's family, for the Saint Damien portion of a new Divine Mercy recitation.

This lengthy project is under the direction of a truly wonderful man of God, Father Luis Eduardo R. of Venezuela. The filming of this new Divine Mercy film has taken Father Luis all over the world and eventually brought him to film in Hawaii.

Father was given permission to film topside on Molokai. The nine of us, which also included Easter and Father Luis, landed in Molokai very early in the morning. From that moment on, it was a non stop day of greeting new people, both lay and religious, (the Sacred Hearts Brother, Father and Sisters and another Maryknoll sister could not have been kinder to us), making new friends, (they don't call Molokai the Friendly Isle for nothing) and seeing places that Saint Damien saw and was a real part of.

We actually were able to visit two of the churches Saint Damien built!

The first church we visited was St. Joseph.

The second church we visited was Our Lady of Seven Sorrows, approximately five miles from St. Joseph's Church.

Father Clyde G. SS.CC, the pastor of these churches graciously gave Father Luis permission to celebrate Mass at Our Lady of Seven Sorrows. This was indeed God looking out for us because we had missed morning Mass.

Father Luis gave a truly powerful homily in Spanish, basically on how some people do not believe that Jesus is truly present, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in the Blessed Sacrament.  The people who walk past the Blessed Sacrament without reverence or even respect; do not realize that this is our God! He said that some of us walk by Him or treat Him as if He were a dog!

After this beautiful celebration of the Holy Mass, we went to St. Joseph for the filming.  Afterward, we went to have lunch.  It was a real joy to watch the humpback whales playing in the horizon as we waited for our lunch.

Later that day, we drove to the west side of the island (the opposite end of where we were) and visited Kalaupapa Lookout. Since we were unable to visit Kalaupapa for a few different reasons, it was great to be able to at least see the famous, once infamous peninsula.

A rainbow gradually appeared over the whole Kalaupapa peninsula...almost like a small miracle for us to experience! The wind and the rain that fell and chilled us to the bone was a small price to pay to see this God created magnificence right before our eyes!

At 3:00 p.m. we walked into the dense pine-type forest, where the dried needles created a natural carpeting for the walk and the trees created a beautiful silent world for us, there in that beautiful place, we prayed the Divine Mercy together as God's ohana....in Spanish.  Even Easter, the only non-Spanish speaker joined in and led a decade.

Too soon it was time to head back to the airport.

When we began this pilgrimage, I thought it would be a very long day.  Once the day ended, it was if time had flown by in a blink of an eye.

Before we know it, it was back to the hustle and bustle of our dear island.

We were truly blessed yesterday.

 Note:  There are photos that I did not share here because I did not ask for permission yet and that includes the religious community (with the exception of Father Clyde...I'm hoping he doesn't mind too much), we met and the B. Family.