Que Bella!

My family and I were not able to attend the Bella movie and dinner fund raising hosted by a local prolife group. Happily, we found that the movie was going to be shown at the same theater where the fundraiser was held, for a very limited time. Yesterday afternoon, we jumped at the chance.

There was only three of our friends there when we arrived. I sat there and prayed that others would show up to support a prolife movie of such quality! God answered my prayers. For a late Friday afternoon, the theater was well filled.

Other than glancing at reviews of the movie, I tried to avoid reading any reviews or commentaries because I did not want to be disappointed by the hype.

I wasn't.

From beginning to end, the movie captured my attention and my heart. It was a very well done movie considering it was what most of Hollywood would consider low-budget.

Since many of you still have not seen it, I will not go into any details. But as I was sitting at the theater as the credits went rolling by at the end, I asked myself why I liked it so much. It was for the following reasons:

1. It was Catholic.
2. It was pro life.
3. It was Hispanic.
4. It was about traditional family values.
5. It was about adoption.
6. It was about the NYC/NJ area.
7. It was about cooking. :-)

All of the above things are dear to my heart.

The only problem I had with the movie and which most of you only English speakers will not even be aware of, is the constant use of one particular curse word in Spanish. It was just so unnecessary. I wonder if it was given the PG-13 rating because of that word usage. It made me bristle every time I heard it.

Lastly, and BTW, The choice of the main actors had to be divinely inspired.

Local Event - Bella

Hawaii, here is your chance to watch Bella. It is only here for a very limited time. It is being shown at the Regal Theaters (Dole Cannery).

11/09/2007 (11:50 AM), (2:20), (4:50), 7:05, 9:30 PM
11/10/2007 (11:50 AM), (2:20), 4:50, 7:05, 9:30 PM
11/11/2007 (11:50 AM), (2:20), 4:50, 7:05, 9:30 PM
11/12/2007 (11:50 AM), (2:20), 4:50, 7:05, 9:30 PM
11/13/2007 (1:30 PM), (4:15), 7:05, 9:30 PM
11/14/2007 (1:30 PM), (4:15), 7:05, 9:30 PM
11/15/2007 (1:30 PM), (4:15), 7:05, 9:30 PM

Please support this movie by taking your friends and family. (Click here for Dole movie listings)or visit Movie Tickets.

I saw an interview with Eduardo Verastegui the lead actor and (also producer of the movie) on the O'Reilly Factor yesterday. He stressed that ticket sales this weekend will be very critical to the successful of this pro-life/family movie.

Please make an extra effort to go. You won't be sorry.

Also, if you do go, remember to thank Regal Theaters for bringing another good and decent movie to us. If you recall, they also showed Therese and the Nativity Story.

A Loveliness Break

Our cat. I tell my boys, she can do whatever she wants...she's beautiful.

Humor Break - The Twenty and the One

Mahalo again to John.

A well-worn one dollar bill and a similarly distressed twenty dollar bill arrived at a Federal Reserve Bank to be retired. As they moved along the conveyor belt to be burned, they struck up a conversation.

The twenty dollar bill reminisced about its travels all over the country.

'I've had a pretty good life,' the twenty proclaimed. 'Why I've been to Las Vegas and Atlantic City, the finest restaurants in New York, performances on Broadway, and even a cruise to the Caribbean.''Wow!' said the one dollar bill. 'You've really had an exciting life!'

'So tell me,' says the twenty, 'where have you been throughout your lifetime?'

The one dollar bill replies, 'Oh, I've been to the Methodist Church, the Catholic Church, the Lutheran Church ...'

The twenty dollar bill interrupts, 'What's a church?'

A Lesson For All of Us

This reminded me so much of Archbishop Fulton Sheen who spoke up again and again against communism.

Mahalo to John for sharing.

Subject: Wild pigs

There was a Chemistry professor in a large college that had some Exchange students in the class. One day while the class was in the lab the Prof noticed one young man (exchange student) who kept rubbing his back and stretching as if his back hurt.

The professor asked the young man what was the matter. The student told him he had a bullet lodged in his back. He had been shot while fighting communists in his native country who were trying to overthrow his country's government and install a new communist government.

In the midst of his story he looked at the professor and asked a strange question. He asked, "Do you know how to catch wild pigs?"

The professor thought it was a joke and asked for the punch line. The young man said this was no joke.

"You catch wild pigs by finding a suitable place in the woods and putting corn on the ground. The pigs find it and begin to come every day to eat the free corn. When they are used to coming every day, you put a fence down one side of the place where they are used to coming. When they get used to the fence, they begin to eat the corn again and you put up another side of the fence. They get used to that and start to eat again. You continue until you have all four sides of the fence up with a gate in the last side. When the pigs (who are used to the free corn) come through the gate to eat, you slam the gate on them and catch the whole herd.

Suddenly the wild pigs have lost their freedom. They run around and around inside the fence, but they are caught. Soon they go back to eating the free corn. They are so used to it that they have forgotten how to forage in the woods for themselves, so they accept their captivity."

The young man then told the professor that is exactly what he sees happening to America. The government keeps pushing us toward Communism/Socialism and keeps spreading the free corn out in the form of programs such as supplemental income, tax credit for unearned income, tobacco subsidies, dairy subsidies, payments not to plant crops (CRP), welfare, medicine, drugs, etc. while we continually lose our freedoms - just a little at a time.

One should always remember "There is no such thing as a free lunch!"...

68 Hawaii Teens in National Honor Merit Scholar Competition

Article and list of schools and students

and one of them is a former Catholic homeschooler....Christopher Ballesteros (Damien)and an old friend of Joey's...

another old friend of Joey's from his public school and Catechism days...Leslie Kim (Iolani)

and two are members of Joey's current homeschool honors society...home-school Kenji O. Fukunaga and Emily K. Metcalf

Addressing Those Homeschooling Concerns

H/T to Fr. Daren a teacher who respects the choice to homeschool.

Original Source: HERE

1 Please stop asking us if it's legal. If it is — and it is — it's insulting to imply that we're criminals. And if we were criminals, would we admit it?

2 Learn what the words "socialize" and "socialization" mean, and use the one you really mean instead of mixing them up the way you do now. Socializing means hanging out with other people for fun. Socialization means having acquired the skills necessary to do so successfully and pleasantly. If you're talking to me and my kids, that means that we do in fact go outside now and then to visit the other human beings on the planet, and you can safely assume that we've got a decent grasp of both concepts.

3 Quit interrupting my kid at her dance lesson, scout meeting, choir practice, baseball game, art class, field trip, park day, music class, 4H club, or soccer lesson to ask her if as a homeschooler she ever gets to socialize.

4 Don't assume that every homeschooler you meet is homeschooling for the same reasons and in the same way as that one homeschooler you know.

5 If that homeschooler you know is actually someone you saw on TV, either on the news or on a "reality" show, the above goes double.

6 Please stop telling us horror stories about the homeschoolers you know, know of, or think you might know who ruined their lives by homeschooling. You're probably the same little bluebird of happiness whose hobby is running up to pregnant women and inducing premature labor by telling them every ghastly birth story you've ever heard. We all hate you, so please go away.

7 We don't look horrified and start quizzing your kids when we hear they're in public school. Please stop drilling our children like potential oil fields to see if we're doing what you consider an adequate job of homeschooling.

8 Stop assuming all homeschoolers are religious.

9 Stop assuming that if we're religious, we must be homeschooling for religious reasons.

10 We didn't go through all the reading, learning, thinking, weighing of options, experimenting, and worrying that goes into homeschooling just to annoy you. Really. This was a deeply personal decision, tailored to the specifics of our family. Stop taking the bare fact of our being homeschoolers as either an affront or a judgment about your own educational decisions.

11 Please stop questioning my competency and demanding to see my credentials. I didn't have to complete a course in catering to successfully cook dinner for my family; I don't need a degree in teaching to educate my children. If spending at least twelve years in the kind of chew-it-up-and-spit-it-out educational facility we call public school left me with so little information in my memory banks that I can't teach the basics of an elementary education to my nearest and dearest, maybe there's a reason I'm so reluctant to send my child to school.

12 If my kid's only six and you ask me with a straight face how I can possibly teach him what he'd learn in school, please understand that you're calling me an idiot. Don't act shocked if I decide to respond in kind.

13 Stop assuming that because the word "home" is right there in "homeschool," we never leave the house. We're the ones who go to the amusement parks, museums, and zoos in the middle of the week and in the off-season and laugh at you because you have to go on weekends and holidays when it's crowded and icky.

14 Stop assuming that because the word "school" is right there in homeschool, we must sit around at a desk for six or eight hours every day, just like your kid does. Even if we're into the "school" side of education — and many of us prefer a more organic approach — we can burn through a lot of material a lot more efficiently, because we don't have to gear our lessons to the lowest common denominator.

15 Stop asking, "But what about the Prom?" Even if the idea that my kid might not be able to indulge in a night of over-hyped, over- priced revelry was enough to break my heart, plenty of kids who do go to school don't get to go to the Prom. For all you know, I'm one of them. I might still be bitter about it. So go be shallow somewhere else.

16 Don't ask my kid if she wouldn't rather go to school unless you don't mind if I ask your kid if he wouldn't rather stay home and get some sleep now and then.

17 Stop saying, "Oh, I could never homeschool!" Even if you think it's some kind of compliment, it sounds more like you're horrified. One of these days, I won't bother disagreeing with you any more.

18 If you can remember anything from chemistry or calculus class, you're allowed to ask how we'll teach these subjects to our kids. If you can't, thank you for the reassurance that we couldn't possibly do a worse job than your teachers did, and might even do a better one.

19 Stop asking about how hard it must be to be my child's teacher as well as her parent. I don't see much difference between bossing my kid around academically and bossing him around the way I do about everything else.

20 Stop saying that my kid is shy, outgoing, aggressive, anxious, quiet, boisterous, argumentative, pouty, fidgety, chatty, whiny, or loud because he's homeschooled. It's not fair that all the kids who go to school can be as annoying as they want to without being branded as representative of anything but childhood.

21 Quit assuming that my kid must be some kind of prodigy because she's homeschooled.

22 Quit assuming that I must be some kind of prodigy because I homeschool my kids.

23 Quit assuming that I must be some kind of saint because I homeschool my kids.

24 Stop talking about all the great childhood memories my kids won't get because they don't go to school, unless you want me to start asking about all the not-so-great childhood memories you have because you went to school.

25 Here's a thought: If you can't say something nice about homeschooling, shut up!

The Battle of Lepanto

by G. K. Chesterton

White founts falling in the Courts of the sun,
And the Soldan of Byzantium is smiling as they run;
There is laughter like the fountains in that face of all men feared,
It stirs the forest darkness, the darkness of his beard;
It curls the blood-red crescent, the crescent of his lips;
For the inmost sea of all the earth is shaken with his ships.
They have dared the white republics up the capes of Italy,
They have dashed the Adriatic round the Lion of the Sea,
And the Pope has cast his arms abroad for agony and loss,
And called the kings of Christendom for swords about the Cross.
The cold queen of England is looking in the glass;
The shadow of the Valois is yawning at the Mass;
From evening isles fantastical rings faint the Spanish gun,
And the Lord upon the Golden Horn is laughing in the sun.

Poem in its entirety can be found HERE

Reminder to PRAY THE ROSARY DAILY!

One More Mass: The Great Novena

I picked up a little pamphlet entitled "The Redeeming Power of the Mass". The following excerpt really spoke volumes to me, me a person who is not a big fan of novenas because I don't think my prayers have ever been answered by them...at least not yet. I hope it speaks to you too.

"How often have I head young ladies say to me: 'Father, we are making novena after novena for certain conversions, but to no avail.' Do you know what I reply? I do not blame that: That is all right, but instead of annoying the saints with novena after novena, why do you not make a novena of Masses? THAT IS THE GREAT NOVENA. After all the saints will applaud you, for they realize the greatness of Holy Mass. I do not blame your novenas to the saints but I say, transform your novenas into something divine, omnipotent...the Chalice...one more Mass...two...three or four more Masses..if possible, daily Mass. You are asking for a miracle; I approve. But I tell you that you must pay the ransom for the conversions you make. You have a right to ask for such miracles. Do you know what a conversion is? It is the resurrection of a soul. It is far greater to see the resurrection of a soul than the resurrection of a corpse. Oh, one more Mass! Please..one more Mass! Pay the ransom with the Chalice. One more Mass! If you have anyone at home sick or dying, oh pay the ransom with the Chalice..one more Mass!"

Words form Fr. Mateo Crawley-Boevey, SS.CC

The True Meaning of Christmas Preparation

Please help yourselves to the following Santa Claus blinkies which my friend Layla has shared.



I like the fact that so many blogs are promoting the true meaning of Christmas this year. In other words, they do not want to contribute to the commercialism of Christ's birth day. Instead, many folks will be giving homemade gifts this year.

My brothers, sisters and I will also be doing something special for Christmas. We all mutually agreed not to spend so much money on buying gifts for one another. Instead, we have send old family videos to our one brother. He is going to create a DVD of a collection of family videos for each one of us.

Another sister has collected old family photos. She wanted to have a photo album ready for our Dad's 80th birthday on Monday. But she didn't have sufficient time to get it ready. So, instead each one of us will be receiving a copy of the album.

We also need to remember the homeless, the elderly, the lonely, the homebound and all those less fortunate than us. There are so many ways to help make their Christmas a little more brighter. I hope we do more than our share this year.

One way we start the Christmas season is on Thanksgiving. One of my good friends signs my family up to help deliver meals with the Meals on Wheels program. It is always touching and also heartbreaking to see those elderly people who grateful for a little meal and a little human contact.

So, there are some ideas that our family will doing. Let's really get into the spirit of the Christmas Season. After all, we all know that Jesus is the reason for the season.