This week

week Mass readings have focused largely on Jesus healing by casting out demons.

Great encouragement is to be found in these, for it shows, as

This week Mass readings have largely focused on Jesus healing by casting out demons.

Aloha, Mr Brown,

I enjoyed your recent article that mentioned the Mauna Loa eruption. I live in Hawaii island, and it’s quite the spectacle.

One point though- you mention seeing Indian altars by the volcanos. These pagan offerings to the volcano goddess Pele are common here, but native Hawaiians are not Indians. They are Polynesians, which are ethnically quite different.

It is interesting to hear stories from people who truly believe they have actually seen or even met Pele. The typical story involves encountering a Hawaiian woman, often accompanied by a white dog, who asks for a favor such as a ride or a drink of water. After granting the favor, the woman disappears. One such person who gave “Pele” a drink found that their home was spared during the 2018 lava flow when the stream of lava took a fortunate turn around it.

One woman I talked to, when she was a child served tea to a lady who stopped by her house and asked for a drink, and was astonished when her mother asked her why she had poured two cups of tea . Her mother, she realized, couldn’t see the lady who the child could see very clearly .

I don’t know what to make of these stories. People seem very much in earnest about them, and maybe some people do see a spirit of the volcano. But the ancient human practice of … how to put it…inventing fiction? May be at play here too.

Nobody reports being frightened or uneasy when this mysterious woman shows up. Oddly enough, considering the lava destroys homes and businesses, Pele is not considered to be a malevolent entity. Before modern times, destroyed homes were simply rebuilt elsewhere. Since the lava can be avoided by anyone capable of a brisk walking speed, there’s rarely any loss of life from the eruptions.

I suppose that as a Catholic, I ought to consider these sightings to be lies or a demon, but I sometimes wonder if God has put other beings on this world that are neither demons or angels, but simply have some job to do… like minding a volcano.

God bless!

Full name is Mary Konczyk

—

I read a book by Rabbi Daniel Lapin (an orthodox rabbi) a long time ago who said there was no word in Hebrew for “coincidence”.  There is no such thing.

It’s how the Lord got my attention.

For example, sometime after I had converted, I was heading to Belk’s with my mother, and I told her I wanted to check while we were there for a thick red sweater to wear with my jeans.  I walked in the store, turned 45% to the right (women’s department) walked up to the first rack – a sale rack, and right in front of me was a thick red sweater, on sale, my size.  Exactly what I had had in mind.

It’s what you call a “Godincidence”.  Sometimes it’s providence.  Sometimes a Godwink.  But it’s definitely not random.  I’ve had many such “coincidences” over the years.  It makes you feel loved.

God bless,

Alisa Alisa Craddock, Jacksonville

Dear Michael,

Regarding “Coincidences” – here is a lovely coincidence from our family history.

My Grandmother Josephine Carlin immigrated to the USA from County Cork, Ireland and was a nurse during WWI and attended soldiers in Cape May, NJ many who were sick with the Spanish Flu.  Her nursing pin was a very treasured item to her but unfortunately in the necessary scrubbing that took place every evening to keep the nurses healthy and uncontaminated, she lost her nursing pin.

Many, many years later  a ‘tinker’ salesman came to her door selling goods and in his box of items was her nursing pin!  He returned it to her for free.

This same nursing pin came to me as an inheritance and I gave it to her Great Granddaughter Shannon when she graduated as a nurse and began working in New Jersey emergency rooms.

Glory be to God,

Margaret Johnson