St. Damien of Molokai Church and Parish

10/04/2026

A great article on Sr. Barbara Jean in Kalaupapa. Have you read it?

Sister Barbara Jean Wajda, Sister of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities: Where I see the face of God 09/09/2026 by Hawaii Catholic Herald Viriditas2: Soul Greening Interviewed by Sister Malia Dominica Wong, OP Hawaii Catholic Herald People often ask me what it is like to live at Kalaupapa. I usu...

10/04/2026

Mahalo! To everyone who donated items to our Country Fair, provided entertainment, enjoyed playing Bingo, and donated time and money, You made this past weekend's Country Fair a success! We were blessed with the weather and with our community showing up at Lanikeha. We hope to share a financial report soon.

10/04/2026

TOWN HALL MEETING PLEASE COME JOIN US!!

Annual Parish Town Hall Meeting scheduled for Wednesday, 11/18/2026, 5:30 pm at the Damien Ctr. This is an opportunity to receive parish financial information for last fiscal year that ended 6/30/2026.

10/04/2026

Path to a Better Marriage: Understanding Personality Differences

Reflections from Deacon Jim Krupka

The Body of Christ is made up of diverse people. We are all unique. The challenge of appreciating differences is magnified when two people marry. Differences in how wives and husbands communicate, interpret what they experience, and judge and feel can be significant. Many couples go decades, if not entire lifetimes, without understanding these differences. Because of this limited understanding, marriages suffer in ways that can be avoided.
Team-building workshops use various methods to identify personality preferences that influence behavior. Some are four-box methods, while others use color schemes to label preferences. The technique that consistently brings the most to individual and team assessments is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI). Around our 30th anniversary, Frances and I tapped into MBTI to improve our marriage. The things we learned about each other added more to the quality of our marriage than any other symposium, encounter or tool. I’ve seen similar benefits for many other couples.
As a man and woman join in marriage, we continue to be the people that we were shaped to be growing up. Recall my recent article on life maps. In that early-in-life shaping period, we developed preferred ways of living. It’s like our developed preference for writing with the left or right hand. There are personality preferences active in each of us that impact joy in marriage. There is not enough space here for a detailed personality preference workshop. What I want to do is spur thinking about your underlying personality preferences and the preferences of your spouse and encourage you to think and talk about them. TV sitcoms get great mileage from highlighting such differences. On TV stress is usually meant to be funny. Living that stress in real life day after day is not so funny. In marriage, two become one but the building blocks are still the people who came to say “yes” on the wedding day. Mutual understanding of those differences feeds the oneness. Lack of understanding is destructive. Differences can come from things like how we give and process information: The contrast between an introvert and extrovert. There are also differences in what we do with information: the “what I see is what is” versus “what I see means all kinds of things” difference. There is the difference in how we decide things: the feeling/ emotional preference versus a path of logic/thinking.
Individual preferences matter. When we combine and appreciate two sets of preferences in marriage, life gets interesting and rich. Lack of understanding leads to frustration. Appreciation of differences opens the door to many good things.

09/30/2026

Mahalo to everyone

who donated items to our Country Fair,
provided entertainment,
enjoyed playing Bingo,
and donated time and money,
to make this past weekend's Country Fair a success.

We were blessed with the weather
and with our community showing up at Lanikeha.

We hope to share a financial report soon.

09/27/2026

UPCOMING EVENTS & NEWS
Monday, September 28: Youth Group 5:30 pm, Damien Center

Tuesday, September 29: MFCO/Multicultural Mtg. 5 pm Damien Ctr. Ordination Planning 6 pm

Wednesday, September 30: Faith Enrichment w/Deacon Jim, 9 am/Zoom

Friday, October 2: First Friday Adoration after 7 am Mass, Rosary 5 pm, St Damien Deacon Jim and Fran return

Saturday, October 3: Wilfred Vair funeral

Sunday, October 4: St. Vincent potluck after 11 am Mass – Come join us!

Saturday, October 10: Rosary Rally 12-1 pm VA Park

09/27/2026

Rosary Rally Saturday
October 10 12 – 1 pm
VA Memorial Park

09/27/2026

The “We Point” and Beyond

Reflections from Deacon Jim Krupka

No matter how long you’ve been married, it is never too late to take an honest look at how united you are. As we enter marriage, we bring great histories and warm connections. We bring support systems that are treasures. We also bring voids that we hope our marriage will joyfully fill. Marriage is a place where two people can become more than the sum of the individual parts. What we bring to marriage is just the beginning. After that, we make “couple” history.
The challenge is to take the reality of where each came from and get to a “we” point. The “we” point is where we live God’s promise of two becoming one. On our wedding day, we begin a life together. In Genesis 2:24, “a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one.” Every couple develops their unique way of living this truth. Some will find this easier than others. The couple that lives next door to both sets of parents will have advantages and challenges different from those that move a thousand miles away from any family. Great marriages come from either situation.
The critical point is to remember that passage from Genesis. In marriage we need to really become one. We make our spouse number one as we two become one. As obvious as this sounds, it does not always happen. The person who remains emotionally connected to the family they came from beyond connection to their spouse, is not living the Genesis model of marriage. Taken to the extreme, a spouse can be relegated to an accessory role. By accessory, I mean a source of lifestyle or financial well-being or physical pleasure but not the primary life partner. Sooner or later, the spouse living in second place will disengage. I leave description of the ways that disengagement happens to your imagination.
No matter how long you have been married, take time to think where you have been and where you are going. This is a place for dreams. Individually, list some things you hope to accomplish in your life. This is more than an experience-focused bucket list. Life goals include hopes about your marriage, retirement, kids, health and self. Include some frivolous things. Get your spouse to do the same. Then compare lists. As a couple you will discover things about your spouse you did not know before. Draw from those lists to make a couple “dream list.” Use that dream list to build an amazing future together.

09/26/2026

Hopefully, you didn't miss this year's Country Fair!
Thank you to all the volunteers who worked before, during and after the event, to those who doated items and plants, baked goods, the musicians, MC, and to the hardworking fundraising committee.
We had a great turnout, so thank you too for showing up!!

09/20/2026

Saint Damien Parish Country Fair September 26
Mahalo for your contributions to the Country Fair of Baked Goods, Plants and New and Unique Silent Auction items!

Please bring to Lanikeha Community Center: Plants on Fri, Sept 25 between 12 noon and 6 pm or Sat, Sept 26 from 8-9 am. Contact Erlinda (808) 336-1315

Baked Goods on Fri, Sept 25 between 12 noon and 6 pm or Sat, Sept 26 from 8-9am. Contact Yolanda (808) 658-0711

“Come play BINGO from 12 - 1 at the Country Fair Pay for your card(s) at any time of the day at either the Silent Auction or Scrip/Drinks table and receive a ticket for each card, then pick up your BINGO card(s) at 12 noon. Come enjoy this new addition to our Country Fair.

Don’t forget to pick up your Lucky Number tickets and Chicken Lunch Plate at all Masses this weekend and on-site at Lanikeha next Saturday."