Marian Chapel at ROL

Marian Chapel at ROL

Church Environment Ministry

Church Environment Ministry

The work of the liturgical environment ministry consists of two areas: 1. Enhance the worship area to reflect the seasons of the liturgical year (Advent, Christmas season, Ordinary Time, Lent, Paschal Triduum, and Easter season.) 2. Help beautify the worship area by using varieties of live plants and flowers.

There is a small group of volunteers who give much of their time, talents, and personal donations to purchase and maintain plants and flowers. Anyone is welcome to help out in this ministry. To inquire more information, please contact Lynn Aninzo at ROL church office 676-4700.

Those who wish to bring potted plants or flowers to the church can place them on the floor in the Blessed Sacrament or in the Marian Chapel. Just make sure that all pots have bottom trays to protect the floors and carpet from water. Please do not put anything on top of the table in the Marian Chapel. Those who wish to donate plants or flowers for the altar in the worship area can contact Lynn Aninzo.

Donations (cash or checks made payable to ROL Church) are also accepted to help cover the costs for plants and flowers. Envelopes are located on the table in the narthex, and can be dropped off in the collection basket.

“One Church One Family” - 2010 Summer Dance Fest

“One Church One Family”

2010 Summer Dance Fest

Friday, June 11, 2010

6:00 pm to 10:00 pm

Resurrection of the Lord Parish

94-1260 Lumikula St. Waipahu (Waipio), HI

Live music by:

Lauren Silva & guitarist Nathan Kop

Friends of Adam (2010 Hawaii Battle of the Band Champions)

Come on out for a fun night of fellowship to kick off the summer and dance the night away with LIVE music and PLENTY FOOD!!!

May Lighthouse Homeless Shelter Dinner Serving

Thank you to everyone who purchased and delivered pizzas, and help prepare and serve at the Lighthouse Homeless Shelter in Waipahu this last Sunday evening. It was a great success and everyone especially enjoyed the Italian salad that the ladies prepared. Thank you Father, Son, and Holy Spirit for all the graces, blessings, love and abundance that you give us. Thank you for the privilege of being able to share this with our brothers and sisters in need. Next month (June): Mexican menu.

From the desk of Father Paul, May 30, 2010

On May 13, 1917, our Blessed Mother appeared to three children in the small town of Fatima in Portugal. The world was in the midst of war (World War I). Her message was simple - pray the Rosary for peace. Recently, Pope Benedict visited this once strong Catholic nation. He purposely timed the visit with the Feast Day of Our Lady of Fatima. Portugal today is Catholic in name, but not action. They have elected a socialist government which passed legislation legalizing abortion and same sex marriage. Pope Benedict, in a strongly worded address to the people (estimated at 9,000 people), he referred to abortions and same sex marriage as "some of today's most insidious and dangerous threats to the common good". He told leaders that Catholic pastoral initiatives are needed to combat "the tragedy of abortion"; he also talked about protecting the "family based on the indissoluble marriage between a man and a women."

Later, in his homily to an open air Mass by the shrine (crowd estimated to be 400,000), he urged all of humanity to turn from selfishness, death, and terror, to the love of God. Referring to the era when the apparition took place, he said it was a time for selfishness and petty interests over the common good. Based on Mary's message at Fatima and on the spirituality of the children who received the message, the Pope urges us to be righteous people who listen to this prophetic message and thus end the "cycle of death and terror" that continues to operate in the world today. This "cycle of death and terror" is not only the terror that we fear from radicals and war, but also the willingness to slaughter unborn children and the destruction of family life through laws allowing same sex marriage (civil unions) or ignoring marriage all together.

May 30, 2010 Tomorrow we will remember those men and women who have given their lives so we can live free. However, as the bumper sticker goes: “Freedom is NOT free.” Do we do our part? Do we participate in our society by being involved in our governance? What do we do with the freedom they have earned for us? One way we can do our share is to help create a society that will honor their service. And, not to sound like a broken record, but one bill sitting on Governor Lingle’s desk waiting for veto or approval is such an example. This week I received another notice from the Hawaii Family Forum reminding us that HB 444 is still alive. They provided specific ways to stop the bill: 1) Pray; 2) Call the governor’s office (586-0034); 3) Save that number in your cell phone. When you run into like-minded people, dial the number for them & and hand them your phone so they, too, can leave their name/address & veto message; 4) Write a personal letter to the governor in opposition to HB 444 and include a picture of your family; Fax that letter to 586-0006; E-mail that letter and attached picture to: governor.lingle@hawaii.gov. ; or send a hard copy to: Office of the Governor, Hawaii State Capitol, Executive Chambers, Honolulu, HI 96813; 5) Encourage your family and friends to do the same. Several points to include in your letters or discussions with friends and family are: 1) The Hawaii Legislature is disenfranchising thousands of Hawaii’s voters who have consistently lobbied the Legislature in large numbers against HB 444 for the past two years; 2) HB 444 is not the result of sincere legislative debate and honest constituent representation. Rather, it is the product of political maneuvering; 3) Children’s physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual needs are best met with both a mother and a father are in the home. Gotta go boot up my hard drive! Aloha-- Mary B

January 2, 1940 The Holy Family

For each family that is with us, and each family we come in contact with, let us pray, keeping in mind the Holy Family which dwelt in peace and poverty and love and joy. Sometimes it is hard to see Christ in his poor. Sometimes it is hard to see the Blessed Mother in women we come in contact with. But if we minister to each other, as we would want to serve the Holy Family, not judging the faults of others, but serving them with joy and with respect, then that is the true way of seeing Christ in our neighbor. If He thought them worth dying for, who are we to judge?

I remember one family on the west side, a longshoreman who got only a day or so on the docks every few weeks. He drank, his wife drank, and their children were growing up disorderly and dishonest. No one would help them. They sold the clothes they were given for liquor. The relief people said the man had work and didn’t report it to them. Consequently often the family went hungry. We spent all one winter giving food and clothing to this family. It was indeed hard to see Christ in these poor. Yet for no other reason could we help them. Without the religious motive, it was a waste of time. With this motive, not one crumb of our help was wasted. Provided we did it with love. And of course if you help people, you soon begin to love them. Just as gratitude makes you love people.

Dorothy Day from “The Duty of Delight, The diaries of Dorothy Day”. Edited by Robert Ellsberg

Church on the Ball from CatholicStudio on Vimeo.

IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY

Immaculate Heart of Mary, refuge of sinners, I beg of you the infinite merits of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and by the graces God has granted to you since your Immaculate Conception, the grace of never going astray again. Mother, keep me, a sinner, constantly bathed in the light of your Immaculate Heart.

WANTED: ADULT VOLUNTEERS OVER THE AGE OF 21

WANTED: ADULT VOLUNTEERS OVER THE AGE OF 21 to work with our teenagers in various aspects of youth ministry (catechesis, faith-sharing, social ministry). NEEDED: We need your gifts; the Spirit is calling you. PAY: an abundance of JOY, commiserating with your personal commitment. Important meeting Monday, June 14th, 7 pm in the Conference Room. No obligation with your attendance. For additional information, call Liz Shippen at 497-7567 or leave a message at 676-4700.

TEENAGE CONFIRMATION PROCESS

TEENAGE CONFIRMATION PROCESS for students in grades 9-12 (School Year 2010-2011). Complete your Sacraments of Initiation and receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit. For more information, contact Liz Shippen at 497-7567 or leave a message at 676-4700. Registrations are open.

Many Faiths, One Truth

OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR Many Faiths, One Truth By TENZIN GYATSO Published: May 24, 2010

WHEN I was a boy in Tibet, I felt that my own Buddhist religion must be the best — and that other faiths were somehow inferior. Now I see how naïve I was, and how dangerous the extremes of religious intolerance can be today.

Though intolerance may be as old as religion itself, we still see vigorous signs of its virulence. In Europe, there are intense debates about newcomers wearing veils or wanting to erect minarets and episodes of violence against Muslim immigrants. Radical atheists issue blanket condemnations of those who hold to religious beliefs. In the Middle East, the flames of war are fanned by hatred of those who adhere to a different faith.

Such tensions are likely to increase as the world becomes more interconnected and cultures, peoples and religions become ever more entwined. The pressure this creates tests more than our tolerance — it demands that we promote peaceful coexistence and understanding across boundaries.

Granted, every religion has a sense of exclusivity as part of its core identity. Even so, I believe there is genuine potential for mutual understanding. While preserving faith toward one’s own tradition, one can respect, admire and appreciate other traditions.

An early eye-opener for me was my meeting with the Trappist monk Thomas Merton in India shortly before his untimely death in 1968. Merton told me he could be perfectly faithful to Christianity, yet learn in depth from other religions like Buddhism. The same is true for me as an ardent Buddhist learning from the world’s other great religions.

A main point in my discussion with Merton was how central compassion was to the message of both Christianity and Buddhism. In my readings of the New Testament, I find myself inspired by Jesus’ acts of compassion. His miracle of the loaves and fishes, his healing and his teaching are all motivated by the desire to relieve suffering.

I’m a firm believer in the power of personal contact to bridge differences, so I’ve long been drawn to dialogues with people of other religious outlooks. The focus on compassion that Merton and I observed in our two religions strikes me as a strong unifying thread among all the major faiths. And these days we need to highlight what unifies us.

Take Judaism, for instance. I first visited a synagogue in Cochin, India, in 1965, and have met with many rabbis over the years. I remember vividly the rabbi in the Netherlands who told me about the Holocaust with such intensity that we were both in tears. And I’ve learned how the Talmud and the Bible repeat the theme of compassion, as in the passage in Leviticus that admonishes, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

In my many encounters with Hindu scholars in India, I’ve come to see the centrality of selfless compassion in Hinduism too — as expressed, for instance, in the Bhagavad Gita, which praises those who “delight in the welfare of all beings.” I’m moved by the ways this value has been expressed in the life of great beings like Mahatma Gandhi, or the lesser-known Baba Amte, who founded a leper colony not far from a Tibetan settlement in Maharashtra State in India. There he fed and sheltered lepers who were otherwise shunned. When I received my Nobel Peace Prize, I made a donation to his colony.

Compassion is equally important in Islam — and recognizing that has become crucial in the years since Sept. 11, especially in answering those who paint Islam as a militant faith. On the first anniversary of 9/11, I spoke at the National Cathedral in Washington, pleading that we not blindly follow the lead of some in the news media and let the violent acts of a few individuals define an entire religion.

Let me tell you about the Islam I know. Tibet has had an Islamic community for around 400 years, although my richest contacts with Islam have been in India, which has the world’s second-largest Muslim population. An imam in Ladakh once told me that a true Muslim should love and respect all of Allah’s creatures. And in my understanding, Islam enshrines compassion as a core spiritual principle, reflected in the very name of God, the “Compassionate and Merciful,” that appears at the beginning of virtually each chapter of the Koran.

Finding common ground among faiths can help us bridge needless divides at a time when unified action is more crucial than ever. As a species, we must embrace the oneness of humanity as we face global issues like pandemics, economic crises and ecological disaster. At that scale, our response must be as one.

Harmony among the major faiths has become an essential ingredient of peaceful coexistence in our world. From this perspective, mutual understanding among these traditions is not merely the business of religious believers — it matters for the welfare of humanity as a whole.

Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, is the author, most recently, of “Toward a True Kinship of Faiths: How the World’s Religions Can Come Together.”

A version of this op-ed appeared in print on May 25, 2010, on page A27 of the New York edition.

Thank You from Mary Jane Program Group House

Thank You on Behalf of the Mary Jane Program

Thanks again to all those who took part in the Our Lady of Guadalupe Pre Mother's Day Sale on the Lanai a couple of weeks ago. The total amount raised now stands at $1744.00.

We have been invited to go to the Mary Jane Program Group House in Kailua to give the funds that we raised. We will also have a chance to tour the House and meet some of the guests. The date for this is Friday, June 4, 2010 at 10:00 am. If you would like to go to this, please email Bob at matthew25@clearwire.net and let him know. Transportation from ROL can be arraigned.

Listed below is a list of items that the Mary Jane Program Group House is in need of. If you would like to contribute any of these items, they can be dropped off at Mass this upcoming weekend, or taken to the Parish Office anytime during the week. Thanks again and God bless you all.

Items Needed for the Mary Jane Program Group House

Here are things we could use in order of priority-
Diapers Newborn
Diapers Size 2
Diapers Size 1
Diapers Size 3
Newborn onesies or sleepwear boy
Newborn onesies or sleepwear girl
Baby Shampoo
Adult shampoo, conditioner, and body wash
Breast pads
Nursing bras
Maternity clothing is S, M, L, or XL
Body pillows (6) for each bedroom
Gentle baby laundry detergent (Dreft etc…)


If you would like to contribute any of these items, they can be dropped off at Mass this upcoming weekend, or taken to the Parish Office anytime during the week. Thanks again and God bless you all.

why did Christ institute this Sacrament of His Body and Blood?

St. Teresa says that Christ is disguised as bread so that we will not fear to approach Him – so that we can go to Him in confidence, daily, needing Him as we need our physical bread.
We are not, most of us, capable of exalted emotion, save rarely. We are not capable always of feelings of love, awe, gratitude, and repentance. So Christ has taken the form of bread that we may more readily approach Him, and feeding daily, assimilating Christ so that it is not we but Christ working in us, we may be made more capable of understanding and realizing and loving Him.
Yes, in bread Christ has become so simple – has condescended so far, that a child can eat the Sacred Food with love and gratitude. He said that we would be scandalized, so it is no use for me to be surprised and horrified at the bluntness of your objection. Even the nearest and dearest of His friends dispersed and fled, not realizing the mystery of the Redemption, that Christ was laying down His life for all men.
When He prayed in agony in the garden – when the weight of our sins descended upon Him, all the sins that had been and that would be committed throughout the world forever, after; when He suffered all the temptations, all the horror, all the remorse for the rest of the world – His disciples did not understand that either. He watched and suffered alone in His agony. He had told them that the next day He was to die. And in spite of His miracles they paid so little attention to His words that they slept, as the Friend they loved most in the world struggled against the thought of His death. They left Him alone, they slept, and the next day they fled, so little did they understand His teachings, though they had been with Him for three years. They did not understand even after they had eaten with Him at the Last Supper. They did not understand until the Holy Spirit descended upon them and it was given them to understand.
So how can I understand or try to tell you about it? If they who lived with Him, who could see Him as man, eat with Him, sleep with Him, and wander with Him through the countryside, if they were “offended” and dispersed, how can I try to tell you what is in my heart? I do not ask myself, “How can I try to overcome your objection?’ Only God can do that. I am not trying to convert you, but just trying not to let go unchallenged your objections, for fear that my not answering would seem to you a kind of denial of Him Whom I love.
There is the question, why did Christ institute this Sacrament of His Body and Blood? And the answer is very simple. It was because He loved us and wished to be with us. “My delights are to be with the children of men.” He made us and He loves us. His presence in the Blessed Sacrament is the great proof of that love.

By Dorothy Day, from her book From Union Square to Rome, pages 164 -166.

Pentecost Sunday at Resurrection of the Lord

More pictures from Pentecost Sunday at Resurrection of the Lord

From the desk of Father Paul

This weekend we are celebrating the Solemnity of Pentecost. In the Old Testament, the chosen people also celebrated a feast of Pentecost. Literally it means 50 days. For the chosen people, it was 50 days after the Passover, for the new People of God (Christians) it is 50 days after the Resurrection. The significance for Christianity is twofold: on this day, the Holy Spirit is “manifested, given and communicated as a Divine Person” (Catholic Catechism #731); and secondly, on this day, the Church is born. Christ had finished the work the Father had given Him to accomplished and now the Spirit is sent to continually sanctify the Church (the new people of God, made so by Baptism). Everything that the Church accomplished from the actual day of Pentecost until today, and everything it will accomplish until the end of the world, is due to this sanctification of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we know God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit and we see the work of Christ continue.
The Church has seen many failures over the centuries. It wasn’t because the Holy Spirit is sleeping, but rather because we humans were not listening to His Guidance. We see this in the recent scandal (there have been many scandals over the years) by a small number of Priests and the cover-ups by Bishops. In all cases, worldly lust, desires, power, self indulgence, lack of love and concern for God’s little ones and God’s people, etc led to these deaf ears. The Spirit will lead us back like He always has, but it is up to us to listen and be open to His Guidance. Happy birthday everyone!

Saint Rita of Cascia

Daughter of Antonio and Amata Lotti, a couple known as the Peacemakers of Jesus; they had Rita late in life. From her early youth, Rita visited the Augustinian nuns at Cascia, Italy, and showed interest in a religious life. However, when she was twelve, her parents betrothed her to Paolo Mancini, an ill-tempered, abusive individual who worked as town watchman, and who was dragged into the political disputes of the Guelphs and Ghibellines. Disappointed but obedient, Rita married him when she was 18, and was the mother of twin sons. She put up with Paolo’s abuses for eighteen years before he was ambushed and stabbed to death. Her sons swore vengeance on the killers of their father, but through the prayers and interventions of Rita, they forgave the offenders. Upon the deaths of her sons, Rita again felt the call to religious life. However, some of the sisters at the Augustinian monastery were relatives of her husband’s murderers, and she was denied entry for fear of causing dissension. Asking for the intervention of Saint John the Baptist, Saint Augustine of Hippo, and Saint Nicholas of Tolentino, she managed to bring the warring factions together, not completely, but sufficiently that there was peace, and she was admitted to the monastery of Saint Mary Magdalen at age 36. Rita lived 40 years in the convent, spending her time in prayer and charity, and working for peace in the region. She was devoted to the Passion, and in response to a prayer to suffer as Christ, she received a chronic head wound that appeared to have been caused by a crown of thorns, and which bled for 15 years. Confined to her bed the last four years of her life, eating little more than the Eucharist, teaching and directing the younger sisters. Near the end she had a visitor from her home town who asked if she’d like anything; Rita’s only request was a rose from her family’s estate. The visitor went to the home, but it being January, knew there was no hope of finding a flower; there, sprouted on an otherwise bare bush, was a single rose blossom. Among the other areas, Rita is well-known as a patron of desperate, seemingly impossible causes and situations. This is because she has been involved in so many stages of life – wife, mother, widow, and nun, she buried her family, helped bring peace to her city, saw her dreams denied and fulfilled – and never lost her faith in God, or her desire to be with Him.

From www.ucatholic.com

Bread and Wine

What do you taste in the bread and wine?
Who do you find in the Body and Blood?
Does the mystical promise come true for you?
Do you feel it, know it, burn for it?
Can you see it in others? Can you give it to others?
Is it in me? Is He in me? In you?
If I had the answers, I wouldn’t ask the questions.
I am so hungry and thirsty.
For Him and you in the mystical communion.
Of bread and wine transubstantiated.

The Prayer of Saint Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury,pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.


O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen

Matthew 25:31-46

31 But when the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the angels with him, then shall he sit on the throne of his glory:
32 and before him shall be gathered all the nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separate the sheep from the goats;
33 and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
35 for I was hungry, and ye gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me in;
36 naked, and ye clothed me; I was sick, and ye visited me; I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee hungry, and fed thee? or athirst, and gave thee drink?
38 And when saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?
39 And when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?
40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of these my brethren, even these least, ye did it unto me.
41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels:
42 for I was hungry, and ye did not give me to eat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink;
43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in; naked, and ye clothed me not; sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.
44 Then shall they also answer, saying, Lord, when saw we thee hungry, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
45 Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not unto one of these least, ye did it not unto me.
46 And these shall go away into eternal punishment: but the righteous into eternal life.

Resurrection of the Lord Social Ministry

Ave Maria (Classical Guitar)

Ave Maria (Classical Guitar)

Female Face

What I am going to say now may sound strange but I just noticed something while admiring that photo. On the koa desk where the lectors read (I apologize for not being able to remember the name for it), I keep seeing an image of a female face. Is it just me???

It's hard every day

I wish I could end the day as the person who starts the day
In the morning I pray my rosary – I pray for those I’ve wronged
I ask forgiveness for the sins of the day before
I ask God’s help in not committing the same sins in
The day ahead – the new day ahead
I never seem to make it very far into this new day
Before I push myself out of the way
That old me with all the resentments, pride, vanity, lust,
Jealousy, anger, hurts, and self obsession begins to bark
It’s so hard sometimes to keep that dog down
Prayer helps – prayer throughout the day
It’s so hard to become a new man in Christ
I work and pray at it. But it’s hard

Francesco

A tiny whispering sound

Then the LORD said, "Go outside and stand on the mountain before the LORD; the LORD will be passing by." A strong and heavy wind was rending the mountains and crushing rocks before the LORD--but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake--but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake there was fire--but the LORD was not in the fire. After the fire there was a tiny whispering sound. When he heard this, Elijah hid his face in his cloak and went and stood at the entrance of the cave. A voice said to him, "Elijah, why are you here?"

1 Kings 19:11-13

Why are you here?

Statue from Nagasaki a poignant reminder of nuclear threat

Statue from Nagasaki a poignant reminder of nuclear threat By Ron Lajoie Catholic News Service

NEW YORK (CNS) -- Archbishop Joseph Mitsuaki Takami of Nagasaki, Japan, was an unborn child in his mother's womb on Aug. 9, 1945, when the second atomic bomb obliterated his hometown. The blast killed about 75,000 people and brought an end to World War II.

On May 2, the day before he was to take a joint message from himself and Bishop Joseph Atsumi Misue of Hiroshima to the United Nations calling on world leaders to "take a courageous step toward the total abolition of nuclear weapons," the archbishop brought perhaps one of the most compelling artifacts of Nagasaki's inferno to St. Patrick's Cathedral, where he concelebrated Mass.

The scorched head of Mary is all that remains of the statue that had once graced the main altar of Nagasaki's Urakami Cathedral before it was destroyed in the blast.

The monthlong U.N. Review Conference of Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons began May 3.

"We as the bishops of the Catholic Church of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, the only country to have suffered nuclear attacks, demand that the president of the United States, the Japanese government and the leaders of other countries make utmost efforts to abolish nuclear weapons," the statement reads in part.

"How sad and foolish it is to abuse the progress that humanity has made in the fields of science and technology in order to destroy lives as massively and swiftly as possible," it adds.

As a first step, the Japanese prelates called upon U.S. President Barack Obama to establish a policy of "sole purpose," which would "limit the purpose of retaining nuclear weapons to deterring others from using such weapons only."

Archbishop Takami said he hoped the statue would focus attention on the enormous destructive power and inhumanity of nuclear weapons and on the importance of working toward their elimination. The partial bust exudes a haunting and tortured beauty; the eye sockets black and empty like the eyes of those who gazed into the fury of the initial flash.

"My message in bringing the statue is to ask, through the intercession of Mary, that such weapons no longer be used, that we work for peace," he told Catholic New York, archdiocesan newspaper, through an interpreter after a Japanese-language Mass May 2 for New York's Japanese Catholic community at St. John the Evangelist Church.

"Too many (of these) weapons exist," he said. "First we have to abolish all these weapons to eliminate the danger of war. And then there are many things to do."

Archbishop Takami has more than a purely spiritual or philosophical rationale for seeking the elimination of nuclear weapons. The Nagasaki blast claimed the lives of two of his aunts and his grandmother. A cousin died 14 years after the war from bomb-related illnesses. He was born March 6, 1946, and raised in the long shadow cast by Nagasaki's mushroom cloud.

"My mother spoke about it, but not so many times," he recalled. "Because she didn't want to speak about it. Her experience was so sad."

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