Keola Kalani says attending many services at St. Elizabeth Church in Aiea “has made me much more grounded in life.” (Courtesy of Catholic Stewardship Consultants)
By Catholic Stewardship Consultants
CatholicSteward.com
As Keola Kalani reflects on his life as a Christian steward, he is continually struck by how the Holy Spirit is at work in his life.
“The Holy Spirit has definitely been working in me,” Kalani says. “The Lord is so good at using people and bringing us closer to Him.”
Kalani, a parishioner at St. Elizabeth Church in Aiea, was not raised Catholic. Although he was baptized Catholic as a child, Kalani was raised by great-grandparents who were practicing Mormons, so his exposure to the Catholic Church was minimal.
“They took me to Mormon services and they practiced the Mormon faith, so I was familiar with God, but I didn’t practice any particular faith,” Kalani says. “My mother’s family were practicing Catholics, but I didn’t have much to do with them.”
Then one day Kalani’s life changed in a dramatic way when he went to mass.
“I was a teenager at the time, and my uncle invited me to go to Mass with him and my cousins, and I went,” Kalani says. “After that, I never went! I experienced something at Mass that I couldn’t explain. I didn’t even really know why, but I kept being drawn back to Mass.”
Looking back, Kalani believes it was the Holy Spirit who led him to the truth of the faith. But at the time, he just knew that was where he wanted to be.
“It was so appealing to me,” Kalani says. “The statues, the candles, the crucifix, and all the elements of the Mass – they spoke to me in a way I couldn’t explain. The music at the Mass also made a big impression on me. We had a youth Mass at the time and I was fascinated by everything.”
As a teenager, Kalani not only began attending Mass, but also allowed the Holy Spirit to work within her and began to explore the Catholic faith.
“I wanted to know what was going on,” Kalani says. “I saw people taking communion, but I didn’t know what they were doing, and I was curious.”
Kalani enrolled in the RCIA. That same year, after completing the RCIA process, Kalani received his First Communion and Confirmation and began attending Mass as a fully initiated Catholic. But the Holy Spirit was calling him to do more.
“For a long time, I only went to Mass,” Kalani says. “I wasn’t involved in the parish. Then one day Father Joe called me and told me they were looking for members for the Stewardship Council and he asked me if I would consider joining.”
Kalani didn’t know it at the time, but today he describes it as another moment when the Holy Spirit worked in him and led him to live his life more deeply in faith.
“I just got involved because my father asked me to, and from that point on I have been involved in many different areas,” he says.
Currently serving at St. Elizabeth’s as a lector, extraordinary minister of communion, member of the Stewardship Council, chair of the Pastoral Council, and many other roles, Kalani says that being involved in the life of the parish has helped him focus on Christ in everything he does.
“It made me much more grounded,” Kalani says. “It helped me center my life around the Church. It helped me understand what I came into this world to do – to live a life of service to the Church, and it gave me fulfillment.”
In addition, Kalani’s service in the church also led his mother and father to Christ.
“My father started taking me to Mass, and he would stand outside in the parking lot and provide parking security while I was at Mass,” Kalani says. “Then we started working together as parking lot attendants. Now, after going through the RCIA himself, my father is a practicing Catholic and the head groundskeeper of our parish. My mother was a Catholic who had fallen away from the faith, and she has returned!”
And because Kalani recognized that his parents came to Christ in part because of his example, he knows that it was Christ who worked through him and brought them home.
“Everything good is due to Christ,” says Kalani.
Kalani encourages all of us to hold on to this reality and surrender ourselves to Him in loving service, out of gratitude for all the good that God has done.
“Christ is telling us, ‘Come, follow me,'” Kalani says. “We just have to show up. We have to be willing to give of ourselves, and the Holy Spirit will use us as He sees fit. You will be amazed at the sense of fulfillment and the realization that God has a plan for your life. You just have to be willing to give of yourself. God will use you for His glory.”
