The road up to San Ramón Hill, forty-one years apart. In 1981, the road was decorated for the arrival of Pope John Paul II on February 22, 1981 - the first and only Pope, so far, to visit Guam.

The hymn is more than just about the Rosary. Like many of the old hymns, it is catechetical - it teaches Catholic doctrine. And this hymn teaches about the Communion of Saints.

The Dolorosa has her own section in the traditional Chamorro hymn book (Lepblon Kånta) on Guam. Her feast day is September 15 and the parishioners of Santa Rita have been praying her novena and singing many of her hymns.

Sometime in 1909, Chinese fishermen discovered a canoe, with three unknown sailors from a different land, off Zhoushan Island in China, very close to Shanghai. What the Chinese did know was that these three foreign sailors were hungry, thirsty and weak. Had they not been discovered, they would probably had perished.

Here is a much less well-known Chamorro hymn promoting the devotion of the Holy Rosary. October is the Month of the Rosary, but the prewar missionaries promoted the Rosary as a daily devotion, and not just for the dead. All parishes had techa (prayer leaders) who lead the praying of the Rosary by the people inside the church.

A simplistic view of life paints everything black and white. There are the good guys and the bad guys, and a bag guy is all bad and a good guy is all good. The reality of life is a mixture of more colors than black and white. Take the Japanese Occupation, for instance.

Three, young Chamorro women lost either a leg or a hand, thanks to World War II. Two were sisters, entering their teens. Isabel Mendiola Iglesias was just ten years old when the war started, and her younger sister Magdalena Mendiola Iglesias was just nine.

Perhaps it was 1992 or 1993 when I was stationed in Saipan. I walked into the sanctuary at Kristo Rai Church in Garapan to start the 6AM Mass and was startled when the...

Felis is borrowed from Spanish feliz which means "happy." You can replace felis with magof which is the indigenous, Chamorro word for "happy." Our grandparents who lived closer to Spanish times would have stuck with felis.

Maña i hechura, asta la seputtura! We take our habits to the grave.

Refrain : Si Yu'os ha gigiha i galaide. (God is guiding the boat.) 1. Ha håtsa hulo' i galaide-ho ya hu patcha i kanai-ña; (He lifted up my boat and I touched His hand;)

The Nobenan Niño in Chamorro probably did not come about until the 1920s because, as Pale' Roman and others have said, Chamorros prayed mainly in Spanish until that time. Prayer books in Chamorro were few in number until Pale' Roman started translating dozens and dozens of them.

They say that modern man doesn't know how to wait, and so we jump right into Christmas the day after Thanksgiving. In many homes, the Christmas tree comes down on December 26 and people find it odd when others continue to say "Merry Christmas" till January 6 or so. We celebrate too early and we end it too early.

The nice melody has a lot to do with it, but the words are very meaningful and have a lot to say about who Mary is for us Catholics. CLICK ON THE LINK for more information and to hear the Guam and Saipan versions.

This Chamorro hymn to Mary speaks about the beauty of Mary. It is primarily a spiritual beauty, that came about through God's doing, God's grace, while Mary, as a free human being, cooperated, accepted and followed through with that grace.

There are no turkeys native to the Marianas.

It used to be a very common practice. But, today, even many devout Catholics in the Marianas don't do it. Time to bring it back? Absolutely!

The village of Sumay is gone. But not its cemetery. Most of the lápida (gravestones) are now nameless slabs of stone. But a few remain, in Spanish, Chamorro and English, to the extent that we can come up with a list of the people buried here :

This is a photo of the inside of the Hagåtña church around the year 1900. Notice anything? NO PEWS. You see some benches, but there are curious things about these benches.