I have Hawaiian ancestry and was born and raised on the Big Island of Hawaiʻi. Like many Hawaiian children of my generation I was given a Hawaiian middle name. As with many other indigenous cultures traditional Hawaiian names were never uniform, rather each one would be a phrase specially constructed to envelope an idea, virtue, or dream for the child.

My parents had little-to-no education in the Hawaiian language, but they desired to stay true to the traditional way of giving a Hawaiian name, which is how I was given the name "Makalani" which literally translates as "heavenly eyes," though my parents were less concerned with me having physically noteworthy eyes. Rather they wanted my name to be a kind of prayer and reminder that I always have the Eyes of Heaven watching over and protecting me.

I appreciate their attentiveness to the spiritual realm, for I have often felt protected in a Heavenly sense through various situations of life. Recently though I have been able to experience a whole new dimension of a prayer for heavenly eyes. In the mission year we dive into the intersection the Incarnation, Matthew 25:40 ("whatever you did for the least of these you did for me"), and the way that Mother Teresa literally saw Christ in those she aided.

Inspired by a discussion about these topics I prayed to be able to see with Christ's eyes, with His Heavenly Eyes, when I went out on street ministry. I'm not Mother Teresa, I did not literally see Christ, but I saw the beauty of a friend on the street who deeply shared her wounded heart with me, and I recognized that Christ was present to her in her suffering.

God did grant my request in a way I had not expected though. As my friend paused in her story, collecting her thoughts as she labored through re-visiting her heartbreaking experience. I held her hand and met her gaze. In that moment I felt Christ looking back at me with His Heavenly Eyes, His Sacred Heart pierced and laid bare. In that gaze there was a single question, the same question we all ask when we're being vulnerable, the question His Heart was pierced for, "Will you love me?"

~ Amanda De Rego