ANOTHER NEWS FROM JAPAN

It was not a Canonical Visit. Sr. Thelma has been to Japan four times already, yet her visit this time was a “first” in many senses of the word. Many unexpected things happened, yet God, in the end, “harmonized” everything.

Sr. Thelma arrived on November 15, a day before Sr. Socorro Esparis, who started our mission in Japan 65 years ago, went back to the Father at the age of 96. She was still able to accompany her on the last leg of her spiritual journey, and the sisters as well, as a very significant chapter in the history of the region had come to a close. She witnessed the way funeral and burial rites are conducted in Japan within the Catholic Church. Beyond the language barrier, she was able to experience the heart of the community as the sisters, through Sr. Socorro’s passing away, contemplated the essence of their vocation as Hijas de Jesus, the deep meaning of their missionary life in Japan, and the beauty of fraternal communion.

It was her first time too to meet the old teachers of Shotoku Girls High School as they met as a group under the leadership of Kawakami-sensei. She commended them in their desire to continue supporting the school, now totally under lay leadership, and encouraged them to continue the bonding of the “family of Shotoku”, past, present and future, with the bigger family of Mother Candida. She also met for the first time the moderators and students of two clubs who had been, for the past two years, donating hard-earned money to our Bangladesh dormitory apostolate as a gesture of fraternity.

When she went to Joso, as it happened to be a Sunday, she was able to greet for the first time the Filipino and Brazilian communities during their respective Eucharistic Celebrations. She met several of the original leaders who were instrumental in building the church eight years ago.

She went to Hiroshima and met for the first time Bishop Alexis Mitsuru Shirahama, the newly installed Bishop of Hiroshima. She was very warmly received, and it was a great opportunity to inform him of our history and mission in his Diocese and share our plans and hopes for the future.

She had not really been to the modern part of Tokyo; as always, she had a tight schedule. This time, together with the Local Council, who wanted to celebrate their third year of working as a team, she had

an outing in Odaiba. She experienced riding a driverless monorail while seeing the excellent urban planning of the city, watched a robot show, entered a Japanese-made spaceship, saw a model humanoid and the latest innovations in car technology.

By Sr. Flor Florence, F.I.