As the liturgical year ends, one cannot help but look back at events of the past year and make a “run-through " of how God has passed by in our mission in Japan.?I share with you what came to my mind…

*Remember “Shotoku Girls’ School” which we turned over to the lay more than 10 years ago? Remember the Cross-Cultural Course or CCC Program we had, to foster international relations among FI schools all over the world?

July, I got an e-mail from Keely Chao, Batch 1998 from Taiwan, now living in the US. I was their Counselor. She wanted to bring her family to Matsue, “to meet the Sisters again, tour the school, the classrooms, the old CCC building, the dorm, etc.”  I met her in Tokyo. She brought along her parents, husband, and two teen daughters.  Greeting her parents, I said, “Thank you very much for trusting us with your daughter, when she was sixteen.  Her first time to be away from home, live with a family of strangers, not knowing Japanese...”  Keely said, “It was a life-changing experience Sister!”. The daughters were wide-eyed as they heard their mom reminisce about her CCC days.

In Shotoku, now a co-ed school, they were invited to join the English conversation class of Carmela Rey. The daughters were asked to introduce themselves and talk about their family, where they live, their dreams, etc. It was “Deja-vu”.  Twenty-six years have passed and yet the memories of the CCC were so fresh in Keely’s heart, as she watched them do the very things she did, only this time, they used internet technology.  She found her first host family! Her elder “Sister” now has an 18-year-old daughter. She offered to be her host family if she ever came to the US.   She told me later, “It will be a heritage, Sister.”

October. I got to chat in Messenger with Joanna Go, from Kong Hua School, Cagayan de Oro; same Batch.   “Sister, I am now based in Cebu. My children are studying at Sacred Heart School, Hijas de Jesus. How is Sr. Nakamoto? Sr. Nitz? I met the grandson of Kura-sensei (presently studying in Sacred Heart; Kura-sensei was faculty in Shotoku and several times a CCC host) and  I offered to take him out if allowed. I told him teachers and host families have been good to me during my stay in Japan and I would like to return the gesture to him.   I have kept intact my CCC things. I wanted to show them to him.”  She brought along another Sacred Hearter who went to Shotoku too, because of the school’s intercultural exchange.

November. I was browsing my FB and I saw a familiar photo - students of Shotoku solemnly bowing and offering flowers before 2 huge panels of photos of Sisters, faculty, and students who were part of the school’s history and have now passed away. Written was, “In continuation of the past, we are thankful for the support of many people. “? The Memorial Mass was attended by old faculty members, staff, and alumni.  It was an endearing photo that elicited many memories of our 60 years there…

On November 17, I coordinated the International Mass in St. Ignatius. It was led by the Indonesian Community; the priest was an Indonesian Jesuit; the superb choir, sang Indonesians songs. They donned their national costumes and introduced briefly their country and the Catholic population. and gave the profile of those who come to Japan. Thanking them after mass, I mentioned we have a new mission in Flores.  “Sister, the one who played the pipe organ is from Flores!”.  Oh! My layout artist for the English Bulletin is Indonesian. We have several Indonesian leaders and volunteers in our International Youth Group! I am surrounded by Indonesians!

The donations that Sunday were for Myanmar. The Catholic church there continues to struggle for justice and peace and the Archdiocese of Tokyo has “adopted them.” St. Ignatius has always supported Myanmar, I told Pilar Brufal, when I met her this year in Manresa. I showed some photos of the mass they recently had in our church. She recognized one attire - “This costume is from Kachin State where I was!”.

End of November, for the first time, after COVID, the staff and volunteers of John de Britto English Center where the Hijas de Jesus works had Autumn foliage viewing in Karuizawa, Nagano Prefecture. The group consisted of an Indian Jesuit, a Romanian Franciscan Conventual, two Notre Dame de Vie and two Teresian Association lay missionaries, and me. In St. Ignatius, it is impossible to carry out its mission and respond to the needs the people without collaboration from other religious and lay groups. It is the biggest “international, inter-cultural” Church in Japan and is very much into the synodal path. The mission is hectic, so we need to have a break at least once a year to re-charge!

Ramblings… memoirs… The Holy Spirit continues to hover over the Church in Japan and in the mission of the Hijas de Jesus. There are so many concrete examples, for we also work in the Yokohama Diocese and recently, the Chinese apostolate. Everything can not be shared in a page or two. One thing is sure, our charisma is alive in Japan. And the Holy Spirit, who blows wherever He wills, knows how to connect the present to the past, the past to the present. He weaves events and directs people’s hearts toward the future. As we begin the new liturgical year, a Jubilee Year, there is indeed reason to HOPE!

by Sr. Flor Florece, F.I.