Over the next few weeks, we invite you to discover our missions through a series of three testimonies, one from one of our Japanese sisters, who testifies to her life at the age of 90, and the other two from two lay people who are close to our mission. A good read!
1 - The life of our Institute: in Japan (part 1)
Sr Rose, 90 years old, continues her catechism classes at Tokyo Cathedral with great enthusiasm, in collaboration with the priests of the parish. She tells us:
“One of the experiences that led me back to the starting point of my religious life are various encounters with many Catholics in the different parishes. When young, I was sent to a parish school in Nagasaki. There I came to know that the children and their parents lived their faith in everyday life, and perceived it in their daily conversations. This experience, I still believe, inspired me and brought my religious life back to the beginning. Other experiences also have given me abundant opportunities to learn unceasingly, e.g. some of the other ministries in different parishes, formation for younger sisters, relationships with people as a formation staff member of “attentive listening to volunteers” and helping the victims of the nuclear explosion disaster of Fukushima. And what’s more, these help me lay the foundations of my ministry of spreading the Good News by the Word of God. In addition, God sent us an excellent IJ Biblical scholar. What a blessing! A deep encounter with “the Word of God” is my life itself, and the very origin and foundation that made me what I am now, a messenger of the Word.
There have been a lot of twists and turns, but when I reflect,
I am convinced that all of them were precious chances of my encountering God’.
Through my religious life, I recognized that God always prepared the path for me. Signs I occasionally received proved God’s presence in the realities of my daily living. This conviction continues to give me hope and make me live abandonment in my “journey.”