Japan
Sacramentals – A Form of Mission
I am a blessings priest! I use the ritual with its numerous liturgical blessings and find it a powerful form of mission. As I write this, I have just come from blessing an expectant mother. After receiving the blessing she …
Categories: Front Feature, Japan, June-July 2011, Magazine Archive
Update from Japan following disasters
We received an update over the weekend from a Columban living in Japan. We have been told that all Columbans are accounted for. Help those in Japan through the Columbans by making a donation. Everything is OK here in Tokyo. …
Categories: General Information, Japan
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A Diminishing Family Value: Care for the Aged
Every year in September, Japan has a national holiday called “Respect for the Aged Day.” This year that very name has taken a battering! At age 79, Fr. Barry Cairns lives and works in Japan. It all started in June …
Categories: Front Story, Japan, Reflections
Strangers in a Strange Land
Personally, I feel blessed to have this opportunity of being together with such a devoted staff, including the volunteers and residents. At the same time, I think about how I came to Saalaa and what the meaning of my work here is.
Categories: Japan
Apostleship of the Sea
Categories: China Updates, Japan, Korea Updates, Mobile Front, Philippines Updates
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Columban History in Japan
The Columban Fathers entered Japan in 1948 at the request of the bishops of Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka and Fukuoka. The country was just beginning to recover from the devastation of World War II, and people of every class were turning to Christianity.
Categories: Japan
Japan’s Garbage Problem
Waste and dangerous chemicals are major environmental issues in densely populated Japan. It was just an old chair—an office chair, to be precise. I had rescued it from a rubbish collection drop-off some years previously, and it had served me …
Categories: Japan
The Healing of Mizuko Jizo
A ritual in Buddhist Japan has emerged to memorialize babies killed by abortion and assuage mothers’ shame and guilt. In Japan, the spirits of the dead never seem far away. Indeed, reverence for those who have died is a distinctive …
Categories: Japan
My Job Is Finished
A retired Columban reflects on his 56 years of continuous mission in Japan. On July 16, 1948, fellow Columban Father Francis Hunter and I landed in heavily war-scarred Kobe with rubble and bombed-out buildings everywhere. Then, it was off to …
Categories: Japan
The Power Of Adoration
A conversation leads to a decade-long adoration of the Holy Eucharist in five Japanese parishes. It was autumn of 1983 when I had a chat outside our little church with one of the prominent ladies in the parish of Koshi …
Categories: Japan
Who doesn’t have memories of being called to the table with the love and intimacy that comes with a life shared day-to- day? These also were Jesus’ words to His beloved ones
