Treasured Memories with Columban Missionaries (TM with CM)
By Gloria Fallorina
Gloria was married to Leonardo Fallorina of Candelaria, Zambales. They have four children, all girls. She has been back from Japan to the Philippines since 2000. In her golden years, she is still actively engaged in church works in Valenzuela City.
I arrived in Japan on December 5, 1995. Adjustment in a foreign land was not easy. Language was one of the biggest problems. There was only one Person who could understand me completely, GOD.
Being a church worker for more than ten years, I missed attending Holy Mass in less than a week since I arrived in Japan. I tried my best to find a church where I could feel at home being away from home. I remembered what God said, "If you seek Me, surely you will find Me". True enough, with the help of the taxi driver and a few Japanese words that I managed to memorize, courtesy of some Filipinos living in that area, I was able to locate Chibadera Catholic Church. So beautiful, magnificently standing on top of the hill!
MSP missionary to the Diocese of Okinawa, Japan.
Japan is a country of few Christians, particularly Catholics. As far as my little knowledge is concerned, Japan in its refusal to be conquered by the different religious orders, persecuted quite a number of religious missionaries and lay persons including the first Filipino Martyr, Saint Lorenzo Ruiz. On 24 November last year 187 martyrs were beatified in Nagasaki City. Despite the persevering efforts of the religious missionaries to spread Christianity, most Japanese remained firm in their traditional belief, Shinto, which eventually became the national religion until Buddhism was introduced in the pre-war period. Today, although the system has changed, Shinto and Buddhism remain the dominant religions in the country. Temples and shrines are the hottest tourist attractions in the country especially in places rich in Japanese history and tradition. One famous religious tradition is the 
Phone calls for me from Japan are rare, so I was surprised recently to receive a call from Mrs Murakami, the wife of a man who was my catechist from 1951 to 1954. She told me that he had died, aged 88. That phone call marked the end of a 55-year friendship with a man of remarkable personality and one of the finest gentlemen I came to know during my 35 years in Japan.
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 in Kumamoto City. She was worried about her teenage daughter, who suffered from some mild physical handicaps. I asked her if she ever went before Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament and shared her worries with Him. ‘What?’ she said in a shocked voice. ‘Surely you don’t believe that!’