There is a high school in our parish for nearly 2,000 girls conducted by the Sisters of the Infant of Jesus. Very few of these girls are baptized Christians. As a means of contact, I teach English to the junior high school pupils three times a week. My classes are very informal and I am afraid the young ladies don’t take me very seriously, possibly because I give them no homework or exams. My specialty is supposed to be pronunciation and intonation.
By Father Garry Gestoveo
Volunteers hold a distribution of towels
and clothing for the winter season
By Dalisay Barrera Sena Yu
I am pleased to read your magazine as it reminds me of my happy days in Columban College, Olongapo City, where I finished my high school and college education. I was a Catechist under the Columban Fathers and an active Student Catholic Action (SCA) Cell leader when Columban Sister Una was our Spiritual adviser. One semester she recommended me for a scholarship when I wouldn’t have been able otherwise to continue my education because my big sister was graduating from the University of the East. My father couldn’t afford to send both of us to college at the same time. Sister Una encouraged me to continue my studies and I was granted the scholarship because I was active in SCA and a Catechist. My Dad and Mom were so grateful to the Columban Fathers and Sisters that time.
By Fr Fintan Murtagh
The author is a Columban priest who has worked in the Diocese of Iba, Zambales, since coming to the Philippines in 1964. He is a parish priest and also works with persons with disabilities.
Melody skiing with friends in Japan during the Duskin Leadership Training
Her name was Melody. It must be more than twenty years ago now since I first met her on a Saturday afternoon at the chapel in her barrio. A friend had transported her on a tricycle. She was able to maneuver herself from there. Melody had been severely affected by polio since she was only three or four. The lower part of her body was severely deformed because of this but she moved herself about in a sitting position by propelling her feet with her hands.
By Fr David Buenaventura SDB
For seven years, Fr. David Buenaventura was a missionary priest in the highlands of Papua New Guinea. Then the time came for him to serve his fellow Pinoys struggling to live in a country that is rich in everything except Christianity – Japan.
I was appointed parish priest for Filipinos living in the Catholic Diocese of Oita in January 1997. The appointment was the first of its kind in Japan. We have a good number of Filipino priests working in Japan, but no one had been appointed parish priest. My appointment was based on Canon 518, which talks about the Personal Parish. I didn’t have a convent or a parish church. When asked by my parishioners, “How come the other parish priests in the diocese have their own convents and churches while you, Father, don’t have?” I would tell them with pride: “This is so because your homes are my convents and each Filipino community is my church.”
By Fr Barry Cairns MSSC
Have you ever attended the solemn opening of a Catholic Church? It’s quite an impressive ceremony. We at St. Joseph’s Church in Katase, Japan had almost the same grandeur for the opening of our stable – that is, our Christmas crib. Building this Nativity scene was very much a community effort.
By Francis Xavier Shigeki Ishikura
In an unexpected way, a Japanese married to a Filipino found his way to the Catholic faith. Here he tells of his journey and how his wife, Leonila, became instrumental to his change of heart.
My first encounter with the Catholic Church was through my wife, Leonila, a Filipino from Bulacan, who is a Catholic. It all began after our marriage when I had to drive her and our children to church. At first, once a month, then twice or three times until ten years passed in no time.
By Fr. Rolly Aniscal ssc
I was selling fruits in a bus terminal before I knew the Columbans. Being the eldest of five, I had to help my parents in this kind of livelihood. Since seven, it had been my life. My parents were peddlers at a bus terminal and through them I learned to face one of the hard facts of life: how to live in a situation where what you earned on that day is consumed on that same day. I had no intention whatsoever of finishing college because I didn’t see any reason of doing so. What the use? Money flows in the terminal if you are industrious enough to run when the bus arrives and know how to entertain people in order to buy your fruits. Frugality then became my acquired value- save the last penny because it is not easy to get it.
By Fr. Joseph Brooder, mssc
By the time I got to Japan twenty-five years ago, ecumenism was very strong. But it had not always been that way. One Protestant minister told me that when Father Pat Diamond sent an invitation to all the Protestant ministers in the City of Kumamoto to attend the opening of the new hall in Tetori parish, they got together to discuss whether it would be safe to attend or not. They prayed about it, but decided to risk death and attend. The rest is history.
They where bowled over by the reception they got, met priests whom they found to be normal after all, and had a great party. “We discovered that Catholics really do believe in Christ,” said one of the ministers. That was the beginning of different churches working together in Kumamoto. Perhaps Father Pat Diamond did more for ecumenism there by that invitation than did Vatican II. Since then every Christmas Catholic and Protestant churches hire out the local threatre to hold a Christmas pageant. Catholic and Protestant schools stage the nativity in drama. On alternate years, the guest speaker is Catholic or Protestant.
By Fr. Rudy Fernandez, sj
I would like you to meet my friends Akihiro and Noriko Yoshida. They are special. They both come from traditionally Buddhist families. Akihiro’s mother is a very devout Buddhist. Noriko received her high school and college education at a school run by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur.
