Thanks giving Mass for canonization of St.Damien de Veuster, SS.CC., was held in SAGAE, Yamagata at 10:30 am today. Fathers of the SS.CC., Society of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, are in charge of mission in Yamagata district in my diocese. St.Damien is well known to many as the leper priest of Molokai. He has been canonized on 11 October this year in Vatican.
More than 250 people came to attend the Mass. After the Mass, Fr. Donegan gave a talk on the life history of St.Damien. Also minor seminarians of Salesians from Yokohama performed a play on the life of St.Damien in Molokai. The seminarians did very well. Then members of Shinjo gave vote of thanks to everyone for their help to build their church in Shinjo. As I have mentioned this several times, there are number of Filipino mothers residing in my diocese and there are more than 100 of them in Shinjo. Together with their kids and sometimes with their husbands who are not Christians in most cases, they have been meeting in several places for Sunday Mass. With support of members of this diocese, we are trying to build their own church in Shinjo. At this moment, we are very close to reach the goal. Let us pray hard so that Almighty Father will give us more help to realise our dream. (Photo above; together with one of the members of Yamagata who gave a interesting performance. Behind us are Filipino mothers preparing for their turn)
During the party, Kawasaki DARC members gave a performance of traditional Okinawa dance and drumming. Then there were several good performances by Filipino members, both mothers and kids, from Shinjo and Yamagata, singing by members of various parishes in Yamagata and, finally to conclude, traditional Hanagasa dance by everyone.
Congratulations for members of the SS.CC. and thank you everyone to join the celebration.
No comments:
Post a Comment