Today, on the Good Shepherd Sunday, I visited the Christ the Redeemer Parish in Kamo, Niigata for confirmation of 3 people. Since the parish priest, Fr. Tsutomu Sato has been in charge of 2 parishes, Kamo and Shirone, those who received the sacrament today were from both communities, 2 from Kamo and one from Shirone. The Catholic community in Kamo which is 44 years old this year has around 30 regular Sunday Mass attendance. Among them are several members from Philippines and Sri Lanka.
Good Shepherd is calling us to follow him. In the gospel today, Jesus said that " my sheep listen to my voice, I know them, and they follow me". His voice is telling us our mission in this life. In fact that is our vocation. We have to try to listen to his voice to discern what we have to pursue in our life.
After the Mass, all the members who attended today's Mass gathered together in a hall for a small party to congratulate those who had received the confirmation. Small community like Kamo has certain advantage to build a strong community. Since there are not so many members, each one of them could know each other very well. So the gathering after Mass today was just like a family gathering.
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