austraLasia #2806
 
Don Bosco, welcome back!

TOKYO: 17 February 2011 -- "Don Bosco, welcome back".  Such was the greeting from the Principal of Kodaira school, Fr Suzuki Masao. On a calm day you can see Mt Fuji in all its majesty from the school, and this certainly was what prompted the greeting. Finally the dream has come true!
    It was, of course, an occasion of great festivity for the 200 primary and middle school pupils who surrounded Don Bosco, singing and praying.
    Two hours on and 'Don Bosco' left for the Salesian Polytechnic where a further 800 students were in expectation. In Tokyo, as in other places, the turnout was much greater than expected. On the 12th, despite the cold and snow of the previous evening, some 400 people took part in a Symposium on the Preventive System where Salesian Bishop Mizobe told of his own Salesian story and how it has influenced and indeed altered the manner of pastoral contact in a setting outside the usual Salesian one
    In the evening, a large group of young people, together with the Bishop, reflected together on life as a vocation and gift for others.
    Sunday 13, 8.30 Mass at the oratory then the 10.30 mass for the Salesian parish in Tokyo. the huge Meguro parish church was packed. A thousand or more, many of them young. The Bishop's message was addressed to them in particular: Let nothing worry you: Courage, move ahead. These were words that Mons. Cimatti used often repeat and which sum up Don Bosco's approach well.
    In the afternoon there was a special programme for youngsters from the middle and upper secondary. The courtyard was full. Then the following day it was the turn of the 700 primary school children from the nearby FMA school at Seibi and then the 450 children and parents from Salesio Kindergarten attached to the parish. How they could sing!
That afternoon and the following day Don Bosco was 'borrowed' by the students from the Middle and Upper Secondary  school at Seibi and then by the Sisters at Seibi Home and their pupils ( kindergarten, primary, middle, upper secondary and college) from the school at Akabane, the heart of the FMA presence in Japan. Such joy and devotion! Don Bosco offers hope, trust.
 In the evening the Relic was taken to Shimoigusa: the provincial had prepared just 150 information brochures and had to beg pardon for his little faith! More than 600 people turned up for the evening mass.
Today is the final day. Don Bosco is at the studentate at Chofu. It will be a day of pilgrimage and prayer with mass celebrated by the Nuncio, Archbishop Alberto De Bottari, for the entire Salesian Family.

Thank you Don Bosco. Stay with us in Japan.

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