Hamamatsu - Fruitful Year of Mercy!

by vaclav posted Oct 27, 2016
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EAO Good Night Talk (32)         for download:  EAO-GNT-2016 (32) November ENG.pdf

                                                 

November 1, 2016

 

Fruitful Year of Mercy – Hamamatsu, Japan!

 

  

Dear friends and confreres,

 

 

It was an exciting time with the Rector Major in Mongolia (first historical visit of the Rector Major to the Chinghis Khan Land), Myanmar (first historical visit to the Myanmar Vice-province) and two encounters in the provincial house of Seoul (KOR) and Bangkok (with the FIS delegation confreres)!

  

    For past 12 months thanks to Pope Francis and with the whole Catholic community around the world we had a good chance to know deeper the name of God – Mercy! So many Holy Doors were open in 23 countries of our EAO region. In some places the door was even transported by boat from one to another island, like in Gizo diocese of Solomon Islands. This November 20 is the official closure of this Jubilee Year of Mercy and of the Holy Door also in Salesian parish of St Francis of Assisi, Hamamatsu - Japan, Yokohama diocese.

 

  Thanks to the pioneer Fr. Evaristo Higa who lived in this city since 1993 and with him later on also other Salesians slowly a weak parish community became a model parish for the whole diocese. During this year all four Catholic language groups in Hamamatsu (Japanese, Brazilian, Spanish and Filipino) build up a unique environment of service and spirituality. Bishop of Yokohama brought all his clergy to experience the multicultural community family spirit and service, two important national meetings of migrant ministry were held in this parish.

 

   Salesian community of Hamamatsu shares a variety of Mercy Jubilee Year fruits: for the pilgrims many confessions – conversions; for the missionaries of mercy it was a deep life-transformation with faith formation to guide the pilgrims. In the intense service to the 4000 pilgrims over last one year parish faithful grew in faith, responsibility, spirituality and community spirit. Among the parishioners was started a new inter-cultural group of spiritual formation and many other Catholic pilgrims coming during the Year of Mercy get inspired in their faith journey by this vibrant community!

 

  I wish to all East Asia – Oceania (EAO) Salesian Family members a fruitful conclusion of the Mercy Jubilee Year!

 

Fr. Václav Klement, SDB

EAO Regional councillor