austraLasia #3114
Peace Demonstation: Meguro Parish, Tokyo
TOKYO: 11 August 2012 -- When it is something to do with peace, the Japanese show an incredible readiness to be involved. We saw this at the Peace Demonstration which took place on Sunday afternoon, 12 August at the Salesian Parish Meguro, Tokyo. A few days earlier, at 8:15 on 6 August then again at 11:02 on 9 August, Church bells rang out loud and long to recall the horrific events of the two atomic bombs dropped one on Hiroshima and the other on Nagasaki. The topic of peace in present-day Japan is a heartfelt one
In the early afternoon of the 12th, around 140 young and not so young parishioners came together in the parish church to pray for peace. They used a Taize style of prayer. A good number of them came from the other two parishes of the deanery which organised the event. It was the younger members who wanted the Taize prayer opportunity which they did with prayer, hymns and petitions, begging of the Lord the gift of a world free from the slavery of hatred and nuclear energy.
Later, the group having swollen to some 400 people by then, Solemn Mass began, celebrated by His Excellency Archbishop Joseph Chennoth, Apostolic Nuncio to Japan, who in his homily invited all present to be instruments of peace, in the spirit of the Beatitudes and according to the invitation of St Francis in his well-known prayer.
Immediately following Mass there was a Eucharistic procession in the large Salesian playground; such processions are a relatively rare event for Japanese Catholics. Later, back in Church, the occasion concluded with Benediction.
The two prayer occasions were carried out more or less in silence, following the style of a Japanese liturgy, but later in the theatre it was anything but silent, with young people showing that peace can be built by food, music and the sheer happiness of being together.
Before he departed, the Apostolic Nuncio commented that the Salesians really know how to live up to their spirit of joy wherever they are in the world.
We hope this demonstration may be a seed bearing the fruit of peace that the Risen Lord has promised us and for which there is so much need everywhere.
Peace Demonstation: Meguro Parish, Tokyo
In the early afternoon of the 12th, around 140 young and not so young parishioners came together in the parish church to pray for peace. They used a Taize style of prayer. A good number of them came from the other two parishes of the deanery which organised the event. It was the younger members who wanted the Taize prayer opportunity which they did with prayer, hymns and petitions, begging of the Lord the gift of a world free from the slavery of hatred and nuclear energy.
Later, the group having swollen to some 400 people by then, Solemn Mass began, celebrated by His Excellency Archbishop Joseph Chennoth, Apostolic Nuncio to Japan, who in his homily invited all present to be instruments of peace, in the spirit of the Beatitudes and according to the invitation of St Francis in his well-known prayer.
Immediately following Mass there was a Eucharistic procession in the large Salesian playground; such processions are a relatively rare event for Japanese Catholics. Later, back in Church, the occasion concluded with Benediction.
The two prayer occasions were carried out more or less in silence, following the style of a Japanese liturgy, but later in the theatre it was anything but silent, with young people showing that peace can be built by food, music and the sheer happiness of being together.
Before he departed, the Apostolic Nuncio commented that the Salesians really know how to live up to their spirit of joy wherever they are in the world.
We hope this demonstration may be a seed bearing the fruit of peace that the Risen Lord has promised us and for which there is so much need everywhere.
