Some News: January~March 2015

Activities at Shinmeizan as a “Center for Prayer and Interreligious Dialogue” continue, often interwoven with other various kinds of commitments of the four members of our community:

Fr. Franco Sottocornola, sx: Director of the Center, but also a member of the Committee on the Liturgy of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Japan;
Sr. Maria De Giorgi, mmx, Assistant Director of the Center, but also Associate Professor at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome;
Fr. Yoshiaki Sonoda, OFMConv. also in charge of the Parish of Yufuin (Oita);
Sr. Kumiko Ikeda, Saint Mary Secular Institute, full time presence at Shinmeizan!

Welcoming guests

The daily activity of welcoming visitors and guests is undoubtedly the one that takes up most of the time and energies of our small community. Hospitality in Japan is always a very important and elaborate social practice. People come to Shinmeizan, just for a brief visit, to stay with us for some days, in order to spend some time in prayer and meditation, or only to talk with us about interreligious dialogue, its meaning or its difficulties, or to seek spiritual advice, or simply to pay a friendly visit.

During the past few months, for example, among our visitors and guests we welcomed two young people from Germany (studying Japanese Religions at the NCC of Kyoto) who stayed with us for a week each; a Protestant Pastor from Norway who stayed with us for some days; the Superior General of a Religious Congregation of Sisters who spent some days in retreat here; a young Italian student doing research on Japanese religions and on interreligious dialogue, who spent a couple of days with us; three Buddhist Nuns of the Nichiren School; a group of ten people from the Tokyo area, who have wished to start their pilgrimage in Kyushu by visiting Shinmeizan and celebrating the Eucharist here; two representatives of the Buddhist lay organization “Byakko Shinko Kai”, members of the local Filipino community gathering here periodically for a spiritual retreat; and other various friends who just came to visit us, to show their friendship and give their support to Shinmeizan and its activities.

Usually we share with our guests our daily life with its rhythm of prayer, work, meals, making ourselves available for conversation according to the interests and expectations of each single person or group, when possible also accompanying those who are interested in interreligious dialogue in a visit to Buddhist Temples.
On the second Thursday of every month, the regular retreat is held, open to all, which is usually attended by a group of between 10 and 20 people. This year’s topic is: “Praying with the Psalms”.

Activities of Interreligious Dialogue

Besides welcoming guests, Shinmeizan actively engages in various activities of Interreligious dialogue, promoting, or taking part in, various initiatives in this field. During the last three months (January-February-March), for example, we were involved in the following activities of interreligious dialogue:

on February 19, Fr. Franco and Fr. Petro Sonoda traveled to Tokyo to take part in the meeting of the Subcommittee for Interreligious Dialogue of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Japan;
on March 7, Sr. Maria, while in Rome for her annual courses at the Gregorian University, took part in a meeting sponsored by the Office for Cooperation among the Churches of the Diocese of Rome, sharing her experience, and reflections, on interreligious dialogue;
on March 9, Fr. Franco joined the regular meeting of the Buddhist-Christian study group of Fukuoka;
on March 16, the group in charge of interreligious dialogue for the Diocese of Fukuoka, presided over by Fr. Franco, held its regular meeting at Shinmeizan;
on March 22, Fr. Franco traveled to Kagoshima to give a talk on Interreligious dialogue in the Catholic Parish of Aira;
on March 29, Fr. Franco and Sr. Ikeda Kumiko, led the “Group for interreligious dialogue of Kumamoto”, in a visit and friendly encounter at the Nichikan Temple of Nagasu (belonging to the Nichiren Buddhist School)

Courses at the Pontifical Gregorian University

A very special contribution to interreligious dialogue, is that given by Sr. Maria De Giorgi, with her annual courses at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.
This year, from the middle of February to the beginning of June she is teaching the following three courses:

Dialogue: “internal drive of charity” (ES) in the papal Magisterium from Paul VI to Francis.
Christianity on the Silk Road during the first millennium: a story of inter-cultural and interreligious encounters.
Introduction to Buddhism through the reading of classical texts.

Feature Story: The trees of Shinmeizan

A special feature of Shinmeizan is its location in the midst of woods, on a hill from which one can enjoy beautiful sights, gazing far to the South at the city of Kumamoto and Mount Kimpo, and to the West on Ariake See and beyond it as far as the Shimabara peninsula with the majestic view of the volcano Unzen.

With the abundant rains, typical of this part of Japan, trees grow fast and spread their branches tall and wide. The “kusu”, a kind of camphor trees, tower high stretching their powerful branches covered with thick evergreen foliage, and the “sugi”, “the Japanese cedar”, rise like giant arrows or joined hands pointing to the sky with their gentle silhouette.

All these trees help create an atmosphere suitable to prayer, according to the spirituality of Shinmeizan that emphasizes nature as a place of religious experience, or encounter with God, in accord with Japanese tradition. In Shintoism, nature is perceived as having a religious meaning and, also in Christianity, “creation” refers us to God the Creator (Cfr. Gen. chs. 1 and 2). For this reason Shinmeizan was built “in the midst of woods, on a hill from which one can enjoy beautiful sights” - as stated above - to be a place where nature becomes an invitation to, and a help for, prayer.

But, when trees grow too high and too big they also become dangerous in case of a typhoon, or risk to somehow suffocate the small houses they surround. Then it becomes necessary to cut them, or at least to cut some of their branches. This is not easy work. It requires time, expertise and... art! This work took place at Shinmeizan during the month of February, going on for almost a month, giving a hard time to several expert workers and… to the members of our small community!
As a result, however, Shinmeizan looks now brighter, and we can enjoy a larger view of the surrounding area.