Graced history Japan

							                            Graced History of CLC‐Japan
Beginning and Growth
  The history of the CLC‐Japan goes back to 1967, when the General Assembly of the World
Federation of Marian Congregations in Rome considered the General Principles.             This
assembly echoed in a new beginning for the CLC‐Japan. Fr. Isidoro Rivas SJ started the
CLC‐Japan with 4 communities which had formerly been Marian Congregations. In five
years, the communities spread out dramatically all over Japan, from Hokkaido to Kyushu, the
northern and southern-most main islands of our country. In the 1970’s more than 100 young
people gathered for the National Assembly each year. Many shed tears of joy from sharing
their faith with the other CLC‐Japan members. As one participant who took part in many of
assemblies said “That was an awaking of our faith”
  According to Fr. Rivas, there were three reasons for this rapid growth of the communities.
First, the Japanese laity in those days were yearning to experience God’s love. They did not
generally read the Bible, and their only chance to nourish their faith was to listen to sermons
at Sunday Mass. Sermons about the Bible were too difficult for many to understand, and
priests in Japan rarely addressed the problems or concerns people faced in their daily lives.
Second, Japanese society is greatly influenced by Confucianism, so people tended to regard
priests as their masters to obey. Even when priests spoke about difficult theology in their
sermons, the Japanese laity would simply listen quietly and obediently. This emphasis on
sermons was typical from the reintroduction of Catholicism to Japan in 1873 until the
appearance of the CLC. The third reason was personal for Fr. Rivas, however, he had taught
many seminarians as a professor of Gregorian Chant in Tokyo.          When the seminarians
became priests, they invited him for many retreats or Masses as a spiritual guide.      Every
time Fr. Rivas came back to Tokyo, he sent postcards to the Japanese laity he had met there
in order to invite them to the CLC-Japan. This action later led to his being called “Rivas, the
fisherman.”
  In spite of Japan’s Confucian cultural background, Fr. Rivas took a totally different
approach, called “Christianity from below”. In the CLC‐Japan meetings everyone shared
their feelings, listened to everyone’s concerns, cared for each other, and finally looked for
answers in the Bible.


  Spiritual Exercises
  In the late 1970’s CLC‐Japan members who had participated in international formation
courses in Augsburg and in Manila began to realize that the Spiritual Exercises of St.
Ignatius Loyola should be an essential source for the CLC‐Japan. In 1978, then President
Setsuko Nagashima decided to welcome Fr. Ed Nemesh SJ as an EA in order to promote the
Exercises in Japan, for he had intensively studied the individually guided Spiritual Exercises
overseas.
  The introduction of the Exercises was not an easy task, however, because some members
strongly opposed the emphasis of the Exercises. They insisted that evangelization was more
important in Japan, because the Catholic population was very low.        Though there were
painful divisions among the members, this decision to promote the Exercises eventually
brought a great blessing into Japanese churches.    In 1990 Sr. Mitsuko Abe of the Society of
Helpers, who had also studied the individually guided Exercises overseas, established a small
Spiritual Exercises center in Tokyo which offered to busy Japanese Christians the
opportunity to gradually experience the Exercises in daily life over an extended period rather
than the usual intensive 8 day-commitment. Thanks to those burgeoning CLC movement,
more and more people gradually came to experience sharing in churches and the Exercises at
a number of retreat houses throughout Japan.
  In this way, the CLC- Japan contributed to the change from the ‘you should do’ top-down
approach to faith in Japanese Catholicism, to the more bottom-up approach of ‘ accept
yourselves as you are’ faith from below. Through sharing and the Exercises the CLC has
helped many Japanese to become more receptive of spirituality.
Mission
  In the 1990’s, consonant with the movement of the World CLC, the CLC‐Japan refocused
its mission. In 1999, we announced our Mission 21 Manifesto.
  We, the Christian Life community in Japan, live the Mission of Jesus the Lord,
  Through our Charisma, the Spiritual Exercises and Community.
  Follow Christ poor and humble, without being influenced by the values around us,
  and accepting our weaknesses. With the values of the Gospel, and together with the poor
  and weak, change the world, the society, the church and the family.
Collaboration
  Our collaboration is not limited to the Society of Jesus. In the1980’s some CLC‐Japan
members were chosen as executive committee members for the major conferences called
NICE1 and NICE2 (National Incentive Convention for Evangelization), which were organized
by the Japanese bishops. Today, some members work for the Catholic Bishop Conference of
Japan. Others run a kindergarten and a nursery home in Kyushu. Other members work in
their families, companies, hospitals, schools and churches.      This year, we took over the
management of a retreat house in Kamakura from the Society of Jesus. Whether CLC
member serve as apostles individually or as a community, our common way of life is serving
the needy, the suffering and the poor.      The Japanese CLC will continue to move on,
supported by all our communities and members’ prayers, serving the people as our mission.