This year's Christ the King feast was on 20 November according to the Catholic liturgy calendar and it was the last Sunday of the year before we begin a new cycle from first Sunday of Advent on 27 November. Our Cathedral in Niigata has been dedicated to Christ the King and, thus, 20 November was a feast day for the Cathedral community. As usual, I celebrated a Mass in which one young student originated from Akita has been confirmed and a 8-year-old boy received his first communion.
There were much more to celebrate during the Mass. As I have been celebrating my own silver jubilee of priestly ordination this year, I had been contemplating how to organise. Then March 11 happened. Since there are so many people still struggling to restore their normal lives after the disaster, I decided not to organise a big party as such. So I decided to offer Mass of thanksgiving on the feast of Christ the King with the community. Parish community was so good to organise a small lunch party after the Mass in parish hall for me and those who received sacraments. Photo above is a sign written by one of parishioners to congratulate me. Thanks a lot.
Also after the Mass, 2 crucifix were blessed and sent out to go around parishes in the diocese. Our diocese is celebrating 100 anniversary of establishment as the apostolic prefecture and 50 years as the diocese in 2012. So the planning committee of the celebration decided to organise a crucifix relay. 2 identical crucifix will visit all parishes in the diocese starting from 20 November and will come back to the cathedral in October next year during the Diocesan convention. The crucifix will travel with a note book and members of parish communities may write their own message for the anniversary celebration to enforce unity among the community of the diocese.
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