My paternal grandfather was educated at a high school that was established by Albert Arnold Bennett Sr. who is an American Baptist missionary to Japan. Thus he decided to educate his sons and daughters at Protestant missionary schools. I have no idea why he did so. I find it truly astounding that I'm a Catholic in a family of Protestants by the grace of God. 

I often remember when I was in a kindergarten that was founded by Sœurs de la Visitation du Japon (Congregatio Sororum Visitationis) and it is a.k.a. "Montana Monastery" in Japan that Bishop Albert Henri Charles Breton,M.E.P. gives the name. 

I surely remember that I myself met him and he gave me a piece of biscuit in front of a statue of Santa Maria in the nursery. It tasted very much nice to me when I was four years old.

My memory of Mass is when I listened to French and Italian and often Latin hymns fathers and sisters sang. They came from France, Italy, and around Japan. I was happy to be in the warm light of candles always. 

In the south of my garden, two Magnolia sieboldii subsp. japonica - "Oh-yama Renge" in Japanese have four ivory-colored flowers in total this early summer. Those two trees suffered severely from the extraordinary heat last summer. I admire strong resilience that the nature has shown and praise and thank God for His grace and kindness to the world, though the climate change that we are responsible to that situation is the reason that the nature suffers the harsh environment, and He never abandons all of us. 

In the north-east yard of the garden, Amsonia elliptica - "Chouji-sou" in Japanese has a couple of thin blue flowers. I enjoyed much more flowers last year. The number of flowers of the species dramatically changed this year. 

I guess that a different stage of climate change has emerged from the previous one this summer. We have to be alert at changes of the nature that mirror what we do every day. 

In my youth, I was educated at a high school that was established by a Japanese statesman who belonged to The Methodist Church of Canada, and he is one of early supporters of The Salvation Army in Japan. The Catholic faith is always personal in me from the beginning of my life. However, I've walked on a way that God paved in advance for me to do something. That belief sounds a bid, perhaps heresy in The Church, and I well know that. 

My paternal grandmother was educated at a seminary that was established in Japan by Mrs. Mary Eddy Kidder. Mrs. Kidder was an American missionary of the Dutch Reformed Church of America. 

She had been chosen by the Church to be a missionary apprentice and prepared for moving to Canada, however his father in law who was a statesman and the father of my paternal grandfather decided the marriage of their daughter and son. It was a political dealing between two major parties that had one existed in Japan before the second World War.

I remember her voice with weeping that echoes in my heart. I hate politics. 

I happened to find that Canadian Catholic Conference held in Ottawa, Ont., 1972 approved the "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" (originally written in German with the title "Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott") in their Catholic Book of Worship and that it was included in a list of suggested hymns in "Cantica NOVA Publications" in the States. 

My paternal grandmother would feel happy to have known that, because her grandson is allowed by the grace of God to sing the hymn at Mass in the Roman rite that she surely loved singing, though she belonged to the Reformed Church.

I really love the hymn!

I celebrate the memorial of St Rafael Arnáiz Barón (1911-1938)  in the Catholic calendar today. I'm very happy to be named after him and my Godfather and Maryknoll Missionary by the grace of God.