Sunday, January 20, 2013

Yokohama flashback: Christmas Mass

Better late than never so before January ends and before I forget again, I'm posting about Christmas in Yokohama, Japan. Among the experiences I love reminiscing about and retelling to family and friends were the times I served at Sacred Heart Cathedral (Yamate Catholic Church). The church is a brief climb from Ishikawacho Station of the JR Keihin-Tohoku Line through a residential area in the Naka Ward of the city. It is near the Motomachi shopping street, which is a popular commercial and dining area and particularly for expats in the area.

For two Christmases, I volunteered as a reader during the midnight Mass of Christmas Eve and the English Mass on Christmas Day. December 25 is not a holiday in Japan and so most of my friends at Yamate including fellow members of the Sacred Heart Guild had work. As I was a post-graduate student, my schedule was relatively flexible. In fact, my sensei even told me I could take the day off during Christmas Day. I usually did take half the day off and would be back at the laboratory in the afternoon.

As Christmas Day, if it fell on a weekday, is not an official holiday in Japan most would come to the late night Mass including non-Catholics and non-Christians who celebrated with us. These include Japanese who were married to Catholics (mostly foreigners) who also lined up during Holy Communion when the priest-celebrant would also give God's blessings to non-Christians in the congregation in lieu of the Host.

I fondly remember the Midnight Mass of December 24, 1998 (my third and last Christmas in Yokohama) when it was the Bishop of Yokohama who concelebrated the Mass and I was all dressed up to deliver the First Reading (in English) on the special occasion when both Japanese and expats celebrated in a Mass where the choir was from the Protestant Church in the same neighborhood (Yamate's choir in turn sang at the Protestant Service over at Ferris.). Afterwards, there was no noche buena and we had to commute to our homes on the last trains. The following day was easier because the English Mass was from 10:00AM (just like the Sunday schedule) and there were fewer people in church. Fr. Alfred Burke, OSA celebrated the English Mass on Christmas Day.

-


No comments: