On April 5, forty-four leaders and volunteers of the John de Britto English Center had a Lenten Retreat and Pilgrimage as part of celebrating the Jubilee Year 2025. In the morning, Fr Robert Chiesa, SJ guided the preparatory session, and in the afternoon, the pilgrimage consisted of visiting three churches: Kanda, Tsukiji, and Takanawa. Here are excerpts from Fr. Chiesa’s notes. (Reference: Wikipedia)
THE TOKYO PILGRIMAGE
WHAT IS A HOLY YEAR?
In the Old Testament the Holy Year of Jubilee was a special year of remission of sins, debts, and universal pardon every 50th year (7x7, Lev 25:8), during which slaves and prisoners would be freed, debts would be forgiven, and the mercies of God would be particularly manifest.
Our tradition dates to 1300, when Pope Benedict VIII convoked a holy year. Ordinary jubilees have been celebrated every 25 or 50 years, generally involving a pilgrimage to a sacred site, normally the city of Rome.
In Roman Catholic tradition, a jubilee or Holy Year is a year of forgiveness of sins and also the punishment due to sin. It is a year of reconciliation between adversaries, of conversion and receiving the Sacrament of Reconciliation, and consequently of solidarity, hope, justice, and commitment to serve God with joy and in peace with our brothers and sisters.
The most recent holy year was the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy (2015–2016). The present ordinary Jubilee Year of Hope commenced on 24 December 2024.
WHAT IS A PILGRIMAGE?
Pilgrimage today can mean many different things. It is not only understood in a religious context. Beatles fans might regard a visit to Abbey Road as a pilgrimage. All the major religions practice pilgrimage. Thousands of Hindu pilgrims bathe each year in the river Ganges. Muslims seek to make the sacred journey to Mecca.
Pilgrimage is generally understood to involve a physical journey, such as the famous ‘Camino de Santiago Compostela’ – a network of paths across Europe leading to the burial place of St. James in Spain which is travelled by around 350,000 people every year. But pilgrimage doesn’t have to involve travel – it can be an inner journey too, a journey of the heart, soul and mind.
Sometimes people decide to go on pilgrimage in memory of a friend or family member who has died, or in thanksgiving for recovery from illness. Perhaps it is just a need to discover God in a new way. Being outside in the fresh air can sometimes feel a more attractive way of communing with God than sitting in a church pew!
The pilgrim path will be a place of encounter with pilgrim companions, and this too can be transformative. We have opportunities to encounter ourselves in a different way; to spend time reflecting on our journey of life, on the ways in which we have experienced God, and on the things which move us toward or away from God and others.
As well as encountering ourselves and encountering others, in pilgrimage there is an expectation that somewhere along the way there will be an encounter with the divine, the “other,” something outside ourselves. Perhaps this is the factor that most distinguishes a pilgrimage from any other walk. We get food for the imagination and deepen our faith.
The “pilgrims,” aside from receiving an INDULGENCE, learned about the history and Patron Saints of three churches—St. Francis Xavier (Kanda), St. Joseph (Tsukiji), and the Edo martyrs (Takanawa)—who serve as MODELS OF HOPE. For many, this was their first opportunity to learn about the noble history of the Japanese Church, especially through the exhibits of Edo period persecutions. We share with you photos of the Pilgrimage.
At the end of the pilgrimage, one of the participants wrote on her Facebook, “It was truly a prayerful, thoughtful, contemplative pilgrimage not only to three of the Holy Doors around Tokyo, but it was, more significantly, a pilgrimage and a journey WITHIN.”
