Is Our Heart the Same One as Yours?

In 1865, Japan reopened its doors to foreigners after more than 2 centuries of closed borders. Fr Petitjean of the Foreign Missions of Paris debarked in Nagasaki and fitted up a small church in this city. "One day," he said, "a group of 12 to 15 men, women and children, stood outside the door of our church. I hastened to open it. A woman approached and said to me, putting her hand on her chest: "Is our heart, and the heart of us all here present, the same one as yours?" I answered her: "Certainly, but where do you come from?" - "Almost all of us are from Urakami. In Urakami most people have the same heart." And immediately this woman asked: "Where is the picture of the Blessed Virgin?" Upon hearing this blessed name, I no longer had any doubts. I realized that I was certainly in the presence of true Japanese Christians. At one time there were fifteen thousand Christians in Japan and many have managed to conserve their faith even without priests, for two and a half centuries. I then led the small group to the Blessed Virgin's altar. And filled with joy and emotion, they all knelt down in prayer."