Recently, an Abbess well-known for her adaptation of Poor Clare life to African culture, Mother Veronica of Lusaka, Zambia, asked us what our inculturation was like in Japan. The following was my response:

Dear Mother,

Your questions aroused in me a bit of uneasiness because I've never felt that we've done much in the line of inculturation, especially when I think of what you have done in Africa. In a certain sense, we've been wary of the word and the concept because so many have gone to extremes in Japan, losing priesthood and/or religious vocation in the process. However, when I discussed the questions with the Sisters, I was pleasantly surprised to find that there are many aspects of the way we live that they find congenial to the Japanese spirit.

We are a community of eleven- ten Japanese and one American (myself). We were founded in 1965, with eight Sisters from Boston, U.S.A., so you can see we haven't exactly "thrived." We are now six professed and five juniors. The youngest just made her first vows; the oldest just celebrated her silver jubilee. My thirty years in Japan have been spent in this monastery so my knowledge of Japan is limited to what I have learned here.