Pilgrimage to Jiba

Various Reasons for Returning to Jiba

There must have been times when, because of a strong yearning after the Parent, you could not help rushing to make a pilgrimage to Jiba. There must also have been times when, because of your intense desire to have an ailing person be saved, you could not help returning to Jiba bringing that person along. Or there may have been times when you returned here with no particular intention but simply because you felt that it was one of your duties. I imagine that each time you returned here, you had a different reason for each pilgrimage.

142 (1979): Opening of Nakatsu Grand Church Followers Dormitory

Returning Home

Why do we return to Jiba? Why do we not mind spending time and money to return to Jiba? It is because at the Jiba, God the Parent resides. It is because at the Jiba, Oyasama resides.

142 (1979): Opening of Yamaguni Grand Church Followers Dormitory

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The Besseki lecture clearly explains that our return to Jiba is "just like our return to our own parents' home with the feeling of love." Indeed, our pilgrimage to Jiba is an expression of our desire--as God's children--to come nearer to the Parent out of our yearning for the Parent.

143 (1980): Opening of Niigata Grand Church Followers Dormitory

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As taught in the Mikagura-uta verse "a great yearning will come over you," the motivation behind our pilgrimage to Jiba should be, not a sense of obligation, but a compelling desire to do so.

143 (1980): Opening of Ogata Grand Church Followers Dormitory

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We are the children of God the Parent, hence brothers and sisters. As you already know, God, as our Parent, is anxiously waiting for the spiritual growth of us children. As you are also aware, no one would be more pleased than our Parent to see us return to Jiba in good spirits. The significance of a pilgrimage to Jiba is that we respond to the Parent's love by coming close to the Parent as an expression of our gratitude for, and our awareness of, that love.

154 (1991): Meishin Fellowship 110th Anniversary Pilgrimage

Indispensable Act for Followers

I feel that a pilgrimage to Jiba is an act we followers cannot do without in our life of faith. It has a profound significance that cannot be explained in words.

150 (1987): Opening of Omorimachi Grand Church Followers Dormitory

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Whether we are happy or sad, or in peace or in suffering, we lay our hearts bare to the Parent at all times so we may receive the Parent's guidance or the Parent's blessings. For this purpose, a pilgrimage to Jiba is an indispensable act for us. The Parent will accept the sincerity we put into it and enable us to receive miraculous blessings.

140 (1977): Opening of Kishibe Branch Church Followers Dormitory

Seeking the Truth and Spreading the Truth

Today, all of you made a pilgrimage to Jiba and received invisible merit from Oyasama in acknowledgment of your return. I hope that each of you will take it home carefully so as not to undermine the merit Oyasama bestowed upon you. I also hope that you will live in a way that makes the merit beneficial not only to you but also to your families and those around you. In order to ensure this, I should like you to maintain firm faith in God's teachings, which I am sure you have already learned, and use your minds and live each day in a way that accords with the teachings.

137 (1974): Saitama Diocese Pilgrimage to Jiba and Hokuyo Grand Church Besseki Pilgrimage

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Part of your mission is to bring many people back to Jiba. At the same time, it is also part of your mission to take pains and care in helping them understand Oyasama's parental love.

138 (1975): Opening of Fukagawa Grand Church and Asakusa Grand Church Followers Dormitories

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As you gradually come to feel not so much obliged but anxious to return to Jiba, you can no longer remain content with returning to Jiba by yourselves. Instead, you will become increasingly keen to bring as many people as possible back to Jiba. You will find yourselves unable to stop making efforts to invite people to come along. For us followers, this spirit is important because it has a significant bearing upon how we sprinkle fragrance and do salvation work.

143 (1980): Completion of Iwakidaira Grand Church Followers Dormitory Extension