My profound gratitude, because they have always encouraged my work with their kindly remembrance, and they have always helped me with their prayers and offerings. I thank you as much for the "widow's offering" as for the substantial offerings that many of you, some already deceased, others still living, have made me. The greater offerings reached me at the beginning of the Work, and helped me, more than once, to extricate myself from various difficulties and persevere constantly. May you all have from God your due merit. I assure you of my lasting thanks. If some boy, reading these pages, feels rising in his heart the desire to spend his life in the apostolate of Charity for the triumph of Christ in the world, I should be truly happy. Of the seventeen complexes, two of which are to be opened shortly, constituing the Houses and Works where 180 Sisters and Novices, and 197 Aspirants, of the Congregation I founded, I feel it my duty to bring to the admiration of all, the Sisters of the House that on April 4 last year., 1958, began its activity on the Island of Amami Ooshima, 300 km. distant from the Island of Kyushu. There my Sisters carry out a heroic apostolate, among a destitute people, distributing food and clothing to more than three thousand natives, and teaching Catechism to many pagans. Every year, that island is battered by powerful typhoons, and it is infested with poisonous snakes. An example of the spirit that animates the Sisters living there: their Superior wrote one day to the Mother General: “Now I know the beauty of my vocation.” Next May, in another city of that same island, another Institute will begin operating; it is for assistance and the teaching of Catechism, always by the Caritas Sisters. In Korea, on Christmas Day last year, the Bishop, Mgr. Henry, officiated at the clothing of the first Korean Postulants, eight in number. I have received the welcome news that within three years my Sisters will be able to emigrate to Brazil, to found Schools; They have begun the study of Portuguese and English. In noting these items, some may marvel, and I myself feel confused, but I just want to put in writing what the Madonna has done, is doing, and will continue to do, for the greater development of this Congregation of Sisters. * * * Reaching the end of this rapid panoramic view of the origin, development and vicissitudes of my missionary work in Japan, it is only natural that I should think of the parable of the mustard seed, expounded by Jesus to the crowds surrounding Him, on the seashore. "The Kingdom of God," Jesus said, “is like a mustard seed, that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest seed of all, yet when full-grown, it is the largest of plants. It becomes so big a shrub that the birds of the sky come and build their nests in its branches.” (Mt. 13: 31, 32) Those twenty-two coins clasped in my hand and raised up in an act of faith, in that distant September of 1929, were a mustard seed. It is evident that it has grown and become a tree, and one can hope that it will produce abundant vigorous leaves. It is a consoling reality that many wretches find comfort there; and that many souls are oriented towards heaven is likewise true. However, I will not be so foolish as to glory in this; even St. Paul himself, referring to the fruits of his apostolate, said: “I planted the seed, Apollo watered it, but God made it grow.” (I. Cor. 3:6) Jesus Himsef warns me, with the words said to His disciples: “When you have done all you have been commanded to do, say, ‘We are useless servants ‘.” (Lk. 17:10) And that is how it is!

(Fr. Antonio Cavoli, .S.D.B.    Missionary in Japan Tokyo, January 1959)