The May Monthly Service of Tenrikyo Church Headquarters was performed on the 26th in the Main Sanctuary, with Successor-Designate Daisuke Nakayama serving as chief officiant on behalf of the Shinbashira.
In the Service prayer, Rev. Nakayama first expressed gratitude to God the Parent for becoming openly revealed through Oyasama, who was settled as the Shrine of God, for revealing the origin of all things, and for guiding us toward the Joyous Life with warm parental love. Continuing, he said: “All of us followers will ponder deeply over Your parental heart—which desires to hasten the spiritual growth of us Your children—through the occurrences that are shown to us across the world. We are determined to take the lead on making conscious efforts to live a life based on the teachings and thereby convey to people in the world the teachings that can lead to true salvation as we aim to respond to Your intention.”
The prayer was followed by the joyous performance of the Kagura Service and the Dance with Hand Movements. After the Service performance, Honbu-in Tomikazu Matsumura took the podium to deliver the sermon.
Rev. Matsumura first stressed that, if we want the wars that are currently going on in the world to end, those of us who are Yoboku should put our heart and soul into performing the service that we conduct each month. He then said that aiming to realize the Joyous Life world would entail making efforts to attain the mind of true sincerity and becoming capable of providing convincing insights into the teachings through the way we live.
Rev. Matsumura moved on to elaborate on this theme by drawing on the Kakisage. In speaking about to whom we are to show our progress as we seek to become capable of providing convincing insights into the teachings through the way we live, Rev. Matsumura referred to the Divine Directions and said that our goal is not to have people in the world acknowledge our efforts but rather to show God the Parent how we are leading our life in single-heartedness with God by using the teachings as the basis for all the decisions we make so as to be able to receive divine blessings.
Rev. Matsumura moved on to talk about the attitude that people who are serving at the Residence should maintain as well as Oyasama’s Divine Model, both of which are described in The Life of Oyasama, Foundress of Tenrikyo. He noted that, although Oyasama’s Divine Model may seem too high a goal for us to achieve, the true value of our faith lies in making efforts to grow spiritually toward that goal to the best of our abilities. “Our determination to follow even a thousandth of the path that Oyasama demonstrated is what allows us to make progress in our spiritual growth,” he said.
Rev. Matsumura concluded his sermon by referring to the special interview with the Directors-in-Chief of Religious and Administrative Affairs—an interview that was to be published in the June issue of Michi no Tomo magazine—as he called on the listeners to start preparing their minds so as to be able to engage in the “three years, one thousand days” activities leading up to the 140th Anniversary of Oyasama in a meaningful manner.