“Accepting ‘my cross’ led to transformation and blessings. Just about 50 years ago sitting at my desk on the 3rd floor of the Chicago Monastery I was informed that the Provincial at the time, Fr. Neil Parsons, would like me to report to his office at the end of the corridor on the 2nd floor. I had no sooner entered and greeted him when he came right out with the question: “Ward, would you have any reasonable objections to going to Japan?” I really knew very little about that far Eastern country and had never even dreamt of going to work there. I do not recall my answer at that time, though I remember him saying that Denis McGowan and myself were being asked to become part of the Japanese Passionist Mission group of 5 men who had been assigned there 4 years earlier.

I returned to my room, surely in a daze. I loved the work I was doing as director of our seminarians. I had been sent to study theology for 2 years to prepare for that job, and had been doing it only for 3 years. Was he dissatisfied with my work? With no previous inkling or preparation, what was I to think of this proposal? It was the feast of the Sacred Heart. What could I do but try to hear and accept this proposal as coming from the Lord himself?

To make a long story short, I accepted the assignment, though with a heavy heart. Did I view it as a cross? It surely was, and for the next two years as I tried at age 34 to get a hold on this new language I experienced more cross than I had ever done before. It has, to be sure, changed my life. And I hope I can say it has transformed it as well. I am a happy missioner in Japan, grateful for the innumerable blessings and joys of these past decades.”

Fr. Ward Biddle, CP, 2.24.08


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