This is an excerpt from the 2006 September Monthly Service Sermon by Honbu-in Toshimi Imamura (All have I done here is post the excerpt here. I have no knowledge of who did the actual translation of this sermon.)

 72. Giving Priority to the Affairs of the Residence over His Own

For the nine years starting in 1866, the Honseki always came to spend the last day of each year at the Residence, making sure to complete the preparations for the worship to be held on New Year’s Day before going home. On the last day of one particular year, he completed all of the preparations for the New Year’s Day worship at the Residence, as he had done before, and then went back home. Since he had no savings, preparations for New Year’s Day could not be made at his house.

Osato asked him, “Izo, how are our children supposed to celebrate New Year’s Day?”

“I hadn’t thought about that,” he replied. Although it was already late at night, he visited the houses of his acquaintances and borrowed some rice cakes to create some semblance of a New Year’s celebration. Those were some of the stories related to my father by Yoshie Iburi.

Doing God’s work and serving at the Residence were matters of the utmost importance to Izo, and he always put his personal and household matters lower in priority. Let us take the Honseki’s precious example in sowing seeds of sincerity at Jiba as our model in carrying out our tasks.

• Next installment in this series: 73. Moving Into the Residence

*Note: This post has been revised since its original publication.

Comment

Osato and Sato Iburi are the same person. While most Tenrikyo publications include the honorific “O” in women’s given names, I like to follow the convention established in Tenrikyo jiten and drop the “O” altogether.

Yoshie Iburi is Izo’s daughter, also known by her married name Yoshie Nagao.