I want to welcome everyone here this morning and wish you all a very Happy and Prosperous New Year 2007.

On behalf of the Myoshinji Hokkeko members I want to thank you, Reverend Kimura for conducting this mornings New Years Ceremony and also for your inspiring message. We also want to thank Reverend Arima for his assistance.

I also want to thank Jolie San Clair for reading High Priest Nichinyo Shonin’s New Years message and also thanks to Carolyn Murphy for reading Reverend Urushibata’s New Years Message. And a special thank you to all the members that participated in the year end clean up on Sunday Dec. 24th. We had so many members participate it was a little like old times. Thank you all very much.

As Reverend Kimura has stated, the slogan for this Year 2007 is “The Year of Action.” I’m sure you have noticed it is quite similar to the slogan for 2006 which was “The Year To Stand Up and Take Resolute Action.”

Also, the first of the three objectives for 2007, which is “To enrich the powers of our faith and practice with consistent Gongyo and Daimoku.” is also quite similar to the first objective in 2006 which was “Let’s carry out the practice of Gongyo, chanting Daimoku and Shakubuku.” and also similar to 2005 which was “Let us assiduously perform Gongyo and Daimoku.” Our 67^th Honorable Retired High Priest Nikken Shonin and now our current High Priest Nichinyo Shonin place a continuing emphasis on consistent Gongyo and Daimoku which is necessary in order to carry out the other objectives.

We all need to realize the significance and the depth of consistent Gongyo and Daimoku which is the basis of our practice. Without consistent Gongyo and Daimoku there is no Nichiren Shoshu practice. So with that in mind lets focus on the last two objectives for 2007.

 

Thank you for your kind attention and again I wish you all a very Happy New Year.