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Article: Simple Ways to Celebrate Our Lady of Akita

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Simple Ways to Celebrate Our Lady of Akita

Our Lady of Akita
Feast Day: June 12

Our Lady of Akita is the only approved Asian Marian apparition, which took place from 1973 to 1979 in Yuzawadai, Japan. She appeared three times to Sr. Agnes Katsuko Sasagawa, who was deaf, uniquely through a wooden Marian statue. Our Lady’s message was very similar to that of Our Lady of Fatima: encouraging the world to return to prayer, especially through the Rosary, and issuing very severe warnings if humanity didn’t turn back to God and repent. Many miracles are attributed to Our Lady of Akita including the healing of Sr. Sasagawa’s hearing, the statue bleeding from a wound in its hand, and the statue crying 101 times over the course of eight years, witnessed by many because it was televised in Japan.

Pray the Fatima Prayer

Our Lady of Akita taught Sr. Sasagawa the Fatima Prayer and asked her to recite it after every decade of the Rosary and to get her community to pray it as well. This prayer was not well known in Japan at the time. Pray the prayer as follows:

O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, and lead all souls to heaven, especially those most in need of your mercy. Amen.

Create a Prayerful Origami Heart of Mary

  • Origami paper (or ordinary paper cut into a square)

  • Pen or marker

How-to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8t2LFxa2vY 

To make an origami heart, start by laying out your origami paper on a table with a corner facing you and the colorful side of the paper facing down. Fold the bottom corner up to meet the top, crease sharply, and unfold. Rotate it a quarter turn, then repeat. Next, take the top corner and fold it down to meet the center of the paper; it should be pointing right at the center of the two creases. Crease sharply. Then, fold the bottom corner up so the point is right on the top edge.

Place a finger to the left of the center crease. Fold the bottom right edge to meet the center crease; it should not cross over your finger or the center crease. Repeat on the left side. To round out this pointed heart shape, flip it over. Fold down the tips of the top two points just enough to soften the edge. Fold in the sharp points on the side of the heart, making sure not to fold too much. Crease the folds, and turn it around.

All that’s left is to write a message inside. Our Lady of Akita is known for bringing the Fatima Prayer (p. 00) to Japan. Write “O my Jesus” on the inside of the heart as a reminder of Our Lady’s message to the world.

Eat Japanese Food

There are many different kinds of Japanese food you can try. You could get take out or go to a restaurant. Look to see if you have a Ramen restaurant in your area and if not, find a recipe online. If you’re really tight on time, you can buy the quick packs at the store, but then add lots of toppings–hard boiled eggs, meat, chives, pickled onions, and more! Or enjoy sushi! If you’re really adventurous, go to a local Asian mart and get the ingredients to make your own! Sushi is also a great option.

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Find more ways to live liturgically in our book

Living the Seasons
Living the Seasons
Living the Seasons
Living the Seasons
Living the Seasons
Living the Seasons
Living the Seasons
Living the Seasons: Simple Ways to Celebrate the Beauty of Your Faith Throughout the Year by Erica Campbell
Living the Seasons: Simple Ways to Celebrate the Beauty of Your Faith Throughout the Year by Erica Campbell
Living the Seasons: Simple Ways to Celebrate the Beauty of Your Faith Throughout the Year by Erica Campbell
Ave Maria Press

Living the Seasons

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Winner of a 2025 CMA Book Award from the Catholic Media Association: Lifestyle Books (First Place).

Erica Tighe Campbell, owner and designer of Be A Heart, created this stunning, full-color guide to creatively celebrating the faith throughout the year. Living the Seasons is brimming with clever, doable, and beautiful crafts and activities; vivid photographs; brief introductions to the seasons and the lives of the saints; heartfelt notes of encouragement from Campbell; and original Be A Heart illustrations. This gorgeous companion will become your favorite resource for living your faith at home for years to come.

In Living the Seasons, Campbell offers imaginative ideas, effortless directions, and gorgeous photos of crafts, activities, meals, and snacks for a diverse variety of Catholic feast days, holy days, and seasons in the Church. She uses supplies that can easily be found at your local craft stores, party shops, or online retailers.

You’ll find ways to celebrate all of the Church seasons—Advent, Christmas, Lent, the Triduum, Easter, Ordinary Time—and Holy Days of Obligation in the United States, and feast days for saints from Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and the Americas. And you’ll discover fun ideas and new traditions such as:

  • throwing a baby shower for Mary;
  • blessing your home in the New Year;
  • celebrating Fat Tuesday with King Cake and a piñata;
  • living like St. Joseph by spending time in silence and making a wooden baby rattle;
  • constructing your own gratitude journal and rosary;
  • making art for God, including a salt-dough Trinity wall hanging, an Assumption cloud pillow, and an orange garland for St. Nicholas Day;
  • creating edible flower lollipops to remind us of the “Garden of Mary’s womb”; and
  • baking “Cookies of Joy” in honor of St. Hildegard of Bingen.

Campbell will help you discover that the liturgical calendar, which follows the seasons of a year in the life of the Church, is a tool that can draw you—individually, as a family, or as a community—closer to God in the midst of a fast-paced and ever-changing world. Along the way, the saints we celebrate teach us that the path to holiness is worthy of pursuing in our own unique way. Their lives can inspire you to listen to how God calls you to follow him as well.

This book is designed to inspire you to celebrate the feast days that speak to you personally. You don’t have to start living liturgically on the first Sunday of Advent—you can begin your journey anytime during the year. You also don’t have to celebrate every feast on a grand scale.

There are projects for all ages and levels of skill—from simple ways to honor a saint’s feast day with your kids to more elaborate celebrations with family and friends.

Find all of the project templates referenced in the book on the Be a Heart website.

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Simple Ways to Celebrate the Nativity of John the Baptist

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The Nativity of St. John the BaptistJune 24 Born c. 1 BC in JudeaDied c. AD 30 in Machaerus, Perea Patron saint of: baptism, converts, spiritual renewal, and those preparing the way for Christ The ...

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