Pope Francis has announced the Jubilee Year of Mercy from Dec 8th 2015 – Nov 20th 2016. The purpose of the year is to proclaim God’s mercy to all people. Mercy is God’s unconditional love for all that has been created. God’s love never depends on our actions; it’s an endless and radical mercy that God offers freely. The Year of Mercy is a way for the church to “make more evident its mission to be a witness of mercy.”
CLICK HERE to read Pope Francis’ letter, Face of Mercy, Misericordiae Vultus
CLICK HERE for the Prayer for the Year of Mercy
CLICK HERE to download the Hymn for the Year of Mercy
CLICK HERE for the Ceremony for the Opening of the Holy Door of Mercy
When does the Year of Mercy begin? It will begin with the opening of the Holy Door of Mercy in the Basilica of St. Peter, December 8, 2015 by Pope Francis. Every diocese will celebrate the opening of the Holy Door in unity with the Universal Church by opening a Holy Door of Mercy in their own cathedrals on Sunday December 13, 2015.
Bishop Ray Browne will open the Holy Door of Mercy in St. Mary’s Cathedral at a special Mass on Sunday Dec 13th @ 5pm
What is the Holy Door? The Holy Door, whether in Rome or in dioceses throughout the world, is a Door of Mercy. Pope Francis says that “anyone who enters will experience the love of God who consoles, pardons, and instills hope.” A Holy Door has been used since the fifteenth century as a ritual expression of conversion. Pilgrims and penitents pass through the Holy Door as a gesture of leaving the past behind and crossing the threshold from sin to grace, from slavery to freedom, and from darkness to light. This ritual is associated with prayer, pilgrimage, sacrifice, confession, and indulgences. The Holy Door only finds meaning when the believer associates the door with Christ. Jesus is the Door! In the words of Pope Francis, “There is only one way that opens wide the entrance into the life of communion with God: this is Jesus, the one and absolute way to salvation.”
How can we participate in the Year of Mercy? People are called to make a brief pilgrimage to the Holy Door, open in every Cathedral and in the four Papal Basilicas in Rome, as a sign of the deep desire for true conversion. Once they have crossed through the Holy Door, in addition to the usual conditions which require a heart well-disposed for the grace to bring its desired fruits, the faithful should stop in prayer to fulfill the final actions asked for: the profession of faith, and prayer for the Holy Father and his intentions. It is suggested that pilgrims recite the lovely prayer of Pope Francis for the Jubilee, and that they conclude the time of prayer with an invocation to the merciful Lord Jesus, “Merciful Jesus, I trust in You”. There will be a prayer card available to pilgrims when they come to the Holy Door of Mercy in St. Mary’s Cathedral, Killarney to enable them to celebrate this ritual moment.
Logo of the Year of Mercy The motto, “Merciful Like the Father,” “serves as an invitation to follow the merciful example of the Father who asks us not to judge or condemn but to forgive and to give love and forgiveness without measure.” Jesus, the Good Shepherd, takes the one who is lost upon his shoulders. The image, created by Jesuit Fr. Marko Rupnik, shows one of Jesus’ eyes merged with the person on his shoulder, to show how Jesus Christ seeing with the eyes of humanity, and humanity seeing with the eyes of Christ.
Prayer for the Year of Mercy
Lord Jesus Christ, you have taught us to be merciful like the heavenly Father,
and have told us that whoever sees you sees Him.
Show us your face and we will be saved.
Your loving gaze freed Zacchaeus and Matthew from being enslaved by money;
the adulteress and Magdalene from seeking happiness only in created things;
made Peter weep after his betrayal, and assured Paradise to the repentant thief.
Let us hear, as if addressed to each one of us,
the words that you spoke to the Samaritan woman: “If you knew the gift of God!”
You are the visible face of the invisible Father,
of the God who manifests his power above all by forgiveness and mercy:
let the Church be your visible face in the world, its Lord risen and glorified.
You willed that your ministers would also be clothed in weakness
in order that they may feel compassion for those in ignorance and error:
let everyone who approaches them feel sought after, loved, and forgiven by God.
Send your Spirit and consecrate every one of us with its anointing,
so that the Jubilee of Mercy may be a year of grace from the Lord,
and your Church, with renewed enthusiasm, may bring good news to the poor,
proclaim liberty to captives and the oppressed, and restore sight to the blind.
We ask this through the intercession of Mary, Mother of Mercy,
you who live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever.
Amen.