Holy Year of Mercy

Jubilee of Mercy

Vatican Website

Jubilee Year
of Mercy

About

“…I have decided to announce an Extraordinary Jubilee which has at its centre the mercy of God. It will be a Holy Year of Mercy. We want to live in the light of the word of the Lord: ‘Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.’ (cf. Lk 6:36)…I am confident that the whole Church, which is in such need of mercy for we are sinners, will be able to find in this Jubilee the joy of rediscovering and rendering fruitful God’s mercy, with which we are all called to give comfort to every man and every woman of our time.”

Pope Francis

December 8, 2015, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception —
November 20, 2016, the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe

Celebrations Planned for the Closing of the Holy Year of Mercy

Year of Mercy Afternoon of Prayer, Music & Reflection

Cathedral to Host Hymn Sing for the Year of Mercy

Special Visiting Hours Announced for Holy Door at St. Mary’s Cathedral

Summer of Mercy Speaker Series
Corpus Christi Parish, East Sandwich

“24 Hours for the Lord” March 4-5 Observance in Diocese
“24 Hours for the Lord” is an opportunity for Catholics to encounter Jesus Christ through reflection, prayer and penance.

Celebrating the Jubilee Year of Mercy
With Prayer-Praise-Adoration-Reconciliation-Fellowship
March 18, 2016 – 4:35 p.m.
Stonehill College Campus Ministry and Holy Cross Family Ministries

Embracing the Father’s Mercy is theme of Dartmouth Parish January Mission

On Video: Bishop da Cunha opens the Door of Mercy

Read Bishop da Cunha’s Letter on the Opening of the Holy Year

Bishop to Open “Door of Mercy” at St. Mary’s Cathedral on December 13

Prayer

Prayer of Pope Francis for the Jubilee 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 of you, Lord Jesus, 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.

Official Logo

logo

The motto Merciful Like the Father (taken from the Gospel of Luke, 6:36) 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 (cfr. Lk 6:37-38). It represents an image quite important to the early Church: that of the Son having taken upon his shoulders the lost soul demonstrating that it is the love of Christ that brings to completion the mystery of his incarnation culminating in redemption. The logo has been designed in such a way so as to express the profound way in which the Good Shepherd touches the flesh of humanity and does so with a love with the power to change one’s life. One particular feature worthy of note is that while the Good Shepherd, in his great mercy, takes humanity upon himself, his eyes are merged with those of man. Christ sees with the eyes of Adam, and Adam with the eyes of Christ. Every person discovers in Christ, the new Adam, one’s own humanity and the future that lies ahead, contemplating, in his gaze, the love of the Father.

Designated Doors of Mercy

Churches throughout the Fall River Diocese
Designated Holy Doors of Mercy

A holy door or porta sancta has been used since the fifteenth century as a ritual expression of conversion. Pilgrims and penitents pass through it 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. Often these rituals are associated with prayer, pilgrimage, sacrifice, confession, and indulgences.

In his document, Misericordiae Vultus, the official decree of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, Pope Francis encourages the faithful to make a pilgrimage to their local door of mercy.

The practice of pilgrimage has a special place in the Holy Year, because it represents the journey each of us makes in this life. Life itself is a pilgrimage, and the human being is a viator, a pilgrim travelling along the road, making his way to the desired destination. Similarly, to reach the Holy Door in Rome or in any other place in the world, everyone, each according to his or her ability, will have to make a pilgrimage. This will be a sign that mercy is also a goal to reach and requires dedication and sacrifice. May pilgrimage be an impetus to conversion: by crossing the threshold of the Holy Door, we will find the strength to embrace God’s mercy and dedicate ourselves to being merciful with others as the Father has been with us.”