This weekend 12/13 Dec. the 3rd Sunday in Advent, at the Saturday Spanish Mass and the 11.30 Sunday Mass, we will formally bless and open the Holy Door for the Jubilee of Mercy. St. Louis de Montfort has been chosen to be a pilgrim station Church for the North of the Archdiocese. This is a great honor. We start the jubilee simply by throwing open our doors to welcome everyone. We are to be an inclusive Church, open to all who “seek you with a sincere heart” as we pray in Eucharistic Prayer IV.
We will keep the celebration of the Jubilee Year simply at first as we have the Christmas season nearly upon us. So for this opening time let us focus on Mary the Mother of Mercy, which we have celebrated with great loyalty this past week on the two great feasts of our Mother, the Immaculate Conception and Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe. It is her openness to the Call of God to bear her son Jesus that allows mercy, the face of God, to shine upon us all. Mary too is sometimes called Portal meaning door. So let us pray that we all will have the courage and faith to open the doors of our hearts to do the will of God and make the merciful Christ alive to all we encounter in our daily lives.
May God bless you, your families, and the week ahead,
Fr Aidan Peter
