What is it? This year-long happening calls all Catholics to make a pilgrimage to a special designated location to reflect upon our need both to receive and to extend the Lord’s gracious mercy for us and for all persons. Participants are invited to pray about and to work with the Lord’s help to eliminate road blocks in our lives that prevent us from being able to receive and to extend the Lord’s mercy as fully as we can.
The Year of Mercy officially began in Rome on December 8th, 2015 and will extend until November 20th, 2016.
Sites in our Diocese where we can make the pilgrimage are as follows: 1. Our Lady, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Cathedral, 2535 Collingwood Boulevard in Toledo; (The Holy Door is to be accessible during the hours: Monday – Friday, from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m.; on weekends shortly before, during and after all scheduled Masses and Confessions.) 2. Sorrowful Mother Shrine, Bellevue, 4106 State Route 269, Bellevue; (The Holy Door is to be accessible during the hours: daily from 8:00 a.m. to dusk.) 3. Bascilica and National Shrine of Our Lady of Consolation, 315 Clay Street, Carey; (The Holy Door is to be accessible during the hours: every day of the week, 24 hours per day.) 4. Divine Mercy Parish, Paulding, 417 North Main Street, Paulding; (The Holy Door is to be accessible during the hours: Monday – Friday from 8:30 a.m. until 7:00 p.m.; on Saturdays from 8:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m.; on Sundays from 12:00 noon until 7:00 p.m.)
During the Holy Year, we are called and invited to make God’s mercy personal, both on the receiving and extending ends of this. In order to enable this to happen, the opportunity to obtain a plenary indulgence is being offered to us. To receive a plenary indulgence, one needs to do the following: 1) perform the act which carries with it the indulgence: passing through a designated Holy Door during the Year of Mercy, or performing one of the corporal or spiritual works of mercy; The Corporal Works of Mercy are: Feed the hungry, Give drink to the thirsty, Clothe the naked, Shelter the homeless, Visit the sick, Visit the imprisoned, and bury the dead. The Spiritual Works of Mercy are: Admonish the sinner, Instruct the ignorant, Counsel the doubtful, Comfort the sorrowful, Bear wrongs patiently, Forgive all injuries, pray for the living and the dead.
2) It is also essential to receive a plenary indulgence to fulfill the usual conditions of having the interior disposition of complete detachment from sin, receiving sacramental Confession and the Holy Eucharist, and praying for the intentions of the Holy Father.
Pope Francis sums up the effects of receiving an indulgence as follows: “To gain an indulgence is to experience the holiness of the Church, who bestows upon all the fruits of Christ’s redemption, so that God’s love and forgiveness may extend everywhere. Let us live this Jubilee intensely, begging the Father to forgive our sins and to bathe us in His merciful ‘indulgence.’”
I hope and pray that each of us will want to avail ourselves of the unique opportunity to receive the Lord’s mercy for ourselves and the strength to extend this to others by making one or more pilgrimages to one of the designated sites during this present Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy.
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Fr. Nelson Beaver – Pastor