Jubilee of Mercy

I present, therefore, this Extraordinary Jubilee Year dedicated to living out in our daily lives the mercy which the Father constantly extends to all of us. In this Jubilee Year, let us allow God to surprise us. He never tires of casting open the doors of his heart and of repeating that he loves us and wants to share his love with us. The Church feels the urgent need to proclaim God’s mercy. Her life is authentic and credible only when she becomes a convincing herald of mercy. She knows that her primary task, especially at a moment full of great hopes and signs of contradiction, is to introduce everyone to the great mystery of God’s mercy by contemplating the face of Christ. The Church is called above all to be a credible witness to mercy, professing it and living it as the core of the revelation of Jesus Christ. From the heart of the Trinity, from the depths of the mystery of God, the great river of mercy wells up and overflows unceasingly. It is a spring that will never run dry, no matter how many people draw from it. Every time someone is in need, he or she can approach it, because the mercy of God never ends. The profundity of the mystery surrounding it is as inexhaustible as the richness which springs up from it.

In this Jubilee Year, may the Church echo the word of God that resounds strong and clear as a message and a sign of pardon, strength, aid, and love. May she never tire of extending mercy, and be ever patient in offering compassion and comfort. May the Church become the voice of every man and woman, and repeat confidently without end: “Be mindful of your mercy, O Lord, and your steadfast love, for they have been from of old” (Ps 25:6).

(Pope Francis, Misericordae Misericordiae Vultus, 25)

Father Rosario Messina ‘Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return’ (Jb 1:21). This famous phrase of Job makes us reflect on the initial and final reality of each one of us: somebody clothes us when

One of the largest sites of the “Vanished Rome”, disappeared as a result of the radical restructuring of the area surrounding the Vatican in 1930, when the whole central part of the district was dramatically demolished to open a very

Padre  Rosario  Messina In the Old Testament God had already revealed that He was living water that quenches thirst and refreshes: ‘O God, you are my God, and I long for you. My whole being desires you, like a dry,

Father Rosario Messina In his Bull for the Indiction of the Holy Year of Mercy the Pope writes at number 13: ‘We want to live this Jubilee Year in light of the Lord’s words: Merciful like the Father. The Evangelist

Father Rosario Messina In his Bull of Indiction for the Holy Year Pope Francis writes in n. 15: ‘It is my burning desire that, during this Jubilee, the Christian people may reflect on the corporal and spiritual works of mercy’.

Visiting the Sick – Pierre Subleyras from the catalogue La misericordia nell’arte, Itinerario giubilare tra i Capolavori dei grandi artisti italiani (‘Mercy in Art, Jubilee Itinerary amongst the Masterpieces of Great Italian Artists’, edited by Maria Grazie Bernardini and Mario

HOMILY OF THE HOLY FATHER JUBILEE OF THE SICK AND HEALTH-CARE WORKERS Friday, 11 February 2000  “The day shall dawn upon us from on high” (Lk 1: 78). With these words Zechariah foretold the Messiah’s imminent coming into the world. In