Prayer to Mary, the Immaculate Conception ~ Pope Francis

~ *~ You are all-beautiful, O Mary! ~*~

�Virgin most holy and immaculate, 

to you, the honour of our people, 

and the loving protector of our city,

do we turn with loving trust.

You are all-beautiful, O Mary!

In you there is no sin.

Awaken in all of us a renewed desire for holiness:

May the splendour of truth shine forth in our words, 

the song of charity resound in our works, 

purity and chastity abide in our hearts and bodies,

and the full beauty of the Gospel be evident in our lives.

You are all-beautiful, O Mary!

In you the Word of God became flesh.

Help us always to heed the Lord�s voice:

May we never be indifferent to the cry of the poor,

or untouched by the sufferings of the sick and those in need;

may we be sensitive to the loneliness of the elderly and the vulnerability of children, 

and always love and cherish the life of every human being.

You are all-beautiful, O Mary!

In you is the fullness of joy born of life with God.

Help us never to forget the meaning of our earthly journey:

May the kindly light of faith illumine our days,

the comforting power of hope direct our steps,

the contagious warmth of love stir our hearts;

and may our gaze be fixed on God, 

in whom true joy is found.

You are all-beautiful, O Mary!

Hear our prayer, graciously hear our plea:

May the beauty of God�s merciful love 

in Jesus abide in our hearts,

and may this divine beauty save us, our city 

and the entire world.

Amen.�

The Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy ~ 8 December 2015 to 20 November 2016

Jesus Christ 

is the face of the Father�s mercy.

Seek the Face of JESUS,

His Divine Mercy 

will NEVER be exhausted.

JESUS is our source of 

the Father's MERCY and LOVE.

After the solemn inauguration of the Holy Year of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy on 8 December 2015 (Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception), the Holy Father Pope Francis open the Holy Door Mercy of Saint Peter�s Basilica on the same day. All other Roman Catholic Churches around the world will open their own Doors of Mercy in communion with the Church of Rome as part of the Eucharistic celebration of the Third Sunday of Advent (Gaudete Sunday).

Approach the Door of Mercy 

with humility and repentance 

and encounter the 

merciful embrace of the Father

upon entering it.

The motto and the logo come together to offer a synthesis of the ideal underlying the Jubilee Year. 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). The logo�the work of Jesuit Father Marko I. Rupnik�is in itself a concentrated summa theologiae of the theme of mercy. It represents, in fact, an image very dear to the early Church, i.e. the love of Christ who brings the mystery of his incarnation to fulfillment with the redemption. The logo has been conceived in such a way that the Good Shepherd touches humanity�s flesh so deeply and with such love as to bring about a radical change. One feature of the logo which cannot fail to emerge is how, having raised humanity onto his shoulders in a gesture which demonstrates extreme mercy, the eyes of the Good Shepherd and those of Adam become united so that Christ sees through the eyes of Adam, and vice-versa. Every man and woman thus discovers in Christ, the new Adam, his or her own humanity and the future to come, contemplating in the eyes of Christ the Father�s love. The scene is set within a mandorla (an almond shape), a device dear to early and medieval iconography, which underlines the presence of the two natures�divine and human�in Christ. The three concentric ovals, progressively lighter in color as they extend towards the outer edge, suggests the dynamic by which Christ carries humanity out of the night of sin and death. Conversely, the depth of the darker color suggests the impenetrability of the love of the Father who forgives all.

Jubilee Year of Mercy ~ MERCIFUL LIKE THE FATHER

Across the rich pages of Misericordae Vultus itself a true theological synthesis on mercy. Pope Francis outlines the very course and direction of the Jubilee. Click on link below to view the Misericordae Vultus.

~ Misericordiae Vultus ~

BULL OF INDICTION OF THE EXTRAORDINARY JUBILEE OF MERCY

Wake Up the World ~ Pope Francis

�Religious life ought to promote growth in the Church by way of attraction. The Church must be attractive. Wake up the world! Be witnesses of a different way of doing things, of acting, of living! It is possible to live differently in this world,� Pope Francis said in conversation with the Union of Superiors General of Men 29 November 2014 in the Vatican. Italian Jesuit journal, La Civilt� Cattolica is publishing an article on the dialogue between the Catholic Church�s first Jesuit Pope and the Union of Superiors General of Men. 

�It is possible to live differently in this world. We are speaking of an eschatological outlook, of the values of the Kingdom incarnated here, on this earth. It is a question of leaving everything to follow the Lord. No, I do not want to say �radical�. Evangelical radicality is not only for religious: it is demanded of all. But religious follow the Lord in a special way, in a prophetic way. It is this witness that I expect of you. Religious should be men and women who are able to wake the world up,� Pope Francis said. �Life is complicated,� Pope Francis recalled. �It consists of grace and sin.� �He who does not sin is not human. We all make mistakes and we need to recognise our weakness. A religious who recognises himself as weak and a sinner does not negate the witness that he is called to give, rather he reinforces it and this is good for everyone. What I expect of you therefore is to give witness. I want this special witness from religious.�

The 15-page article (available in English at the La Civilt� Cattolica website) documents the views of Pope Francis on religious life.

2016 ~ Holy Year of Mercy

On 13 March, 2015, Pope Francis has declared an extraordinary Holy Year of Mercy which will highlight the Catholic Church's mission to be a witness of mercy. It will begin on 8 December 2015, on the 50th anniversary of the conclusion of the Ecumenical Vatican Council II and will run until the Feast of Christ the King on 20 November 2016. The theme of the year will be "Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful� (cfr. Luke 6:36). The logo for the year is as below, where we see Christ Jesus carrying a man sideways on His shoulders (instead of a lamb), and there are three eyes visible, the centre one clearly being shared between Christ and the man.

* * The logo has been registered in the international forum in order to safeguard its rights and to prevent any inappropriate use. It is obvious that permission must be granted by the Pontifical Council for any non-religious use of the logo and that any infringement will be duly prosecuted.

....not to condemn anyone for eternity.� Rather, �It is to pour out the balm of God�s mercy on all those who ask for it with a sincere heart. The way of the church is precisely to leave her four walls behind and to go out in search of those who are distant, those essentially on the �outskirts� of life; to adopt fully God�s own approach; to follow the Master who said: �Those who are well have no need of the physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call, not the righteous but sinners to repentance.�

�Jesus� call encourages each of us to look underneath the surface of things,� the Pope explained, "particularly when we are face to face with a person. We are called to look beyond and to focus on the heart in order to see how much generosity one is capable of. No one can be excluded from God�s mercy; everyone knows how to access it and the Church is a home that welcomes all and rejects no one. Its doors remain wide open so that those who are touched by grace can find the certainty of forgiveness. The greater the sin, the deeper Church�s love must be for those who convert.�

Pray to the Holy Spirit every day .... to open our hearts to Jesus

Let us try asking ourselves: am I open to the action of the Holy Spirit? Do I pray him to give me illumination, to make me more sensitive to God�s things?

This is a prayer we must pray every day: 

�Holy Spirit, make my heart open to the word of God, make my heart open to goodness, make my heart open to the beauty of God every day�.

I would like to ask everyone a question: how many of you pray every day to the Holy Spirit? There will not be many but we must fulfil Jesus� wish and pray every day to the Holy Spirit that he open our heart to Jesus.

Let us think of Mary who �kept all these things, pondering them in her heart� (Lk 2:19, 51). Acceptance of the words and truth of faith so that they may become life is brought about and increases under the action of the Holy Spirit. In this regard we must learn from Mary, we must relive her �yes�, her unreserved readiness to receive the Son of God in her life, which was transformed from that moment. Through the Holy Spirit, the Father and the Son take up their abode with us: we live in God and of God. Yet is our life truly inspired by God? How many things do I put before God?

Dear brothers and sisters, we need to let ourselves be bathed in the light of the Holy Spirit so that he may lead us into the Truth of God, who is the one Lord of our life.

source: Pope Francis, General Audience,

Saint Peter's Square, 

Wednesday, 15 May 2013

�the Holy Spirit is the inexhaustible source of God�s life in us.�

�the Holy Spirit, the Gift of the Risen One who dwells in us, 

purifies us, illuminates us, renews us, transforms us 

because he makes us participants 

in the very life of God that is Love.�



The Holy Spirit teaches us to see 
with the eyes of Christ, 
to live life as Christ lived, 
to understand life as Christ understood it. 
Let us hear the Holy Spirit, 
let us listen to the Holy Spirit 
and may we move forward 
on this path of 
love, mercy and forgiveness.



�The One whom the Father has sent into our hearts, 

the Spirit of his Son, is truly God. 

Consubstantial with the Father and the Son, 

the Spirit is inseparable from them.� (CCC 689)

1 Corinthians 12:3

no one can say �Jesus is Lord� 

except by the Holy Spirit.

Veni, Sancte Spiritus

Renew our relationship with the Spirit

and

increase our devotion to the Holy Spirit.

"God always forgives!" ~ Pope Francis

Pope Francis again encourages us to go to confession. Some times it is hard, but that is part of the remedy.

Pope Francis said confession is not a judgement but a meeting with God who forgives all our sins, without exception. Basing his reflections on an extract from St Paul�s letter to the Hebrews, the Pope said our God forgives all our sins, always and without exception and He rejoices when somebody asks him for pardon. This God who pardons us, he continued, choose Jesus to set up a new pact with humanity and the cornerstone of this pact is forgiveness for our sins. 

�First of all, God always forgives us. He never tires of this. It�s we who get tired of asking for forgiveness. But He does not tire of pardoning us. When Peter asked Jesus: �How many times must I forgive? Seven times?� � �Not seven times: seventy times by seven.� Namely always. That�s how God forgives us: always. But if you have lived a life full of so many sins, so many bad things, but in the end, a bit repentant, you ask for forgiveness, He will immediately pardon you! He always pardons us.�

Pope Francis said a doubt can arrive in a person�s heart over how far God is prepared to forgive us. But, he stressed, all you have to do is repent and ask for forgiveness and you don�t have to pay because Christ has already paid on our behalf.

The Pope went on to describe how God rejoices when somebody asks for forgiveness and at the same time He �forgets� or wipes out from his memory our sins. The reason for this, he explained, is because what matters for God is for us to meet with him. Confession is not a judgement but a meeting with God.