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)….
This
Holy Year will commence on the next Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception (8 December 2015) and will conclude on Sunday,
20 November 2016, the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe
and living face of the Father's mercy.
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The logo and
the motto together provide a fitting summary of what the
Jubilee Year is all about. 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 – presents a small summa
theologiae of the theme of mercy. In fact, 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.
The
scene is captured within the so called mandorla (the shape of
an almond), a figure quite important in early and medieval iconography, for it
calls to mind the two natures of Christ, divine and human. The three concentric
ovals, with colors progressively lighter as we move outward, suggest the
movement of Christ who 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.
© Copyright Pontifical Council for the Promotion of New
Evangelization, Vatican State. All rights reserved.
For more
information please visit:
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Prayer 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
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.
© Copyright Pontifical Council for the Promotion of New
Evangelization, Vatican State. All rights reserved.
For more
information please visit:
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