Joining Pope Francis in the celebration of The Jubilee Year of Mercy, Bishop Alemany High School is using the official Vatican theme “Merciful Like the Father” as our theme for the 2015-16 school year.
A jubilee year is a special year called by the church to receive blessing and pardon from God and remission of sins.The Catholic church has called jubilee years every 25 or 50 years since the year 1300 and has also called special jubilee years from time to time, known as extraordinary jubilee years. The last jubilee year was held in 2000 during the papacy of Pope John Paul II and was known as "the Great Jubilee." The last extraordinary jubilee year was held in 1983 to celebrate 1,950 years since the death and resurrection of Jesus.
In his remarks, Pope Francis said:
"I am convinced that the whole church -- that has much need to receive mercy because we are sinners — will find in this jubilee the joy to rediscover and render fruitful the mercy of God, with which we are all called to give consolation to every man and woman of our time." "Let us not forget that God pardons and God pardons always," the pope continued. "Let us never tire of asking for forgiveness."
"I am convinced that the whole church -- that has much need to receive mercy because we are sinners — will find in this jubilee the joy to rediscover and render fruitful the mercy of God, with which we are all called to give consolation to every man and woman of our time." "Let us not forget that God pardons and God pardons always," the pope continued. "Let us never tire of asking for forgiveness."
To be merciful is to be understanding.
To be merciful is to be willing to give another chance.
To be merciful is to be willing to let oneself and others off the hook for not being perfect.
Let us together pray that we can humbly use this coming year to work towards unity and to console one another in the blessing of our humanity.