THE
P RTAL
January 2016
Page 22
Called to be Catholic
bathed in the merciful indulgence of the Father
Part One: Fr Christopher Lindlar maps out
the Year of Mercy events for the Ordinariate of OLW
O
n the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, our Holy Father Pope Francis opened the Holy Door at
St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican and so inaugurated the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy. Our own
Ordinary, Mgr Keith Newton, is inviting all the faithful of our Ordinariate to take part in the Year of Mercy by
joining in events during 2016, under the banner of Called to be Catholic - bathed in the merciful indulgence
of the Father (cf. Misericordiae Vultus 22).
The Holy Father teaches us that we cannot propose
God’s mercy to a needy world, until we know God’s
mercy for ourselves;
‘it is absolutely essential for the Church and
for the credibility of her message that she herself
live and testify to mercy’ (MV 12). For this
reason, ‘the season of Lent during this Jubilee
Year should also be lived more intensely as a
privileged moment to celebrate and experience
God’s mercy. [ . . . ] The initiative of “24 Hours
for the Lord,” to be celebrated on the Friday
and Saturday preceding the Fourth Sunday
of Lent [i.e. 4th-5th March 2016], should be
implemented in every diocese. Let us place the
Sacrament of Reconciliation at the centre once
more in such a way that it will enable people to
touch the grandeur of God’s mercy with their
own hands’ (MV 17).
As we strive to hold open the door of mercy across
our country on that first Friday and Saturday of
March, we could well open our own hearts to the
Father’s mercy, in the words of the Prayer of Humble
Access from Divine Worship - the Missal with its
deep reflection on God the Father’s divine property of
mercy. Whenever we meet the Lord, in prayer and
adoration, at the Table of the Word, at the Table of the
Sacraments, we are assured of the washing away of our
24 Hours for the Lord
sins and union with the Godhead - through no merits
The Ordinariate has members spread across our of our own but simply His great mercies.
country and so we are well placed in a very special
way to participate in this initiative. Our Ordinary
We do not presume to come to this thy Table,
encourages pastors and their people to keep 24 Hours
O merciful Lord,
for the Lord, with 24 hours of continuous Adoration of
trusting in our own righteousness,
the Blessed Sacrament and ample opportunity for the
but in thy manifold and great mercies.
Sacrament of Reconciliation.
We are not worthy so much
as to gather up the crumbs under thy Table.
This is an evangelistic opportunity to propose a
But thou art the same Lord
renewed and deeper devotion to Christ, the face of
whose property is always to have mercy.
the Father’s mercy, present in the sacramental species
Grant us therefore, gracious Lord,
and in the mystery of sacramental mercy. Those
so to eat the flesh of thy dear Son Jesus Christ,
of us called into the fullness of communion in the
and to drink his blood,
Catholic Church perhaps have a particular vocation to
that our sinful bodies
experience and to advocate the merciful indulgence of
may be made clean by his body,
the Father, both in the Sacrament of Confession and
and our souls
also in fervent devotion to the sacramental presence of
washed through his most precious blood,
his only-begotten Son, who became Man for us men
and that we may evermore dwell in him,
and for our salvation.
and he in us. Amen.
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