Looking back at the weekly messages of Father Paul Counce, first published in The Carpenter, our weekly Parish Bulletin
Published: November 29, 2015
Dearest Parishioners and Friends,
As Advent begins, I hope you and yours have already begun to prepare for Christmas well. During this special time of year, many seasonal movies and television shows help us all to rediscover welcome spirits of generosity and goodness – from the various portrayals of Dickens’ Scrooge in A Christmas Carol to Jimmy Stewart starring in Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life to cartoons starring the Grinch or the Peanuts gang. And we enjoy re-viewing and re-learning these lessons. But it’s also important to realize that all of these are “lesser spirits.” The real and perfect Holy Spirit of Christmas is found in Jesus Christ Himself, so we need to make sure it’s not just secular traditions that we rediscover and rejoice in.
The 2016 liturgical year which begins this weekend is also a special one, for Pope Francis has designated it as an Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy. It will begin in Baton Rouge on Tuesday, December 8, at our 12 noon Mass when our Cathedral’s Holy Door is opened by Bishop Muench.
Pope Francis expressed his desire that as many people as possible “experience the grace of the Jubilee.” In particular he hopes that Christian faithful everywhere come to know God’s mercy in the forgiveness of their sins and the absolving of all consequences due to sin. This kind of all-encompassing grace, which is freely given by God through the Church, is known as an indulgence. “To experience and obtain the Indulgence,” the pope writes, “the faithful are called to make a brief pilgrimage to the Holy Door, open in every Cathedral … as a sign of the deep desire for true conversion.” Confession and holy communion around the time of the visit, received either here or in another Catholic church, along with recitation of the Creed and prayer for the Holy Father and his intentions are the other requisite “ingredients” for the obtaining of the grace of the indulgence.
Now don’t worry: the pope added that for those who cannot come to the Holy Door, particularly the sick and elderly and homebound, if they simply “spiritually unite” themselves with pilgrims during this Holy Year they will obtain the same forgiveness. There’s no reason why any of us cannot share in the merciful graces God offers us all!
Yours in the Lord,
