An ever-open door

So today the Year of Mercy comes to an end, and in shrines, cathedrals and churches around the world, Holy Doors are being ceremonially sealed, dismantled or returned to their normal status of ordinary door. But, of course, God's tender, loving mercy doesn't end: it lives on, unchanged by Years and dates; what has been changed has been the Church's emphasis, and our general awareness.

And we also have a Door which will never close - the door into God's Heart. Here is a door, originally opened by violence, but always staying open in love, regardless of Year or date - and we will always be invited to enter in. Here we will always find a welcome, always find abundant love, tenderness and mercy, and be invited to be that welcome, to be that love, tenderness and mercy for the rest of our world. Because this ever-open door is an exit as well as an entrance; and we are invited in, not solely in order to snuggle up and feel blissfully at home, but also in order to go out, and to be the love and tenderness we have found and cherish. And in our wounded, hurting world, and in atmospheres of anger and division, that is surely the gift we are all being asked to offer...




Last Christmas our Superior General wrote a letter to the Society about entering the Holy Door and journeying in pilgrimage, much of which can still speak to us today. An extract is below, and you can read more of it on our international website.

How then are we invited to enter the Holy Door?

Sophie would ask us to enter with trust, desire and expectation the holy door of Jesus’ Heart, confident that God wants to share with us anew God’s merciful love. 

Let us enter the holy door of our own hearts, confident that the Spirit is present within us, opening, healing, giving life, breathing within us, that we may know and live the mercy of God. Perhaps this is a moment in which the Spirit wants to transform further some part of me, of us. Perhaps it is a time to receive forgiveness and welcome God’s merciful love, renewing us in the confidence that God calls us as we are to live the love of God’s Heart. Perhaps this Christmas is a time when I am invited to incarnate in a particular way the mercy of God. Perhaps ... 

And, how are we to journey in pilgrimage?

Let us journey in pilgrimage to the place where God’s heart dwells in my heart. Let us take time to reflect on the journey we have walked in this past year, or throughout our life, noticing how and where I have become more able to receive and to live God’s mercy in relation to my own life story. In my relationships with others, may I ask to notice what enables me to live the openness, tenderness and forgiveness of God’s compassion; and what blocks me at times. May I become aware of the direction in which God invites me to journey in the coming year in relation to myself and others.

Let us join with others who are on pilgrimage at this time, seeking love and life in today’s world. Let us journey with those who are fleeing violence, terror, abuse; those suffering the destruction of the fabric of society or of the environment; those trying to reach a new land where they can nurture life and hope for themselves and their children; those seeking to rebuild their lives in various ways. Let us journey with others who are searching to create new possibilities of mercy and communion in our world. Let us learn from and with one another how to respond with love in the face of fear, violence and pain; how to envision and build a global society where everyone has access to resources; how to live in new ways that provide and sustain life for everyone. Let us deepen and expand our compassion, that we may grow in living Sophie’s vision of relational transformation in love of persons, of our global community, of our universe...