The Holy Year of Mercy!

You may have heard last week that the Vatican announced a Holy Year is coming up! And the first thing I want to say is don't anybody PANIC!

It's called the Holy Year of Mercy. But it's not like the forty-six days of Lent when you're supposed to give up something you enjoy - like drinking, smoking or too much time surfing the web. Nor is it like the New Years resolutions we all make, then abandon after a week or two.

It's just a year of celebrations, festivities, and forgiveness. Originally it was held just once in every one-hundred years, then it became a Jubilee Celebration every twenty-five years, but nowadays it's basically "at the will of the Pope" for events he deems worthy and important.

The fun thing is, a Holy Year is the time when the mysterious Holy Door at the Vatican is unsealed, unlocked and shoved open by the Pope himself. And when you walk through this holy portal your earthly sins are miraculously absolved - without going to Confession, without doing Lent or anything like that. Just walk through the door, all is forgiven, and you're good to go!

Actually there's four of these Holy Doors at the Papal basilicas in Rome, there's also one in Spain, and there's one in Quebec City in Canada, the first one outside of Europe as far as I know.

This all starts on December 8 of 2015. So there's still plenty of time to make airline and five-star hotel reservations, in case you've been really bad and need to walk through one of those doors. My rich employer certainly needs to, I know for a fact!

I'm even thinking about it myself, although going to Confession is a whole lot cheaper - no matter how humbling and embarrassing. Just don't go on Easter Sunday when the damned line is two or three blocks long.

Before you leave this evening, here's a link to the Vatican's awesome and mysterious Holy Door.

As always, thanks for dropping in,

Andrew