During the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy in 2015-2016, Pope Francis began a personal initiative of celebrating “Mercy Fridays,” in which he would engage in specific corporal and spiritual works of mercy. Making visits to locations such as public housing projects, a center for Alzheimer’s patients, the newborn section of a hospital, an institute for the blind, and various health care centers, the Holy Father offered a sign of care, support, and mercy to all those he encountered.
While the official Year of Mercy has been completed and the pandemic has diminished many of our regular opportunities to go places and interact with others, that does not mean that mercy can be forgotten. In fact, Pope Francis has recently expressed on multiple occasions the importance of mercy in these days of difficulty for our world. Just this February in a letter to Bishop Piotr Libera of the Diocese of Płock, Poland marking the 90th anniversary of the first appearance of Jesus to Saint Faustina Kowalska, the Pope wrote, “Let us ask Christ for the gift of mercy. Let it engulf us and penetrate us. Let us have the courage to come back to Jesus to meet His love and mercy in the sacraments.” Then, in his official prayer intention for the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network for the month of March, the Holy Father called us “To pass from misery to mercy.”
It is with these statements in mind that we invite the clergy, religious, and laypeople, truly all men, women, and children to celebrate a Mercy Friday for this year of 2021. Therefore, on Friday, March 19, 2021, we ask the Catholics of the Archdiocese of Hartford to observe a “Mercy Friday” by engaging in any of the corporal and spiritual works of mercy that might be possible at this time.
Some might recognize that March 19th is also the Solemnity of Saint Joseph, an important day for both our universal and local Church. During this holy Year of Saint Joseph and especially in this archdiocese where we celebrate Saint Joseph as our patron, March 19th will be a day of solemnity and celebration, but it can also be a day for mercy. Recalling the blessed ways in which Saint Joseph supported the Holy Family, we should be drawn into action, and what better way to act in commemoration of this saint than to act with great mercy toward one another.
For those who are interested in taking part in this initiative with others from around the archdiocese, we invite you, your family, your parish, or whatever group you can put together to learn more about the Corporal Works of Mercy and the Spiritual Works of Mercy. Then, as you begin to prepare for your “Mercy Friday” on March 19th and decide which works you will be able to do, to share those plans with us by filling out the form below so that we can put together a full collection of all the moving acts of mercy being performed throughout the whole archdiocese on that day.
Thank you in advance for celebrating with us this important feast day of our patron and for sharing the love and mercy of Christ with all those you can.