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At the last Holy Year, the Jubilee at the beginning of the Third Christian Millennium in the year 2000, I was 16 years old. And, at that time, I was exploring deliberately and seriously the possibility of a vocation to the priesthood. In the Holy Year of 2000 I would have been very happy to know in the Holy Year of 2025, that the hopes and dreams I had in my teenage years of offering the whole of my life to God as His priest would be fulfilled, and I would be celebrating my fourth Christmas here in Ellesmere Port and Hooton as your parish priest.

What changes our parish has experienced in this last quarter of a century since the Holy Year of 2000. And dare we even begin to imagine what the future might hold in the Holy Year of 2050? Whilst the Church, inspired by sacred Scripture, offers to us these milestone Holy Years, in reality every year has the potential to be a Holy Year for you, and for me.

We can make a year holy when we are determined, through God’s grace, to sanctify the time He has granted to us this side of Eternity: that we never go a day without prayer, a week without Mass, a month without Confession. These three strands will form a cord that will bind us more closely to Jesus our Saviour and Redeemer in the Holy Year of 2025, and form the basis of the Holy Year Covenant that I ask each parishioner to seriously consider pledging and committing to.

One of the significant aspects of a Holy Year is when the Holy Father in Rome opens the four Holy Doors of the Papal Basilicas of St John Lateran, St Peter, St Paul Outside the Walls, and St Mary Major. Our parish has three such Holy Doors that we are invited this coming year to cross the threshold of. The first, the door of the Church. To enter into God’s House, not just for the celebration of Holy Mass, but to come pray, to call in if passing, to bring your children and grandchildren to visit the Blessed Sacrament, to light a candle, to visit our Lady. The second, the door of the Confessional. This is a truly Holy Door and when we cross it we enter a sinner, outside of God’s friendship, but when we leave having been Absolved, we experience God’s grace and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The third Holy Door is that of the Tabernacle, containing the real Presence of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. From that Holy Place, we receive the Lord Himself. There is a fourth Holy Door, which is the Door of your heart and mine. Jesus says in the Book of Revelation, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My Voice and opens the door, I will enter. Jesus stands not simply at the door of your heart, but at the gate of this New Year. May 2025 be a truly Holy Year when we cross the threshold of the Holy Doors of our own parish: Church, Confessional, Tabernacle - and invite the Lord by throwing wide the doors of our hearts, too. Happy Christmas and may God bless you - and our parish family - in the Holy Year, 2025.

Please pray for me.
Father Edmund