Bishop Lynch will open our Holy Door of Mercy at the Cathedral of St. Jude the Apostle  (5815 5th Avenue North, St. Petersburg) during the 9:30 a.m. Mass on Sunday, December 13! All are invited to attend. If you cannot be with us in person, we invite you to join us spiritually in prayer.

This Holy Door (the main door located on the side of the Cathedral with the baptismal font) will become a Door of Mercy through which anyone who enters is invited to experience the love of God who consoles, pardons, and instills hope. After this Mass and throughout the Year of Mercy, you are invited to visit the Cathedral and walk through the Door of Mercy.

A holy door has been used since the fifteenth century as a ritual expression of conversion. Pilgrims and penitents pass through it as a gesture of leaving the past behind and crossing the threshold from sin to grace, from slavery to freedom, and from darkness to light. Often these rituals are associated with prayer, pilgrimage, sacrifice, and confession. But the door finds meaning only when the believer associates the door with Christ. Jesus is the Door!