Universal Schedule For Preparing For The Year 2000 Celebrations

Mary, The Star That Will Lead The World To Christ In The Third Millennium

In the very last words of his new book, "Celebrate 2000!," Pope John Paul II tells us who in the spiritual realm is in charge of leading the Church to Christ in the year 2000. Referring to everything he had written in the previous 267 pages, John Paul wrote:

"I entrust this responsibility of the whole Church to the maternal intercession of Mary, the Mother of the Redeemer: She, the Mother of Fairest Love, will be for Christians on the way to the Great Jubilee of the third millennium the star which safely guides their steps to the Lord. May the unassuming young woman of Nazareth, who two thousand years ago offered to the world the Incarnate Word, lead the men and women of the new millennium toward the One who is 'the true light that enlightens every man' (Jn. 1:9)" (1996, p. 268).

The Pope Holds Advent Service To Initiate Three Years Of Preparation

The responsibility for preparing the whole Church according to the agenda laid out in John Paul's book has been placed in Mary's hands. But as the star which will "safely guide Christians to the Lord", who else will she be leading? Not just members of his own church, but the "men and women of the new millenium." Following a "moment of Marian prayer," as reported by this Vatican Information Service (VIS) November 24, 1996 news release, the Pope pointed out:

" . . . that 'next Saturday, in the Vatican basilica, I will preside at the First Vespers of the first Sunday of Advent, with which we will initiate the three-year immediate preparatory period for the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000. I invite all the faithful of Rome, as well as pilgrims present in the city, to take part in this solemn moment of prayer with which, in communion with the local churches throughout the world, we will spiritually start to walk towards the Holy Door of 2000, symbol of Christ, one Savior of the world.'"

In another news story, we can see that this service, which opens the liturgical period of Advent in the Catholic Church, will put local churches throughout the world onto the road which ends at the threshold of the Holy Doors of St. Peter's:

"ASSOCIATED PRESS - Sunday 1 December 1996

"Pope officially opens preparations for 2000

"VATICAN CITY - Pope John Paul II formally launched Saturday the Roman Catholic Church's preparations to celebrate the year 2000 and promised to be there 'at God's pleasure.'

"'It is in the name of Christ that we begin, in these first vespers of Advent, the immediate preparation for the Grand Jubilee of the year 2000,' John Paul declared during a vespers prayer service in St. Peter's Basilica. Advent is the period preceding Christmas.

"The Vatican plans a series of Masses and other celebrations to mark Christianity's third millennium, and 20 million people are expected to flock to Rome. John Paul has declared 2000 a Jubilee year, a time of pilgrimage and celebration.

"'This road (of preparation) will take us to the threshold of the Holy Doors, which will be opened, at God's pleasure, the night of Christmas 1999, thus giving a start to the Grand Jubilee,' John Paul declared.

"According to church tradition, popes open and close the main doors of St. Peter's at the beginning and end of jubilee years. The doors otherwise remain closed.

"The pope has repeatedly stated his wish to lead the church into the third millennium. He has suffered a series of health problems in recent years, most recently an appendectomy Oct. 8. . . ." (by The Associated Press).

Local Parishes Implementing Preparations For Marian 'New Advent'

Apparently local parishes have already been preparing, with Mary having a central place in those preparations. When I looked at the front page of the Denver Catholic Register for December 4, 1996, I was met with the words "The New Advent." Underneath this headline was a picture of the Madonna holding the Christ Child to her bosom. This fits in with John Paul's previous writings, in which he's replaced the historical Catholic season of Advent as a spiritual preparation for the celebration of Christmas with what he's termed "a new advent" through Mary as our Model. In one encyclical, he wrote:

"Mary . . . should inspire all who cooperate in the Church's apostolic mission for the rebirth of humanity. . . The Church journeys through time . . . along the path already trodden by the Virgin Mary" (Redemptoris Missio, pp. 86, 92).

The pope was speaking of bringing forth Christ in a "rebirth of humanity." In a 72-page papal letter released on November 10, 1994, John Paul writes,

"Since the publication of the very first document of my pontificate I have spoken explicitly of the Great Jubilee, suggesting that the time leading up to it be lived as 'a new Advent.' This theme has since reappeared many times, and was dwelt upon at length in the encyclical Dominum et Vivificantem. In fact, preparing for the year 2000 has become as it were a hermeneutical key of my pontificate (Article 23, "The Coming of the Third Millennium: Preparation for the Jubilee of the Year 2000.")

In the above timeline, re-created from the Denver Catholic Register of December 4, 1996, we can see that each of the three years' focus is on one of the members of the Trinity, but in all of the years, the Church is to pattern itself after Mary, THE MODEL. This perfectly coincides with the above linkage of Mary and the birth of a new humanity. As documented in the Fatima section on my Home Page, Pope John Paul II is a Marian pope, and is determined to give Mary a prominent place in the preparations for Jubilee 2000.

The theme of rebirth with Mary as the Model will continue. A section from page two of the Register, "What each Catholic can do to support 1997 as the year of Jesus Christ," lists the supports for these preparations, which include this concerning Mary:

• Carry the Knights of Columbus' "Pilgrim Virgin" [statue] to the next parish.

• Make a pilgrimage to the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Denver.

• Take part joyfully, consciously and actively in special archdiocesan and parish celebrations of the Solemnities of Christ the King and the Annunciation.

The Holy Doors

What are the "Holy Doors" mentioned above? In his book, the "Star of 2000," Jay Gary writes,

"Like the ancient jubilee of Moses, the jubilee of Jesus suggests that each generation must respond to God's decree of liberty. This act of celebrating the grace of Christ and His redemptive work has not been lost on successive generations.

"In A.D. 1300 [700 years ago], Pope Boniface VIII, without any precedents, instituted a tradition within the Roman Catholic Church of celebrating every 100 years as a Holy Year of Jubilee. From all over Europe, pilgrims streamed to Rome to experience forgiveness and spiritual renewal.

"'It was a wonderful spectacle,' wrote Giovanni Villani, Florentine merchant and chronicler, . . .' Boniface's Jubilee year was 'a centennial celebration of a new age that would begin with the clean slate of a year of absolution.' (Gary citing Schwartz, Hillel. "Centuries' End: A cultural history of the fin de siecle from the 990s through the 1990s, Doubleday, 1990, p. 58).

"Fifty years later a delegation came to Pope Clement to ask for a reduction of the Jubilee interval from one hundred years to fifty. They were desirous that their generation might experience the blessings of a Holy Year.

"They reported that on the night before their audience with the pope 'there appeared to us a vision of a certain venerable personage bearing two keys in his hand, who addressed to us the following words, "Open the door, and from it send forth a fire by which the whole world may be warmed and enlightened." It is reported that the pope was so moved by their experience that he declared A.D. 1350 as a Holy Year.

"A tradition developed that the Jubilee year began on Christmas Eve with the opening of a sealed golden door in St. Peter's Basilica. It affirmed that as the pope struck the holy door with a golden hammer, living streams of grace and pardon from Christ, the rock, were released. The inheritance of the fathers restored to the sons."

A history of the establishment of the Jubilee year in Catholicism can be found at The New Advent web site. Here we found this excerpt from Herbert Turston's "Ceremonial Of The Jubilee," which concerns the Holy Doors of St. Peter's Basilica:

The most distinctive feature in the ceremonial of the Jubilee is the unwalling and the final walling up of the "holy door" in each of the four great basilicas which the pilgrims are required to visit. It was formerly supposed that this rite was instituted by Alexander VI in the Jubilee of l5OO, but this is certainly a mistake.Not to speak of a supposed vision of Clement VI as early as l35O, who is said to have been supernaturally admonished to "open the door", we have several references to the "holy door" or the "golden gate" in connection with the Jubilee long before the year l475. The earliest account seems to be that of the Spanish pilgrim, Pero Tafur, c. l437. He connects the Jubilee indulgence with the right of sanctuary, which, he maintains, existed in pagan times for all who crossed the threshold of the puerta tarpea upon the site of the Lateran. He goes on to say that, at the request of Constantine, Pope Sylvester published a Bull proclaiming the same immunity from punishment for Christian sinners who took sanctuary there. The privilege, however, was grossly abused and the popes consequently ordered the door to be walled up at all seasons save certain times of special grace. Formerly the door was unwalled only once in a hundred years, this was afterwards reduced to fifty, and now it is said to be "opened at the will of the pope." However legendary all this may be, it is hardly possible that the story could have been quite recently fabricated at the time Tafur recorded it. Moreover, a number of witnesses allude to the unwalling of the holy door in connection with the Jubilee of l45O. One of these, the Florentine merchant Giovanni Rucellai, speaks of the five doors of the Lateran basilica, "one of which is always walled up except during the Jubilee year, when it is broken down at Christmas when the Jubilee commences. The devotion which the populace has for the bricks and mortar of which it is composed is such that at the unwalling, the fragments are immediately carried off by the crowd, and the foreigners (gli oltremontani) take them home as so many sacred relics. . . . Out of devotion every one who gains the indulgence passes through that door, which is walled up again as soon as the Jubilee is ended" (Archivio di Storia Patria, IV, 569-57O). All this describes a rite which has lasted unchanged to the present day, and which has nearly always supplied the principal subject depicted upon the long series of Jubilee medals issued by the various popes who have opened and closed the holy door at the beginning and end of each Jubilee year. Each of the four basilicas has its holy door. That of St. Peter's is opened on the Christmas Eve preceding the anno santo by the pontiff in person, and it is closed by him on the Christmas Eve following. The pope knocks upon the door three times with a silver hammer, singing the versicle "Open unto me the gates of justice". The masonry, which has been loosened beforehand, is made to fall in at the third blow, and, after the threshhold has been swept and washed by the Jubilee penitentiaries, the pope enters first. Each of the holy doors at the other basilicas is similarly opened by a cardinal specially deputed for the purpose. The symbolism of this ceremony is probably closely connected with the idea of the exclusion of Adam and Eve from Paradise, and the expulsion and reconciliation of penitents according to the ritual provided in the Pontifical. But it may also have been influenced by the old idea of seeking sanctuary, as Tafur and Rucellai suggest. The sanctuary knocker of Durham Cathedral still remains to remind us of the important part which this institution played in the life of our forefathers (Transcribed by Donald J. Boon for the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia; Electronic version copyright 1996 by New Advent, Inc.)

On Christmas Eve, 1999, the "Holy Doors" will again respond to the "Golden Hammer" for a time of forgiveness and favor, but the plan this time will be for the Catholic Mary to lead the whole world through those doors into a Golden Age.