{"id":1903,"date":"2015-12-01T20:13:11","date_gmt":"2015-12-01T20:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/?p=1903"},"modified":"2015-11-29T20:38:22","modified_gmt":"2015-11-29T20:38:22","slug":"jubilee-year-of-mercy-a-door-will-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2015\/12\/jubilee-year-of-mercy-a-door-will-open.html","title":{"rendered":"Jubilee Year of Mercy: A Door Will Open"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/files\/2015\/11\/Jubilee-Door.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-1904\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/350\/2015\/11\/Jubilee-Door-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"Jubilee Door\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a>When I&#8217;m having a really bad day and the pain won&#8217;t let up, I appreciate those doors that open. Perhaps I&#8217;ll hear from a reader, whose wisdom inspires me to think beyond my own suffering. Or, I&#8217;ll spend time in prayer and new insight will gently rest on my heart. Or, maybe the door opening will be as simple as the realization that, when I wasn&#8217;t thinking about it, the flare began to lift, the pain lessen.<\/p>\n<p>Open doors can signify new beginnings or a continuation of a profound and wonderful journey. They might lead to something or someone challenging, or the comfort that we need just at the right time. And when we open the door of our heart, when we sit and invite the Spirit to move within us, inviting God&#8217;s love\u00a0ever deeper inside us, we experience ever more grace-filled faith and steely strength that we can turn to the people and things in our life that need our support and encouragement. An open door brings new air, new breath into our lives, renewing and rejuvenating us.<\/p>\n<p>This \u00a0year, next week, another door will open. I took the picture accompanying this blog post when I was in Washington D.C. for the papal visit. It shows the Jubilee Door at the Basilica of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. It&#8217;s a beautiful door, decorated with the flourish of faith, but it was closed. As I stood before it, I felt a sense of stuffiness, of stagnant air in the &#8220;before opening&#8221; of that door. But I can imagine that, when it opens, fresh air and light will pour through it. Just like what happens with us, when we open the door of our heart to God in fresh supplication, attention, and mercy.<\/p>\n<p>Peace,<\/p>\n<p>Maureen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When I&#8217;m having a really bad day and the pain won&#8217;t let up, I appreciate those doors that open. Perhaps I&#8217;ll hear from a reader, whose wisdom inspires me to think beyond my own suffering. Or, I&#8217;ll spend time in prayer and new insight will gently rest on my heart. Or, maybe the door opening&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":548,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1422,360],"tags":[29,32,1965,1963,1966,30,1967],"class_list":["post-1903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chronic-pain-and-illness","category-chronic-pain-and-the-holidays","category-determination","tag-chronic-illness","tag-giving-thanks","tag-jubilee-year-of-mercy","tag-mercy","tag-opening-a-door","tag-pain","tag-relief-for-pain"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Jubilee Year of Mercy: A Door Will Open - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"An open door can be the start of relief\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2015\/12\/jubilee-year-of-mercy-a-door-will-open.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Jubilee Year of Mercy: A Door Will Open - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"An open door can be the start of relief\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2015\/12\/jubilee-year-of-mercy-a-door-will-open.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-12-01T20:13:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-11-29T20:38:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/files\/2015\/11\/Jubilee-Door-225x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"mpratt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Jubilee Year of Mercy: A Door Will Open - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt","description":"An open door can be the start of relief","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2015\/12\/jubilee-year-of-mercy-a-door-will-open.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Jubilee Year of Mercy: A Door Will Open - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt","og_description":"An open door can be the start of relief","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2015\/12\/jubilee-year-of-mercy-a-door-will-open.html","og_site_name":"Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt","article_published_time":"2015-12-01T20:13:11+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-11-29T20:38:22+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/files\/2015\/11\/Jubilee-Door-225x300.jpg"}],"author":"mpratt","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2015\/12\/jubilee-year-of-mercy-a-door-will-open.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2015\/12\/jubilee-year-of-mercy-a-door-will-open.html","name":"Jubilee Year of Mercy: A Door Will Open - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2015\/12\/jubilee-year-of-mercy-a-door-will-open.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2015\/12\/jubilee-year-of-mercy-a-door-will-open.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/files\/2015\/11\/Jubilee-Door-225x300.jpg","datePublished":"2015-12-01T20:13:11+00:00","dateModified":"2015-11-29T20:38:22+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/#\/schema\/person\/b47fd8e9d9cc9750d5779f75b8669a32"},"description":"An open door can be the start of relief","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2015\/12\/jubilee-year-of-mercy-a-door-will-open.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2015\/12\/jubilee-year-of-mercy-a-door-will-open.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2015\/12\/jubilee-year-of-mercy-a-door-will-open.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/files\/2015\/11\/Jubilee-Door-225x300.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/files\/2015\/11\/Jubilee-Door-225x300.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2015\/12\/jubilee-year-of-mercy-a-door-will-open.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Jubilee Year of Mercy: A Door Will Open"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/","name":"Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt","description":"Beliefnet Voices","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/#\/schema\/person\/b47fd8e9d9cc9750d5779f75b8669a32","name":"mpratt","description":"Several years ago, Maureen Pratt earned her Master of Fine Arts in Theater Arts\/Playwriting from UCLA's School of Theater, FIlm and Television. She expected to be writing scripts. God had other plans. A few years after her graduation, Maureen was diagnosed with a life-threatening case of organ-involved lupus. Her life turned upside down as she grappled with the effects of the illness and other health conditions that ensued. She was no stranger to serious health challenges; even as a child, Maureen had survived numerous bouts of pneumonia, flu, and other infections. But lupus made her take a fresh look at her life goals - and took herlifelong, strong Catholic Christian faith and writing in a direction she'd never imagined. Today, Maureen writes and speaks about walking with the Lord while living with chronic pain and illness. Her most recent book is \"Don't Panic!: How to Keep Going When the Going Gets Tough (Franciscan Media). She is also the author of, \"Peace in the Storm: Meditations on Chronic Pain &amp; Illness\" (Image Books\/Randomhouse), \"Beyond Pain: Job, Jesus, and Joy\" (Twenty-Third Publications), \"The First Year: Hypothyroidism, Second Edition\" (Perseus) and \"Taking Charge of Lupus: How to Manage the Disease and Make the Most of Your LIfe.\" She writes the syndicated column, \"Living Well,\" for Catholic News Service, and has also written for Saint Anthony Messenger Magazine, Journey for Women Magazine, The Upper Room Magazine, LupusNow, and Arthritis Today. Maureen's health continues to be a challenge, however she feels honored to be able to bring her perspective, from experience and knowledge, to others. \"Good Days...Bad Days with Maureen Pratt\" is a new way for Maureen to reach people who carry the burden of illness and pain in their lives, or who care for someone who does. Through the blog, she hopes to bring issues of health, wellness, and spirit into focus and, especially, inspire others that, no matter what health challenges, illness, or hardships they endure, each person can find a good way to realize the wonderful potential God has placed within each heart and soul.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.maureenpratt.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/author\/mpratt"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/548"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1903"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1903\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1905,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1903\/revisions\/1905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}