Jubilee Year – Pilgrims of Hope
Pope Francis declared 2025 as a year of Jubilee with the theme ‘Pilgrims of Hope’, giving voice to his desire for the year to foster a greater sense of global sisterhood and brotherhood, solidarity with the poor, and caring for the environment.
Jubilees are designed to be a time of conversion and increased emphasis on God’s mercy and forgiveness of sins. They are marked by the opening of the Holy Door in St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican. The Holy Doors, present in each of the four papal basilicas in Rome, are destination points for pilgrims who travel to Rome during a Jubilee and who pass through seeking special graces and outpourings of God’s mercy. The last Ordinary Jubilee was the Great Jubilee of 2000, celebrated by Pope John Paul II.
Every 25 years the Church proclaims a Holy Year, a special gift of grace and mercy for all God’s people. The theme for Jubilee 2025 is “Pilgrims of Hope”.
Jubilee Year Prayer
Father in heaven,
may the faith you have given us
in your son, Jesus Christ, our brother,
and the flame of charity enkindled
in our hearts by the Holy Spirit,
reawaken in us the blessed hope
for the coming of your Kingdom.
May your grace transform us
into tireless cultivators of the seeds of the Gospel.
May those seeds transform from within both humanity and the whole cosmos
in the sure expectation
of a new heaven and a new earth,
when, with the powers of Evil vanquished,
your glory will shine eternally.
May the grace of the Jubilee
reawaken in us, Pilgrims of Hope,
a yearning for the treasures of heaven.
May that same grace spread
the joy and peace of our Redeemer
throughout the earth.
To you our God, eternally blessed,
be glory and praise for ever.
Amen.