Year of Prayer and Pilgrims of Hope
What is a Jubilee?
Taking place every 25 years, a Jubilee year is a tradition that is recognised and respected throughout the world as being a significant part of the history of our faith.
Excluding the Extraordinary Year of Mercy in 2016, the last Jubilee year took place in 2000, marking an historic moment as the Church entered into her third millennium. A Jubilee is a special year of grace, in which the Catholic Church offers the faithful the possibility of asking for a plenary indulgence – a remission of sins for themselves or deceased loved ones. The year begins with the well-known custom of the opening of the Holy Door at St Peter’s Basilica, following the other three papal basilicas in Rome. The Pope grants permission for Holy Doors to be situated throughout the world for Catholics everywhere to take part in this most special rite.
Year of Prayer
Every 25 years, the Catholic Church celebrates a Holy Year of Jubilee. The Jubilee year will begin in 2025, but in preparation for this, Pope Francis wants us to undertake a year of prayer with a particular emphasis on the Lord’s Prayer. He asks us all to join in a great “symphony” of prayer, “to renew our desire to be in the presence of the Lord, to listen to him and to adore him.”
“Prayer unites us; it makes us brothers and sisters. It is in prayer that our hearts find the strength not to be cold and insensitive in the face of injustice. In prayer, God keeps calling us, opening our hearts to charity. ” Pope Francis
The Year of Prayer started on the first Sunday of Advent, 2023.
The Our Father is the prayer that Jesus taught us to pray. We will focus on this prayer in school over the next year and hope that you can spend some time as a family praying it together too.
2025 Pilgrims of Hope Jubilee
Pope Francis has announced that 2025 will be a year of Jubilee – an event that happens every 25 years. The theme for the upcoming Jubilee is “Pilgrims of Hope”.
The 2025 Jubilee will begin in Advent 2024 and will run until the Feast of the Epiphany in 2026.
More information is available on the Jubilee 2025 website:https://www.iubilaeum2025.va/en.html
The Jubilee 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
Official Hymn for the 2025 Jubilee
Like a flame my hope is burning,
may my song arise to you:
Source of life that has no ending,
on life’s path I trust in you.
Ev’ry nation, tongue, and people
find a light within your Word.
Scattered fragile sons and daughters
find a home in your dear Son.
Like a flame my hope is burning,
may my song arise to you:
Source of life that has no ending,
on life’s path I trust in you.
God, so tender and so patient,
dawn of hope, you care for all.
Heav’n and earth are recreated
by the Spirit of Life set free.
Like a flame my hope is burning,
may my song arise to you:
Source of life that has no ending,
on life’s path I trust in you.
Raise your eyes, the wind is blowing,
for our God is born in time.
Son made man for you and many
who will find the way in him.
Like a flame my hope is burning,
may my song arise to you:
Source of life that has no ending,
on life’s path I trust in you.
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