2025 Year of Jubilee: Pilgrims of Hope

The Holy Father has decided that 2025 will be a year of Jubilee, something which happens every 25 years.

The theme is “Pilgrims of Hope”.

The Jubilee Year began with the opening of the Holy Door in St Peter’s Basilica in Rome, on Tuesday 24 December 2024 and runs to the Feast of Epiphany 2026.

The Jubilee Logo

This year’s Jubilee logo is rich with imagery that can help you to understand the meaning of the
Jubilee.

Father Simon Gore explains: “The logo shows a group of people travelling together, reminding young people that they’re never alone on their journey of faith and will always have support in their faith communities.

There's also the symbol of the wave, a reminder of the potential difficulties of being a follower of Christ in the modern age. But most importantly, there's the anchor – the anchor of hope – to show that no matter the difficulty, we can always find hope and comfort in our faith.”

What is a Jubilee?
The Jubilee Years, also known as Holy Years, started in 1300AD and recall the great jubilee of Israel: a time for land to be rested and debts to be cancelled, when God called people to be reconciled with one another and with Him. They now occur every 25 years, although the next will be 2033 – the anniversary of Christ’s death and resurrection and the decent of the Holy Spirit.

These Years, the Church explains, are years “of reconciliation between adversaries, of conversion and receiving the Sacrament of Reconciliation, ‘…and consequently of solidarity, hope, justice, commitment to serve God with joy and in peace with our brothers and sisters’

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

Pilgrims of Hope – Cathedral Mass

Our whole school pilgrimage to Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral on Wednesday morning was a joyful and uplifting experience for everyone. The bells rang out for us as we arrived at the Cathedral and then the children sang Ave Maria as we processed in behind our school banner. The children were awestruck as they witnessed the huge size and height of the Cathedral and the amazing colours as the light shone through the impressive stained-glass windows. As always, the children were reverent throughout the Mass and sang their responses and hymns beautifully. The readers spoke confidently, not at all daunted by their surroundings. Some of Year 5 brought up the offertory along with the Pledges of Hope written by the children. Following the Mass the children processed around the inside of the Cathedral, looking out for the features that Fr Michael had discussed with them, making the links between the same features at St Julie’s Church.

Thank you to those parents, Governors and parishioners who were able to join us in our pilgrimage, to Fr Michael for celebrating the Mass and to Robert F from Year 6 who assisted with the Cathedral altar servers. Many thanks to Mrs McCahey whose idea it was back at the start of the year to take the whole school on this very special pilgrimage as part of the Jubilee year, Pilgrims of Hope, involving an enormous amount of hard work and organisation by her into making the occasion so special. It truly was a memorable experience to treasure; I certainly felt very emotional and so proud of our wonderful school community.