My dear ones, With great joy, I welcome you into 2025, a brand-new year full of hopes and aspirations, promises of good things, and motivations for a better living. The great good news is that it is a jubilee year. The theme of the 2025 Jubilee is Pilgrims of Hope. We are all invited to participate and live the jubilee year in joy as people who place their hope in God.
While announcing the Jubilee 2025, Pope Francis stated in his February 2022 letter: “We must fan the flame of hope that has been given us and help everyone to gain new strength and certainty by looking to the future with an open spirit, a trusting heart and far-sighted vision. The forthcoming Jubilee can contribute greatly to restoring a climate of hope and trust as a prelude to the renewal and rebirth that we so urgently desire…”
The 2025 Jubilee officially opened on December 24, 2024, at 7 p.m., with the rite of Opening of the Holy Door of the Papal Basilica of St. Peter by the Holy Father. It will last throughout the year 2025.
THE JUBILEE PRAYER:
Father in heaven, May the faith you have given us in your son, Jesus Christ, 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.
Fr. Kenneth Ahanonu
