by Kary Ellen Berger

Giving thanks to God goes beyond words and impacts every aspect of our lives. Whether it’s through prayer, helping others or simply feeling grateful, we are invited to recognize His many blessings. Those blessings and more will be celebrated as the Church prepares for the Jubilee of 2025.

Jubilees are held to celebrate anniversaries or events. According to the official Jubilee 2025 website, Jubilees in the church were created “to be marked as a time to re-establish a proper relationship with God, with one another, and with all of creation, and it involved the forgiveness of debts, the return of misappropriated land, and a fallow period for the fields.” In 1300, Pope Boniface VIII proclaimed the first Jubilee, a Holy Year. In 1343, Pope Clement VI set Jubilees to occur every 50 years, but Pope Paul II reduced the time span in 1470 to 25 years. Some Holy Years were “extraordinary,” like Pope Pius XI’s 1933 Jubilee for the 1,900th anniversary of the Redemption and Pope Francis’ 2015 Year of Mercy.

In a February 2022 letter, Pope Francis declared that 2025 would be a Jubilee year. He reflected on the pandemic outbreak and how fragile life can be as he noted, “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.” Hoping the forthcoming Jubilee will bring about renewal and rebirth, the Pope chose “Pilgrims of Hope” as the theme, encouraging people to work together and not ignore the poverty that keeps millions from living with dignity.

“The spiritual dimension of the Jubilee, which calls for conversion, should also embrace these fundamental aspects of our life in society as part of a coherent whole,” wrote Pope Francis. “In the realization that all of us are pilgrims on this earth, which the Lord has charged us to till and keep (cf. Gen 2:15), may we never fail, in the course of our sojourn, to contemplate the beauty of creation and care for our common home. It is my hope that the coming Jubilee Year will be celebrated and experienced with this intention, too. Growing numbers of men and women, including many young people and children, have come to realize that care for creation is an essential expression of our faith in God and our obedience to his will.”

Jubilee traditions and celebrations begin worldwide this month in preparation for the Holy Year’s commencement, which is signaled by the traditional opening of the Holy Door on December 24 at St. Peter’s Basilica. Jubilee festivities will continue throughout 2025 and include celebrations focused on specific groups of people, such as religious, families, entertainers and athletes.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is planning events that coincide with commemorations in Rome, and the Archdiocese of Cincinnati will have three pilgrimage sites during the jubilee year:

The Cathedral Basilica of St. Peter in Chains in Downtown Cincinnati; 325 W Eighth St., Cincinnati 45202  Map!

The Shrine of the Holy Relics at Maria Stein: 2291 St. Johns Rd., Maria Stein 45860 Map!

Emmanuel Catholic Church in Dayton, 149 Franklin St., Dayton 45402  Map!

Join Archbishop Dennis Schnurr on Sunday, December 29 at 4:00 PM at the Cathedral Basilica for the opening Mass of the Jubilee Year in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. For details about pilgrimage sites in the archdiocese, the Jubilee indulgence and more.

Along with in-person celebrations, parishioners are encouraged to pray and sing the official Jubilee prayer and hymn. The Jubilee prayer is as follows:

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.

In the 2025 Jubilee hymn, “many themes of the Holy Year are woven into the text written by Pierangelo Sequeri and set to music by Francesco Meneghello,” explains the official Jubilee website. “The motto, ‘Pilgrims of Hope,’ is best echoed biblically in some pages from the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 9 and Isaiah 60). The themes of creation, fraternity, God’s tenderness and hope in our destination resonate in a language, which, although not ‘technically’ theological, [is theological] in substance and in the allusions, so that it rings eloquently in the ears of our time.

“With each step of their daily pilgrimage, believers trustingly rely on the source of Life. The song that arises spontaneously during the journey (cf. Augustine, Discourses, 256) is directed to God. It is a song charged with the hope of being freed and supported. It is a song imbued with the hope that it will reach the ears of the One from whom all things flow. It is God who as an ever-living flame keeps hope burning and energizes the steps of the people as they journey.”

This Jubilee is a unique opportunity for Catholics worldwide to deepen their faith, express gratitude to God, and grow in unity. As the Pope encouraged, let us more fully embrace renewal, service to others and care for creation.

This article appeared in the December 2024 edition of The Catholic Telegraph Magazine. For your complimentary subscription, click here.