Jubilee Year of Hope

My Dear Parishioners,

Welcome to both 2025 and the Jubilee Year of Hope. The Campus Ministry Center of West Carolina University has a very good article on the history and magnitude of Jubilee Years:

Jubilee Year Origins

The origins of the Jubilee Year go back to the Old Testament. According to Leviticus 25:8-25, Jubilee Years were times when debts were forgiven, slaves were set free, families were restored to their ancestral inheritance, and the whole nation of Israel was to rest in God’s blessing.

In Leviticus 25, God commanded the Israelites to observe a “sabbatical year” every seventh year. It was a year without sowing or reaping, when even the land was given rest. After the seventh sabbatical year, the fiftieth year would be called a Jubilee, a year of celebration and rest dedicated to the Lord.

Debts were forgiven, slaves freed, and property returned. One of the the greatest examples of social and communal mercy in the Old Testament, the Jubilee allowed the people to learn mercy by giving mercy (Joan Watson, Opening of the Holy Door).

The word “jubilee” comes from the Hebrew word “yobel,” the name of the ram’s horn which was blown to signify the start of the holy year.

Like so much of what is contained in the Old Testament, we find the Jubilee idea of a special time of mercy fulfilled in Christ. In a reflection written on the Jubilee Year, Pope Francis says that, “Jesus embraced the concept of the Jubilee and gave it new and ultimate meaning.” In Luke 4:16-21, Jesus proclaims the opening words of Isaiah 61, describing “a year acceptable to the Lord” and declares these words to have been “fulfilled in your hearing.” Pope Francis reminds us that Jesus “revealed Himself as the face of God on earth, sent to redeem the poor, free captives, and manifest the Father’s compassion for the wounded, the fallen, and the hopeless.”

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.”

Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him. He said to them, “Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.” Luke 4:18-21

Jubilee Years in the Church

The Catholic Church renewed the practice of celebrating Jubilees in the Middle Ages as a sign of mercy during times of special hardship.

In 1299, when times were hard due to the effects of plague, war, and material hardship, thousands of Christians eager to amend their lives and seek God’s blessing made a pilgrimage to Rome, asking for God’s blessing and the protection of the apostles. At the time, it wasn’t easy to travel to Rome, and Pope Boniface VIII was so inspired by their faith that he declared 1300 a “year of forgiveness for all sins.” Special graces were attached to visiting the tombs of St. Peter and St. Paul. (Joan Watson, Opening the Holy Door)

Originally Jubilees were to be celebrated at 100 year intervals. However, in 1343 Pope Clement VI increased the frequency to every 50 years, and in 1470, Pope Paul II declared that ordinary Jubilees would be celebrated every 25 years in the Church.

Sometimes popes have called for extraordinary Jubilees to be celebrated outside of this 25 year cycle. For example, in 1983 a special Jubilee was called by Pope John Paul II to celebrate the 1950th anniversary of the Resurrection, and in 2015 Pope Francis called for a Jubilee Year of Mercy.

Jubilee Years are times of special emphasis on God’s mercy, peace and reconciliation, spiritual growth, and renewing our life of faith. They are marked by prayer, works of charity and penance, and pilgrimages (especially to Rome).

Theme of Hope

For the first ordinary jubilee since the Great Jubilee of 2000, Pope Francis has chosen the theme of hope, a virtue that “does not deceive or disappoint because it is grounded in the certainty that nothing and no one may ever separate us from God’s love,” the Pontiff said in his “papal bull” proclamation of the Holy Year.

The goal of the Jubilee “is to give an experience of the mercy and love of God,” the Vatican’s chief Jubilee organizer, Archbishop Rino Fisichella, told EWTN News in May. “I hope that all pilgrims coming to Rome or celebrating the Jubilee in their own local Church can have this kind of experience: God loves me.” (EWTN)

Pilgrimages

For those of us who cannot make a pilgrimage to Rome during this Jubilee Year, Archbishop Perez has designated the following Shrines within the Archdiocese as places to obtain the Jubilee Indulgence:

• NATIONAL SHRINES
  • John Neumann at St. Peter Church,

Philadelphia

• Our Lady of Czestochowa, Doylestown
• Rita at Rita’s Church, South Philadelphia

• DIOCESAN SHRINES
  • Anne in St. Anne (upper) Church,

Philadelphia

• Carlo Acutis at Malvern Retreat House,

Malvern

• Gianna Beretta Molla at Nativity of Our Lord Church, Warminster
• Jude at St. Jude Church, Chalfont
• Katharine Drexel at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul,

Philadelphia

• Miraculous Medal Basilica, Philadelphia
• Padre Pio at Bede Church, Holland

• ADDITIONAL PILGRIMAGE OPPORTUNITIES
  • To the places of Baptism – The clergy and faithful are encouraged to visit the font of their Baptism, where their pilgrimage of hope began as Christians.
  • To the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC – This pilgrimage will be scheduled for a weekday during the Jubilee to allow for greater participation of clergy and students in all the schools in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia

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

Additional Information of our Archdiocesan Observance of the Jubilee Year of Hope can be found at https://archphila.org/holyyear. May our Jubilee Year of Hope help us enter more deeply into the reality that God does love us.

St. Joseph, Patron of the Church and our Patron, pray for us!

Fr. Michael J Pawelko, Pastor