Year of Jubilee 2025 Pilgrims of Hope
What is a Jubilee?
In the Catholic Church, a Jubilee or Holy Year is a special year of forgiveness and reconciliation, in which people are invited to come back into right relationship with God, with one another, and with all of creation.
What is the theme for the Jubilee Year?
The theme is 'Pilgrims of Hope'
Pope Francis has invited Catholics to renew our hope and discover a vision that can "restore access to the fruits of the earth to everyone". We are also invited to rediscover a spirituality of God's creation in which we understand ourselves as "pilgrims on the earth" rather than masters of the world.
The 2025 Jubilee Year begins on Christmas Eve 2024 and concludes on 6 January 2026.Pope Francis will open the Holy Door on Christmas Eve 2024 to begin the Jubilee year.
The Jubilee Prayer
The official Prayer allows pilgrims from all over the world to use the same words to express gratitude to God for the Jubilee experience and request the grace of forgiveness. The official prayer of His Holiness Pope Francis for the Holy Year, this can be found in other languages on the website of the Jubilee. The Jubilee is an experience of faith and a profound encounter with the Lord.
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
The Holy Doors are only opened during the Jubilee Year.
The opening of the Holy Door is the most well-known and moving ritual, marking the beginning of the Jubilee. The first documented account of the Holy Door opening ceremony at St. Peter's Basilica for the Jubilee dates back to 1500 under Pope Alexander VI.