Pope Francis has declared that next year, 2025, will be a Holy Year in the Universal Church and that 2024 should be a year of preparation for this great Jubilee.
The idea of Jubilee has its roots in the Old Testament, with a celebration of a year of forgiveness and reconciliation. The Sabbath was the seventh day, a day of rest, and the Jubilee year was the year following seven times seven years, so the Jubilee took place every 50th year. In the tradition of the Catholic Church, we now celebrate the Jubilee every 25 years. The Holy Year of 2025 will begin at the Christmas Vigil 2024 when the Holy Father will open the Holy Door of St Peter’s Basilica in Rome.
There will be four Holy Doors opened in Rome in the four major basilicas: the basilicas of St Peter, St Paul Outside the Walls, St Mary Major and St John Lateran. Pilgrims to Rome will be encouraged to pass through the Holy Doors, which represent Christ, the gateway. Passing through the doors will take us into the church, a place of peace and reconciliation.
The theme of this Holy Year is Pilgrims of Hope, and the logo represents this theme:
“The logo shows four stylised figures, representing all of humanity, coming from the four corners of the earth. They embrace each other to indicate the solidarity and fraternity which should unite all peoples. The figure at the front is holding onto the cross. It is not only the sign of the faith which this lead figure embraces, but also of hope, which can never be abandoned, because we are always in need of hope, especially in our moments of greatest need. There are the rough waves under the figures, symbolising the fact that life’s pilgrimage does not always go smoothly in calm waters. Often the circumstances of daily life and events in the wider world require a greater call to hope. That s why we should pay special attention to the lower part of the cross which has been elongated and turned into the shape of an anchor which is let down into the waves. The anchor is well known as a symbol of hope. In maritime jargon the ‘anchor of hope ’ refers to the reserve anchor used by vessels involved in emergency manoeuvres to stabilise the ship during storms. It is worth noting (hat the image illustrates the pilgrim s journey not as an individual undertaking, but rather as something communal, marked by an increasing dynamism leading one ever closer to the cross. The cross in the logo is by no means static, but it is also dynamic. It bends down towards humanity, not leaving human beings alone, but stretching out to them to offer the certainty of its presence and the security of hope. At the bottom of the logo is the motto of the 2025 Jubilee Year: Pilgrims in hope, represented in green letters.”
With the theme of Pilgrims of Hope in mind and in preparation for the Holy Year, a walking pilgrimage has been organised from Motherwell Cathedral to St Andrews, a distance of about 110 miles (175 km). We will be walking the route in 10 stages, every Tuesday, starting on 2nd April 2024, and each day will involve a walk of about 10-12 miles. The pilgrimage will have an experienced guide, and we will have a chaplain walking with us for most of the stages. There will be no charge for the pilgrimage – the only cost will be returning from our destination each day to our starting point. Some stages have public transport, but if not, a minibus will be arranged. The route follows the Ladywell Way from Motherwell and, after North Queensferry, follows the Fife Pilgrim Way to St Andrews.
For smartphone users who intend to visit Rome, a free app is now available to download, “Iubileaum25”. This app is available in many languages and will allow the pilgrim to register for Holy Year events and keep up to date with what is happening in Rome and elsewhere for the Jubilee. When you have downloaded the app and registered, you will then be able to sign up for Jubilee events and pilgrimages to the Holy Doors. The app can be downloaded from your usual app store.
Pope Francis has asked us to use 2024 as a year of prayer and preparation for the Jubilee. In his Angelus address on January 21st this year, the Holy Father said, “I ask you to intensify your prayer to prepare us to live well this event of grace, and to experience the strength of God’s hope. […] A year dedicated to rediscovering the great value and absolute need for prayer in personal life, in the life of the Church, and in the world.”
Over the coming months, we will be preparing some resources on prayer for parishes and individuals, concentrating especially on the Our Father.
In preparation for the Jubilee, the faithful have been asked to revisit the major documents of the Second Vatican Council: Dei Verbum, Lumen Gentium, Gaudium et Spes and Sacrosanctum Concilium. There will be resources throughout the year for individuals and parishes to study these documents, and these will be available on our Facebook page.
A Holy Year hymn has been commissioned for the Jubilee, with words by Pierangelo Sequeri and music by Francesco Meneghello. The words of the hymn echo the themes of the Holy Year and the dynamism of Christian hope, revealing the face of Christ in our fellow pilgrims along the path of life. The words and score of the hymn can be downloaded from the Vatican Jubilee website. There is also on the website a video of the hymn being sung in English by the choir of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington DC.
Perhaps the last word should be given to Pope Francis, who says of the Jubilee, “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; that is why I have chosen as the motto of the Jubilee, Pilgrims of Hope. This will indeed be the case if we are capable of recovering a sense of universal fraternity and refuse to turn a blind eye to the tragedy of rampant poverty that prevents millions of men, women, young people and children from living in a manner worthy of our human dignity. Here I think in particular of the many refugees forced to abandon their native lands. May the voices of the poor be heard throughout this time of preparation for the Jubilee, which is meant to restore access to the fruits of the earth to everyone. As the Bible teaches, “The sabbath of the land shall provide food for you, for yourself and for your male and female slaves and for your hired servant and the sojourner who lives with you; for your cattle also, and for the beasts that are in your land, all its yield shall be for food” (Lev 25:6-7).”
For further details about the Holy Year, please visit the Vatican website or the Holy Year Scotland Facebook page.
Yours devotedly in Christ
Hugh Gilbert OSB Bishop of Aberdeen