Pilgrims of Hope
Read Time: 4 minutes
This year, 2025, the Church is celebrating a Jubilee Year centred around the theme, “Pilgrims of Hope”. A Jubilee year is celebrated by the Church every 25 years. It is a year set aside to encourage us to embark on pilgrimages, to ask for forgiveness, to forgive others and to renew a focus on the spiritual life.
In other words, it is meant to be a time for each of us to re-establish our relationship with God, with each other and with all of creation.
In the words of Pope Francis “We must fan the flame of Hope that has been given to 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”
As we approach the season of Lent, these words are even more relevant because Lent is always a time to embark on a pilgrimage, to repent, a time to convert and turn towards God, a time to forgive and a time to ask for forgiveness.
After we have examined our lives and asked for forgiveness, Jesus offers us forgiveness and mercy. Jesus knows our weaknesses but still gives us His mercy and love.
This Jubilee Year, especially during Lent, is a time for Hope, a time to expect a special encounter with Jesus, a time to be transformed by opening our hearts to the Holy Spirit. We are invited to come back into right relationship with God, with one another, with all of creation. The tradition is inspired by the Biblical year of Jubilee, which was a time when debts were cancelled, when slaves were set free and the land was allowed to rest. (Lev.25, Deut.15)
This year Pope Francis has invited Catholics to renew their hope and adopt a vision that can “Restore access to the fruits of the earth to everyone.”
During Lent our parish focuses on the work of Development and Peace, Caritas. This Jubilee Year we are invited to join Development and Peace on their Lenten Pilgrimage of Hope.
There are all kinds of materials and practical hints to help us on this pilgrimage, available on the Development and Peace we
bsite as well as at the back of our church. There are four symbols which will be displayed to help us understand the theme of this Lenten Pilgrimage. They are:
1)A Walking Stick
to illustrate the pilgrimage we are undertaking.
2)Pencil and Clipboard
This represents our power to act to alleviate the debt burden of impoverished countries, by signing a petition and by tracing the root causes of indebtedness.
3)Weighing Scale
Demonstrates the inequity of the situation in which countries of the Global South are burdened with ruinous external debt while the ecological debt owed to them remains unacknowledged.
4)Large Dollar Sign
Represents the weight of debt on the shoulders of our sisters and brothers in the Global South.
So, during this Lenten Pilgrimage of Hope let us turn Debt into Hope by acting against the root causes of poverty, inequity and oppression.