#PILGRIMSOFHOPE
JUBILEE 2025

Year of Hope
PILGRIMS OF HOPE
“Hope does not disappoint” (Roman 5:5)
In the heart of each person, hope dwells as the desire and expectation of good things to come, despite our not knowing what the future may bring.
During the Jubilee Year 2025, Pope Francis is calling on all the faithful to become Pilgrims of Hope. The 2025 Jubilee Year officially began when Pope Francis opened the Holy Doors at St. Peter’s Basilica on December 24, 2024. The doors will remain open until January 6, 2026. During this Jubilee year, millions of pilgrims are expected to travel to Rome to walk through the Holy Doors and participate in Jubilee events.
Those unable to travel to Rome can participate in the Jubilee locally by making a pilgrimage to St. Joseph Cathedral in downtown Buffalo or to one of the other designated pilgrimage sites.
“Jubilee” is the name given to a particular year. It is a time to re-establish a proper relationship with God, with one another, and with all of creation. Ever since 1300, when Boniface VIII instituted the first Holy Year – initially celebrated every hundred years, then, following its biblical precedent, every fifty years, and finally every twenty-five years – God’s holy and faithful people has experienced this celebration as a special gift of grace, characterized by the forgiveness of sins and in particular by the indulgence, which is a full expression of the mercy of God.
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