On Christmas Eve, Pope Francis will open the Holy Doors in St Peter’s Basilica, marking the beginning of the 2025 Jubilee Year, last opened for the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy in 2015, and before that by Pope St John Paul II for the Millennium Jubilee in 2000.
Following this, every Catholic diocese in the world will inaugurate the Holy Year locally on the Feast of the Holy Family, Sunday 29 December 2024. To mark this occasion, Cardinal Vincent Nichols will celebrate a Solemn Opening of the Jubilee Year Mass, here in Westminster Cathedral at 12 noon. All are most welcome to attend.
The theme for the 2025 Jubilee is ‘Pilgrims of Hope’. It is an invitation to showcase the hope of our Christian faith to people across the world, particularly at a time when so many are suffering from the impact of war, poverty, climate change, and the lasting effects of the COVID pandemic. It is also a great opportunity for each one of us to reignite the flame of our faith in our own hearts, and to share the light of that faith with those in darkness.
To find out more about the Jubilee, please click here.
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.
