Pope Francis opened the Holy Year of 2025 in Rome December 25th. A Holy Year occurs ordinarily every 25 year since the year 1300. A painting in the Lateran Basilica in Rome shows Pope Boniface VIII opening the Holy Year of 1300.

Announcing the Holy Year Pope Francis said the year is not an automatic calendar celebration; a Holy Year meets a need. The theme for this Holy Year is taken from St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans.  “ Hope Does Not Disappoint” (Romans 5:5) Our need today is hope.

We’re living in disappointing times, the pope writes. We see that, don’t we? Many parts of our world are engulfed in wars and political struggles. The Ukraine, Gaza, the Sudan in Africa, Haiti,  now Lebanon and Syria in the Middle East. Millions of people are trying to escape conditions of poverty, looking for a safe place for themselves and their families. We’re experiencing floods, fire, unusual weather. Our cities, our schools, our churches, all our institutions seem weaker rather than stronger. 

We need hope, Pope Francis says, “ the hope that springs from the pierced heart of Jesus on the Cross.” We hope in “our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing in the glory of God… Hope does not disappoint, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us” (Rom 5:1-2.5).

Historians say the Holy Year did not originate 700 years ago as an idea of the popes;  it                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            began with ordinary people of the time. Maybe the great uncertainty then — the Black Plague struck that century — prompted Christians to journey to Rome looking for the roots of their faith in the churches and shrines of the city. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, they believed Peter and Paul, Mary the Mother of Jesus, the early martyrs were there in the churches and catacombs to teach and strengthen them. They went to Rome, not primarily to see the pope, but to strengthen their faith. 

One of the graces we should pray for and expect in the Holy Year is the grace of a pilgrim spirit, a pilgrim mind, leading us to revisit our spiritual roots. A pilgrim spirit doesn’t come easily in disappointing times like ours when the best advice seems to be to stay where you are and don’t go anywhere. 

 The Holy Year is a time for revisiting our spiritual roots. A pilgrimage to Rome is not the only journey the pope recommends.  Go back to your roots in the scriptures, he says. Leave the technological world of television and the internet and listen to the story of creation.  Go back to the stories of your saints and visit your churches and shrines. They have graces to give us.

We may not make a pilgrimage to Rome this Holy Year,  but pilgrimage takes many forms, a  Pope Francis points out.  As Christians we’re pilgrims, and pilgrimage is intimately connected to “our human quest for meaning in life”.

We hope to reflect on the Holy Year 2025 in this blog throughout the year.  Keep following us.