The 2025 Jubilee Year A Jubilee Year (or Holy Year) is traditionally proclaimed every 25 years. It is a year set aside to encourage us all to seek conversion of heart, to renew our discipleship, and to forgive the sins of others. Pilgrimage is also an important tradition as part of a Jubilee Year. In the Hebrew tradition, as recorded in Leviticus, a Jubilee was celebrated every 50 years with the freeing of slaves and the forgiveness of debts. In 1300, Pope Boniface VIII instituted the first Christian Jubilee, and since then the Church has designated each new Jubilee as a special year of grace and forgiveness. The 2025 Jubilee will be centred on the theme “Pilgrims of Hope”. As Pope Francis expressed it: "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 Jubilee begins on 24 December 2024, with the Opening of the Holy Door of Saint Peter’s Basilica, and runs to 6 January 2026, the Feast of the Epiphany, with the Closing of the Holy Door. Our Broken Bay Diocese has established three diocesan “Jubilee Shrines of Hope” which are offered as places of pilgrimage, worship, prayer, and hope for the people of Broken Bay during the Jubilee Year. These shrines are: The Parish of Gosford with a relic of Pope Saint John Paul II will be a Shrine of Hope for families. The Parish of Chatswood with a relic of Blessed Carlo Acutis (a young man of our own century who died in his teens) will be a Shrine of Hope for young people. The Parish of Manly Freshwater with a relic of Saint John Vianney (patron saint of parish priests) will be a Shrine of Hope for priests and vocations. The 2025 Jubilee Year is an opportunity to explore the many different ways that we, as a community, can participate as Pilgrims of Hope. HERE ARE SOME JUBILEE YEAR RESOURCES YOU MIGHT LIKE TO USE: (further resources will be added to this page as they become available) 1. POPE FRANCIS' PRAYER FOR THE JUBILEE YEAR: 2. THE SYMBOLISM OF THE JUBILEE LOGO The logo shows four stylized 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. The image illustrates that 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: Peregrinantes in Spem (Pilgrims in hope), represented in green letters. 3. POPE FRANCIS' LETTER TO US ALL REGARDING THE JUBILEE YEAR AND ITS MEANING FOR OUR LIVES: