We are never going to quite have a year like 2025 with the Jubilee Year of Hope.
Every 25 years a Jubilee Year is proclaimed for the Catholic Church throughout the world. Jubilee years forgive all sins and the remission of all temporal punishments of those sins. This year is a time to focus on our conversion from sin into new life in Christ.
What is Hope?
Hope, together with faith and charity, makes up the triptych of the “theological virtues” that express the heart of the Christian life (cf. 1 Cor 13:13; 1 Thess 1:3).
In their inseparable unity, hope is the virtue that, so to speak, gives inward direction and purpose to the life of believers, Pope Francis wrote in Spes Non Confundit (Hope Does Not Disappoint) — the bull of indiction for the Jubilee Year.
The virtue is further defined in the document citing various reasons for our hope and how we should take it to others:
For this reason, the Apostle Paul encourages us to “rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, and persevere in prayer” (Rom 12:12). Surely we need to “abound in hope” (cf. Rom 15:13), so that we may bear credible and attractive witness to the faith and love that dwell in our hearts; that our faith may be joyful and our charity enthusiastic; and that each of us may be able to offer a smile, a small gesture of friendship, a kind look, a ready ear, a good deed, in the knowledge that, in the Spirit of Jesus, these can become, for those who receive them, rich seeds of hope. Yet what is the basis of our hope? To understand this, let us stop and reflect on “the reasons for our hope” ( 1 Pet 3:15).
Hope is About Being Real
As we practice hope we can look to St. Paul because he is a realist, Pope Francis said.
“He knows that life has its joys and sorrows, that love is tested amid trials, and that hope can falter in the face of suffering. Even so, he can write: “We boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope” (Rom 5:3-4)
What’s a Jubilee Indulgence
An indulgence is a remission before God of temporal punishment due to sins whose guild has already been forgiven, which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain prescribed conditions through the action of the Church which, as the minister of redemption, dispenses and applies with authority the treasury of the satisfaction of Christ and the saints (CCC #1471)
An indulgence is obtained when in the proper disposition and meeting of the prescribed ordinary conditions for any indulgence:
- Be in a state of grace. 2. Have the Interior disposition of complete detachment from sin, even venial sin. 3. Sacramentally confess your sins within 20 days before or after. 4. Receive the Holy Eucharist within 20 days before or after. 5. Pray for the intentions of the Holy Father, the pope. An Our Father and Hail Mary are suggested.
Please note that the Decree granting the indulgence for the Jubilee of hope tells us that after fulfilling the requirements above, you will able to obtain the plenary indulgence for Jubilee of Hope by also doing the following:
- Visit a locally designated Jubilee Pilgrimage site. Those are: SS Peter and Paul Cathedral, 1347 N Meridian St., Indianapolis The Shrine of St. Mother Theodore Guerin and the Church of the Immaculate Conception, 1 Sister of Providence Road, St. Mary of the Woods, Terre Haute, Ind. Saint Meinrad Archabbey Church, 200 Hill Drive, St. Meinrad, Ind.
- While you are visiting the pilgrimage site, you must devoutly participate in ONE of the following:
- Mass
- A celebration of the Word of God
- The Liturgy of the Hours prayed in community
- The Way of the Cross
- The Rosary
- Eucharistic Adoration concluded with the Our Father, a Profession of Faith and a Marian prayer like the Hail Mary, or Hail Holy Queen.
This will complete your plenary indulgence.
Other Ways to Gain the Jubilee Indulgence
The other ways to gain the Jubilee Indulgence besides visiting a site are:
- Participate in missions, spiritual exercises or formation activities on the documents of Vatican II and the Catechism of the Catholic Church. 2. Visit someone who is in need: the sick, prisoners, the lonely or the elderly “in a sense of making a pilgrimage to Christ present in them.” 3. Engage in an initiative that puts into practice the spirit of penance that is the soul of the jubilee: – Abstain on Friday to rediscover its penitential nature, superfluous consumption or meat as according to the general norms of the Church.
- Donate to the poor.
- Support the work in defense and protection of human life in all its phases.
- Support the quality of life of those in need in some tangible way.
- Volunteer in service to your community.
