This year, the celebration of Christmas marks more than the incredible gift of the incarnation of Jesus, December 25 also marks the beginning of Ordinary Jubilee Year of 2025. The theme for this year is, Pilgrims of Hope which is to serve as a reminder that hope does not disappoint. It is in this spirit that Pope Francis invites each of us to a renewed encounter of hope and to live from a place of hope. Hope is “the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness…and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1817).

“Hope finds its supreme witness in the Mother of God. In the Blessed Virgin, we see that hope is not naive optimism but a gift of grace amid the realities of life” (Spes Non Confundit, 24). To have the true virtue of hope can be extremely challenging, yet to invite the capacity for hope is in itself a beacon of light (7). We can shine this beacon of light to those who are sick and suffering, the migrants and refugees, those in war torn countries, the imprisoned and poor.This mission is given to each and every one of us by our baptism into Christ’s life on our pilgrimage to our eternal home. 

“May we who have taken refuge in him be strongly encouraged to seize the hope set before us. We have this hope, a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters the inner shrine behind the curtain, where Jesus, a forerunner on our behalf, has entered,” (Heb 6:18-20). 

Read: The Announcement of the Year of Jubilee 2025 here.

Pray: Ask our Mother Mary who was a beacon of hope amidst deep uncertainty to accompany you this Advent and Christmas season.

Act: “Surely we need to “abound in hope” (cf. Rom 15:13)… 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.” (Spes, Non Confundit, 18).