Prayer for the World January 9, 2025

Jubilee Year 2025:  Pilgrims of Hope

Introduction

Every 25 years the Catholic Church celebrates a Jubilee Year, or Holy Year.  It’s a time for forgiveness, reconciliation, and spiritual renewal and is centered  around the idea of returning to a right relationship with God, others, and creation. 

Mantra:  A New Heart (Psalm 51) by Monica Brown

https://youtu.be/cjEs42foU-k?si=zFxZGigzFM8VpF47

A new heart create in me O God

A steadfast spirit renew in me O God

In your mercy, in your mercy.

Reflection

Right relationships on the individual level, are characterized by mutual respect, understanding, honesty, and open communication, where each person feels valued and supported without compromising their own needs or exerting undue power over the other; essentially, it signifies a relationship where everyone involved is treated fairly. 

On the level of society, we refer to the establishment and promotion of right relationships between all members of the human family as Justice and Mercy. 

And how about our relationship with creation?  In Laudato Si’ Pope Francis encourages us to “speak the language of fraternity and beauty” in our relationship with the world and “to feel intimately united with all that exists, approaching nature with openness to awe and wonder vs having “attitudes of masters, consumers, ruthless exploiters, unable to set limits on our immediate needs.”  Let us spend some time in quiet prayer, opening ourselves to God’s love within us and permeating our World.

Contemplative Prayer

The theme for this Jubilee Year is “Pilgrims of Hope,” a hope rooted in our faith in God’s love for us and for all of Creation.  As I reflected on the purpose of a Jubilee Year from the perspective of being “Pilgrims of Hope” I began by thinking about what it means to be a Pilgrim.  Pilgrims are persons on a journey based on faith and with a holy purpose.  Are we not Pilgrims of Hope if we view our entire lives as a journey based on faith with the holy purpose of living in right relationship to God, our neighbor and the Earth? 

In his Encyclical, Dilexit Nos, On Human and Divine Love of the Heart of Jesus Christ, Pope Francis raises what he calls important questions of the heart:

What direction do I want to give to my life, my decisions and my actions?  What meaning do I want to give to all my experiences?  Who do I want to be for others?  Who am I for God?

Contemplative Prayer

During and after our recent National Elections many people were asking questions about the direction our country is going.  Writer David Brooks went deeper than naming inflation or the class divide as the cause of where we find ourselves, although these factors certainly play a significant role.  Brooks identified the deeper cause as that of a Spiritual/Emotional Crisis. 

Catholic Climate Covenant and the Laudato Si’ Movement in a joint statement following the Election, described the challenges we face in this country in this way:

We need to renew our commitment to the values of our faith and follow our guiding principles of honoring our Creator, caring for each other, and protecting our common home. 

Let us each resolve to be “Pilgrims of Hope,” as we make this commitment and at the same time, forgive ourselves and others when we fall short.   May this Holy Year of 2025 continue to be a time of Transforming Grace for each of us personally, communally, and nationally.

Let us pray:

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…Amen.   The Jubilee Prayer

Mantra