HOLY YEAR 2025, editorial team •
“The Jubilee has always been an event of great spiritual, ecclesial, and social significance in the life of the Church,” writes Pope Francis, 2022, in proclaiming the Holy Year 2025. ” Ever since 1300, when Boniface VIII instituted the first Holy Year – initially celebrated every hundred years, then, following its biblical precedent, every fifty years, and finally every twenty-five years – God’s holy and faithful people has experienced this celebration as a special gift of grace, characterized by the forgiveness of sins and in particular by the indulgence, which is a full expression of the mercy of God. The faithful, frequently at the conclusion of a lengthy pilgrimage, draw from the spiritual treasury of the Church by passing through the Holy Door and venerating the relics of the Apostles Peter and Paul preserved in Roman basilicas. Down the centuries, millions upon millions of pilgrims have journeyed to these sacred places, bearing living witness to the faith professed in every age.” —
Holy Year 2025 logo
Many of us still remember the Holy Year 2000, the great jubilee that brought the Church over the threshold of a new millennium. “The Great Jubilee of the year 2000 ushered the Church into the third millennium of her history. Saint John Paul II had long awaited and greatly looked forward to that event, in the hope that all Christians, putting behind their historical divisions, could celebrate together the two thousandth anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of humanity..”
This Holy Year was prepared by a triennium: the Pope wanted to mobilize the whole Church in preparation for the Jubilee of the year 2000, which commemorated the birth of Christ. As he said in his apostolic letter Tertio Millennio Adveniente (TMA), for the Church it was not the end of one millennium, but the starting point of a new one. On Sunday, December 1, 1996, the three years of preparation for the Jubilee began; the first centered on the figure of Christ, the second on the Holy Spirit, and the last on God the Father.
Schoenstatt joined these three years…with its annual mottos, with an edition of books with texts by Fr. Kentenich in relation to the themes…an attunement with the life current of the church celebrated by many Schoenstatters with great joy. “We are finally walking with the church,” commented a young woman at the Delegates’ Conference in Germany in October 1996. “I was so looking forward to this moment of feeling Church in Schoenstatt and feeling Schoenstatt in the Church.”
He invites us
The first twenty-five years of the new century draw to a close
“Now, as the first twenty-five years of the new century draw to a close, we are called to enter into a season of preparation that can enable the Christian people to experience the Holy Year in all its pastoral richness. A significant step on this journey was already taken with the celebration of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, which allowed us to appreciate anew all the power and tenderness of the Father’s merciful love, in order to become, in our turn, its witnesses.“
Under the impact of the recently completed pandemic, Pope Francis continues:
“The forthcoming Jubilee can contribute greatly to restoring a climate of hope and trust as a prelude to the renewal and rebirth that we so urgently desire; that is why I have chosen as the motto of the Jubilee, Pilgrims of Hope. This will indeed be the case if we are capable of recovering a sense of universal fraternity and refuse to turn a blind eye to the tragedy of rampant poverty that prevents millions of men, women, young people and children from living in a manner worthy of our human dignity. Here I think in particular of the many refugees forced to abandon their native lands. May the voices of the poor be heard throughout this time of preparation for the Jubilee, which is meant to restore access to the fruits of the earth to everyone. As the Bible teaches, “The sabbath of the land shall provide food for you, for yourself and for your male and female slaves and for your hired servant and the sojourner who lives with you; for your cattle also, and for the beasts that are in your land, all its yield shall be for food” (Lev 25:6-7).
What will we Schoenstatters bring with us when we go on pilgrimage to Rome in the Jubilee Year, physically or spiritually? When the jubilee of the 100 years of the Covenant of Love approached, the schoenstatt.org team came up with the idea of building, in the biblical-ecclesial sense of jubilee, 100 houses for the most needy, one house for each covenant year… In the end, not 100, but more than 250 were built. What Jubilee procession could bring Casa del Niño, Mother of Tuparenda House, Dequeni, Prison Pastoral, Lichtzeichen, Children of Mary, Charity Bags, Family Missions, University Missions, Pilgrim Mother Campaign, Migrant Camp, Social Pastoral “Covenant Solidarity”, the social contributions of the shrines and wayside shrines….
Jubilee Works
Pilgrimages by ecclesial categories
Looking at the Jubilee calendar for 2025, we can see that there are already dates for pilgrimages by ecclesial categories – from a date for seminarians, bishops or religious life, to youth, grandparents, journalists, ecclesial movements or entrepreneurs.
Where will Schoenstatters participate? Our schoenstatt.org team would certainly like to be at the Jubilee of the World of Communication on January 24, 2025 – coinciding with the 10th anniversary of the relaunch of schoenstatt.org, with its new communication design.
There are those who can go to the Jubilee of the artists; the branch of permanent deacons to the jubilee of the deacons; the CIEES and IKAF to the jubilee of the businessmen; the Family Work to the Jubilee of the families on June 7; our bishops and priests on June 25 and 26; the Youth to the Jubilee of the Youth … and how not to think about October 18 (!) with the jubilee of the missionary world!
Holy Year 2025
A crown with the inscription: “Dilexit Ecclesiam”
Preparation in Belmonte
Pentecost 2025, with the Jubilee of Movements, Associations and New Communities seems to be a good occasion. The German Schoenstatt Movement, for example, is planning a pilgrimage to Rome for this event, celebrated on June 7 and 8, on the eve of Pentecost and Pentecost Sunday.
The Italian Schoenstatt Movement and the International Center of Belmonte have long been preparing a coronation on June 9, Feast of Mary, Mother of the Church, and the Jubilee of the Roman Curia with the Nuncios. At the beginning of March 2024, an international commission was formed to prepare for the crowning of the Mother Thrice Admirable as “Queen Mother of the Church” in the shrine of Belmonte in Rome. During the previous two years, another group had defined the intentions of the coronation and informed and invited the Movement worldwide. The details can be found on the official Schoenstatt website www.schoenstatt.com (not yet on the Belmonte website).
Marie-Christine Jeannenot of the first course of the Apostolic Federation of Schoenstatt Families in Italy tells us with much enthusiasm: “The crowning in June 2025 is very important and will take place in Belmonte on the day of Mary, Mother of the Church (the crown will be blessed beforehand by Pope Francis and will travel through several Italian cities (and perhaps also Germany) before the crowning)….
On the crown, besides the name given to the Blessed Mother, the phrase used by Father Kentenich “Dilexit Ecclesiam” will be engraved… What is being prepared here for the coronation is very important for Schoenstatt in Rome, in Italy and perhaps throughout the world. There is an application in different languages to accompany the coronation, among other things, with the possibility of contributing capital of grace…”.
Belmonte Preparation Team
Jubilee Prayer
“In a few weeks I will make public the Apostolic Letter with the official announcement” of the Jubilee of 2025, the Pope said on the morning of March 15 during a meeting with the Plenary of the Dicastery for Evangelization. Let us accompany Pope Francis in preparing for the Jubilee with prayer and with “Jubilee works”.
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.
May your grace transform us
into tireless cultivators of the seeds of the Gospel.
May those seeds transform from within both humanity and the whole cosmos
in the sure expectation
of a new heaven and a new earth,
when, with the powers of Evil vanquished,
your glory will shine eternally.
May the grace of the Jubilee
reawaken in us, Pilgrims of Hope,
a yearning for the treasures of heaven.
May that same grace spread
the joy and peace of our Redeemer
throughout the earth.
To you our God, eternally blessed,
be glory and praise for ever.
Amen
Holy Door, St. Peter
For all news, information, animation materials and spiritual preparation for the Jubilee, the website https://www.iubilaeum2025.va is available in eight different languages.
In eight languages
Original: Spanish. Translation: Maria Fischer @schoenstatt.org
