By Sister Timothy Marie, O.C.D.
What an amazing year this has been! It was over twelve months ago, that we heard for the first time the expression “Jubilee of Hope.” I have always loved that word – HOPE. Mother Luisita, the foundress of our community, once wrote in a letter the following advice. She wrote,
“So, you are experiencing some bitter days
and others that are sweeter.
Such is life.
Great sorrows precede joys and vice versa.
Live in hope.”
I cannot begin to understand the magnitude of both time and talent arising from Catholics living in just about every corner of our world. Together with the Jubilee coordinators at the Vatican, Catholics throughout the world and anybody else who wanted to take part, gave and were given huge doses of hope in a special way for 365 consecutive days. Just think of the logistics of planning for a jubilee every day for an entire year in St. Peter’s. Square. “Jubilee of Sick and Healthcare Workers,” “Jubilee of Consecrated life,” “Jubilee of Musicians,” “Jubilee of Artists,” “Jubilee of Children,” “Jubilees of Children, Grandparents, and Elderly,” “Jubilees of Families” to name only a few, and the list went on for 365 days. Did you know that thousands, sometimes tens of thousands, made a pilgrimage to the Vatican for their groups’ Jubilee.
Amazing. It was truly a “Year of Hope” during the “Jubilee of Hope” and when all of us were all “Pilgrims of Hope.”
The artistic logo for the Jubilee of Hope depicts a boat. Its anchor is the cross of Christ shaped at the bottom into an anchor. People were in the boat. Waves surrounded the boat. The logo shows four figures representing all of humanity together in the solidarity and fraternity which should unite all people. The figure at the front is holding onto the cross, as the anchor of our hope. Rough waves are depicted under the figures. They symbolize that life’s pilgrimage does not always go smoothly in calm waters. 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 in Latin is the motto of the 2025 Jubilee Year: Peregrinantes in Spem (Pilgrims in Hope), represented in green letters.
Here in our Casa Convent, we were able to follow the flow of the weeks and months of this time of hope. To me, I could almost feel the expectancy in the air, the lifting of tired bodies and restless spirits, The calming of the distressed and the wounded. It was if I could feel HOPE.
And now, this moment in time, this Jubilee of Hope, is almost coming to its end. I loved every minute of it. It re-focused me onto what is important. I will miss it very much.
Yet, this is what I am thinking. It is the special Jubilee that has an ending date. But not hope.
So, let us live in hope with out eyes fixed on Christ.
Amen. Alleluia!
