Each week CatholicNews.ie will highlight various elements of the upcoming Universal Jubilee 2025 year. To herald the year, on 29 December, bishops across Ireland will celebrate Mass in their dioceses for the solemn opening of the Holy Year, and thereafter events will be organised locally. In addition, specific jubilee projects will be proposed by the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference.
What is a Jubilee Year?
A Jubilee or Holy Year is a special year of forgiveness and reconciliation, in which people are invited to deepen their relationship with God, with one another, and with all of creation. The Jubilee 2025 year’s theme is Pilgrims of Hope, when Pope Francis has invited Catholics to renew our hope and discover a vision that can “restore access to the fruits of the earth to everyone”. We are also invited to rediscover a spirituality of God’s creation in which we understand ourselves as “pilgrims on the earth” rather than masters of the world.
This week CatholicNews.ie reports on the meaning behind the hymn for Jubilee 2025
Oftentimes, while walking along, a song will come to mind which really seems to express how we are feeling. This is also true for the life of faith, which is a pilgrimage toward the light of the Risen Lord. The Sacred Scriptures are steeped in song, and the Psalms are a striking example: the prayers of the people of Israel were written to be sung, and it was in song that the most human events were presented before the Lord. The tradition of the Church has continued this, making music and song one of the lungs of its liturgy. The Jubilee, which in itself is expressed as an event of people on pilgrimage to the Holy Door, also uses song as one of the ways of expressing its motto: ‘Pilgrims of Hope’.
Many themes of the Holy Year are woven into the text written by Pierangelo Sequeri and set to music by Francesco Meneghello. First of all, the motto ‘Pilgrims of Hope’ is best echoed biblically in some pages from the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 9 and Isaiah 60). The themes of creation, fraternity, God’s tenderness and hope in our destination resonate in a language, which although not “technically” theological, is in substance and in the allusions, so that it rings eloquently in the ears of our time.
With each step of their daily pilgrimage believers trustingly rely on the source of Life. The song that arises spontaneously during the journey (cf. Augustine, Discourses, 256) is directed to God. It is a song charged with the hope of being freed and supported. It is a song imbued with the hope that it will reach the ears of the One from whom all things flow. It is God who as an ever-living flame keeps hope burning and energizes the steps of the people as they journey.
Pilgrims of Hope – original text by Pierangelo Sequeri, with English translation by Andrew Wadsworth:
Like a flame my hope is burning,
may my song arise to you:
Source of life that has no ending,
on life’s path I trust in you.
Ev’ry nation, tongue, and people
find a light within your Word.
Scattered fragile sons and daughters
find a home in your dear Son.
Like a flame my hope is burning,
may my song arise to you:
Source of life that has no ending,
on life’s path I trust in you.
God, so tender and so patient,
dawn of hope, you care for all.
Heav’n and earth are recreated
by the Spirit of Life set free.
Like a flame my hope is burning,
may my song arise to you:
Source of life that has no ending,
on life’s path I trust in you.
Raise your eyes, the wind is blowing,
for our God is born in time.
Son made man for you and many
who will find the way in him.
Like a flame my hope is burning,
may my song arise to you:
Source of life that has no ending,
on life’s path I trust in you.
To hear the song please click HERE
Stay informed about events for this Holy Year that will be taking place, both nationally and internationally, and join in on preparing for this important celebration. For more information on Jubilee 2025, download the app HERE
Source: https://www.iubilaeum2025.va/en/giubileo-2025.html
ENDS
