Renewing our world for Jubilee Year 2025

By 
Fr Martin Sirju, Vicar General

Jubilee Year 2025 preparations are upon us. By now certain activities would have taken place and some are ongoing.

We started off in September on Trinity
TV, Mondays, 8 p.m., with some sessions geared towards the universal i.e. what is a Jubilee Year, an indulgence, a holy door etc. These were done very well by Fr Don Chambers and panel.

October, we focused on what was happening locally – Archdiocese, vicariates, parishes, sacred sites.

In this month, a kind of retreat month, the focus was on linking Jubilee and Synod as well as giving some tips/action items on how we can be Pilgrims of Hope. All this can be found on the CatholicTT website.

Beginning January 2025, here are some general themes (see sidebar) and we hope parishes will be very creative since it is in parishes above all that the rubber hits the road for the Jubilee Year.

You can consult your parish jubilee teams to get an e-copy of what has been proposed for the Jubilee Year in tandem with the Vatican’s calendar of events.

What
are
some
of
the
other
things
to
bear
in
mind
as
we
approach
the
Jubilee
Year?

Interiority:
“These
people
honour
me
with
their
lips
but
their
hearts
are
far
from
me” (Mt 15:8).

The Jubilee Year will come to naught if we do not approach it with the proper disposition of mind and heart. It calls for personal and pastoral conversion; how we repair our spiritual lives and how we communicate with one another as groups and parishioners.

Often in parish life there is too much impatience and lack of charity. St Paul reminds us – advice not just for married couples – “Love
is
patient,
love
is
kind” (1 Cor 13:4).

We each know how broken we are; how infinitely patient God is with us. Ask yourself: ‘Am I patient with this person, this difficult, perhaps annoying person?’ Ask for the Jubilee grace to be more patient.

Vision: What do I see? Only murders and home invasions, crime and corruption, faults of priests and parishioners, the negative politics? Then we need spiritual cataract surgery. As I write this, the reading from Philippians today says, “Do
all
that
has
to
be
done
without
complaining
or
arguing.”

The Sinai desert was not an easy place to traverse yet God was upset with all the complaining. We need to see differently in the Jubilee Year. Pray for vision. What is it I am not seeing? Pray to see the light shining in the dark that the dark did not overpower. There is much here for Carnival and the Arts. For community and parish life, too.

Hope: The Jubilee Year is a clarion call to be Pilgrims of Hope. Not Pilgrims of Optimism. Not pilgrims who see the glass half-full as opposed to half-empty. That nonsense is sentimentality.

We ought to be aware of the fragility of hope, despite many signs to the contrary that things can be easily upset. Hope makes absolutely no sense without confronting the dark. It is not burying our heads in the sand thinking that things will go away, but believing in time they will, hoping against hope.

Finally, and by no means exhaustive, I would like us all to visit the Cathedral for 2025 where the only Jubilee Door is. Of course, the same blessings and indulgences are granted at any of the Jubilee sacred sites but the ‘Mother Church’ of the Archdiocese conveys a special significance regarding welcome, inclusivity, prayer, pilgrimage, centre and unity.

I encourage all pilgrims to visit the Cathedral to pray for the cause of canonisation of Archbishop Anthony Pantin, a truly Jubilee man. The first phase of his cause will be submitted in 2025, and we pray for an easy acceptance and continuation to the second phase.

I also highly recommend the reading of the Decree on the Jubilee Year

We also ask the intercession of Our Lady, Mother of All Peoples, and St Joseph, Protector of the Church, to “widen the space of our tent” in this Jubilee Year of pilgrimage and conversion.

Jubilee
Year
 themes 2025

January – World of Communications and Evangelisation; Word of    God

February – Healing, Health Care Workers, Police and Armed Forces

March – Mercy & Forgiveness, Families, Women, Remembering Archbishop Pantin

April – Easter: Foundation of Hope, Ecumenism, Persons with Disabilities, Mental Health Awareness Week

May – Eucharistic Congress Week (Archdiocesan), Marian Spirituality, World of Education, Primary Schools

June – Holy See, Clergy, Corpus Christi/Sacred Heart, Men, Workers, Business and Entrepreneurship

July – Families, Single Parents, Grandparents and the Elderly, Sports, Public Servants

August – Young People and Young Adults

September – Walk for Jesus (Archdiocesan), Creation, Volunteerism, Catechists, Church Workers, Altar Servers, Secondary Schools,

October – Festival of Hope (Archdiocesan), Consecrated Life, Seminarians, Church Movements/Associations, Mission

November – World of Justice (Archdiocesan), World Day of the Poor, Holy Souls, Forgiveness of Debts, Musicians and Artists

December – Prisoners, Prison Ministry, Help Release a Prisoner Project

December 28 – Closing Mass of the Jubilee Year (Archdiocesan)