Introduction:
Respond to the Invitation to Embrace God’s Hope

You Are Invited to a Jubilee Year Experience!

Suppose you received an invitation to a celebration – a celebration where potentially up to a billion people might participate.  You might want to know more.  The truth is: the invitation has been sent, and you can respond at any time.

On behalf of the entire Church, Pope Francis is inviting you to join in the celebration of 2025 as a Jubilee Year of the Church.

You don’t have to RSVP; you can just show up, and you can participate in many different ways.

Where is my invitation: In May 2024, Pope Francis released the document Spes Non Confundit (Hope Does Not Disappoint), in which he invites us to join in the Roman Catholic Church’s celebration of Jubilee Year 2025 and to focus particularly on the hope we have in Christ.

What is a Jubilee Year: The Roman Catholic Church has been celebrating Jubilee Years almost every 25 years since the year 1300, and additional Jubilee Years have occasionally been added.  Drawing on Old Testament tradition, the Jubilee Year is meant to be a time to celebrate the grace, forgiveness, and mercy of God – a time of pardon, release, and remission of sins.

Each Jubilee Year, the Church invites us to open our hearts in a special way to the grace of God, to receive forgiveness and freedom from sin.  As a tangible manifestation of the invitation, the Church opens special holy doors in Rome during the Jubilee Year and invites us to go on a pilgrimage to one or more of those holy doors.  We are invited to embrace the spirit of conversion and open the doors of our hearts to facilitate God’s work of renewal in our lives.

However, a physical pilgrimage is not required.  We can embrace the Jubilee Year in many different ways.  We can go on a spiritual pilgrimage of the mind and heart.  What all pilgrimages have in common, whether physical or spiritual, is that we take the time to consider where we are spiritually and where God is calling us to be, and then embrace the steps toward growth that the Holy Spirit is inspiring us to take.

We want to extend to you Pope Francis’s invitation to join the journey!  Through this study guide, we offer one approach that might strengthen your faith and renew your hope in God.

Who is invited: Anyone seeking to grow closer to God is welcome.

When: Officially, this Jubilee Year runs from approximately Christmas 2024 through Christmas 2025.  But the door is never closed to experiencing the grace of God.  You are welcome to take this journey with us any time, in whatever ways work best to support your faith.

Where: Through this study, you can journey with us in an exploration of God’s hope and grace, guided by Pope Francis and the Sacred Scriptures.  You can do this online, at home, or in your parish.  You can do it on your own or with a small group.  We also encourage those who are able to take a pilgrimage to Rome or join in your local diocese’s official celebrations and rituals.

Theme: In Spes Non Confundit, Pope Francis invites us to explore the theme of hope – the reasons for hope, how we can embrace God’s hope and allow it to fill our hearts, and how we can extend God’s hope to all people, in every part of our society and every corner of the world.

If you would like to respond to this invitation to hope, keep reading!  First read the Overview, and then start your study.  The Overview has separate suggestions for individuals studying on their own, small group members, and small group leaders.

For More Information or Help

If you have questions about anything in this study guide, please feel free to email Tom Faletti at tomfaletti@faithexplored.com or use the contact form at the bottom of FaithExplored.com.

May you grow in hope and find new ways to put your hope into action, as you study Spes Non Confundit and celebrate the Jubilee Year.  It is wonderful that we can say yes to God’s invitation to live in hope and to extend God’s hope to others by sharing the good news we have found in Jesus Christ and working to bring His justice and peace to the world around us!

Your fellow pilgrim on the path to God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,

Tom Faletti

Dedication

This study was developed at the suggestion of Father John Mudd, who has served the Archdiocese of Washington for more than 50 years with joy and an open heart for all God’s people. Thank you, Father Mudd, for your dedication and support.  May God continue to bless your ministry!