Jubilee 2025

Jubilee 2025

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Pope Francis declared a Jubilee Year, which began on December 24th, 2024, with the Opening of the Holy Door of Saint Peter’s Basilica. Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools is embracing the Jubilee Year with its inspiring theme, "Pilgrims of Hope." This year of celebration calls us to renewal, reflection, and a deeper commitment to living out the Gospel in our schools and communities.

2025 Theme: Pilgrims of Hope

“Hope does not disappoint” (Rom 5:5). Pope Francis has chosen Pilgrims of Hope as this year's theme. 

‘The coming Jubilee will thus be a Holy Year marked by the hope that does not fade, our hope in God. May it help us to recover the confident trust that we require, in the Church and in society, in our interpersonal relationships, in international relations, and in our task of promoting the dignity of all persons and respect for God’s gift of creation. May the witness of believers be for our world a leaven of authentic hope, a harbinger of new heavens and a new earth (cf. 2 Pet 3:13), where men and women will dwell in justice and harmony, in joyful expectation of the fulfilment of the Lord’s promises.

Let us even now be drawn to this hope! Through our witness, may hope spread to all those who anxiously seek it. May the way we live our lives say to them in so many words: “Hope in the Lord! Hold firm, take heart and hope in the Lord!” (Ps 27:14). May the power of hope fill our days, as we await with confidence the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and glory, now and forever.’

Read the full text of Pope Francis' message here.

How RDCRS is celebrating the Jubilee Year

The Jubilee Year offers an opportunity for our school communities to grow in faith by reflecting on its themes of hope, kindness and reconciliation. Throughout the year, students in Red Deer Catholic schools will engage in Jubilee-themed activities and lessons designed to guide them in learning about the significance of the Jubilee year. These activities will encourage students to reflect on its key themes and to consider their own journeys of faith. Shared teacher resources and student activities include:

  • Activities based on the Jubilee 2025 calendar of Major events
  • A virtual pilgrimage for students
  • Jubilee-themed lessons, art projects, prayers, and celebrations 
  • Incorporating the Jubilee theme into classroom activities and school-wide initiatives.

Jubilee Prayer

The Jubilee Prayer 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 forever.

Amen

Pope Francis

The Jubilee prayer can also be found in other languages here.

Official Hymn