Pope Francis has announced that 2025 will be a year of Jubilee – an event that happens every 25 years.

The theme for the upcoming Jubilee is “Pilgrims of Hope”.

The 2025 Jubilee will begin in Advent 2024 and will run until the Feast of the Epiphany in 2026.

Although this is a global celebration, Pope Francis invites each diocese, throughout the world, to mark the Jubilee in their own unique way and we look forward to sharing a whole range of different activities, events, and resources with you during the Jubilee year here in school.

We have planned events to celebrate the Jubilee Year and to journey through this time together in joy and hope.

What is a Jubilee Year?

In the Catholic Church, a Jubilee or Holy Year is a special year of forgiveness and reconciliation, in which people are invited to come back into right relationship with God, with one another, and with all of creation. A Jubilee Year is celebrated by the Church every 25 years.

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.

In the Bible the Jubilee Year occurred every 50 years and involved the cancelling of debts, a period of rest for people and the earth, and land being restored to the landless.  In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus makes clear his own mission is to bring Jubilee. In the synagogue at Nazareth he reads from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah, proclaiming the year of the Lord's favour.

Here are some of the celebrations that will take place throughout the Jubilee Year here at Guardian Angels':

December 2024: Advent Service to start the year with Hope

January 2025: Launch Day will be 24th January!

February 2025: Prayer Trail Week at Guardian Angels' Church

March 2025: CAFOD Big Lent Walk and Travelling Prayer Book/Bag during Lent

April 2025: Stay and Pray with us during the Season of Easter

May 2025: "Laudato Si" day with our friends and community

June 2025: Pilgrimage day - delivering messages of hope - Eucharistic Procession/Benediction

July 2025: Hope for the Future Pledge Day

September 2025: Revisiting our Mission Statement