The claim to the title "Christian"

I am prompted to reflect on the claim to the use of the title "Christian" by some recent events. On two occasions recently, the Christian symbol of the Cross has been displayed at political demonstrations in London, thereby appropriating to the intentions of those demonstrations the title "Christian". In the United States, the Turning Point movement, essentially political in character, has used the Christian faith of its founder to appropriate a Christian character to the movement. There is also the claim to identify Britain as a Christian country, expressed eloquently by Danny Kruger speaking in the House of Commons:

When I speak of the Church of England today, I am not speaking about the internal politics of the Anglican sect; I speak of the common creed of our country, the official religion of the English and the British nation, and the institution—older than the monarchy, and much older than Parliament—which made this country.

I have three observations:

1. Beware of a use of the term "Christian" in way that leaves an exact meaning unexpressed. In this usage it might refer to anything from structured Christian bodies, such as the Episcopalian Church in the United States or the Church of England in Britain, to completely independent congregations via networks of Evangelical (mega-) churches. In this usage, exactly who or what is the "Christian" that is referenced? If we are not careful, the use of the term has such wide range of possible references that it becomes empty of substantial meaning.

2. Beware of a politics that is, first of all and in principle, a politics but which then wishes to add to itself the descriptor "Christian". This remains first and foremost a politics and, even if its advocates might profess a Christian faith (but see point 1 above), that does not allow the political stance in itself to be called "Christian". As might be said on the London Underground, we need to "mind the gap" and not permit the "Christian" claim of such a politics to establish for it an unwarranted credibility.

3. There are politicians who profess a Christian faith and, on the basis of that faith, advocate for certain positions in their public life. This, however, is a somewhat inverse of the position described at point 2 above. See the words of Pope Benedict below.

But rather than trying to create a politics that wishes to claim a title of "Christian", Pope Benedict XVI and, more recently, Pope Leo XIV have advocated for a "healthy secularity" in the world of culture and politics.

Pope Benedict XVI, speaking in Westminster Hall during his visit to the United Kingdom in 2010:

The central question at issue, then, is this: where is the ethical foundation for political choices to be found? The Catholic tradition maintains that the objective norms governing right action are accessible to reason, prescinding from the content of revelation. According to this understanding, the role of religion in political debate is not so much to supply these norms, as if they could not be known by non-believers – still less to propose concrete political solutions, which would lie altogether outside the competence of religion – but rather to help purify and shed light upon the application of reason to the discovery of objective moral principles. This “corrective” role of religion vis-à-vis reason is not always welcomed, though, partly because distorted forms of religion, such as sectarianism and fundamentalism, can be seen to create serious social problems themselves. And in their turn, these distortions of religion arise when insufficient attention is given to the purifying and structuring role of reason within religion. It is a two-way process. Without the corrective supplied by religion, though, reason too can fall prey to distortions, as when it is manipulated by ideology, or applied in a partial way that fails to take full account of the dignity of the human person. Such misuse of reason, after all, was what gave rise to the slave trade in the first place and to many other social evils, not least the totalitarian ideologies of the twentieth century. This is why I would suggest that the world of reason and the world of faith – the world of secular rationality and the world of religious belief – need one another and should not be afraid to enter into a profound and ongoing dialogue, for the good of our civilization.

 Pope Leo XIV speaking to a working group on inter-religious and inter-cultural dialogue:

European institutions need people who know how to live a healthy secularism, that is, a style of thinking and acting that affirms the value of religion while preserving the distinction — not separation or confusion — from the political sphere.  In particular, it is worth noting the examples of Robert Schuman, Konrad Adenauer and Alcide De Gasperi.

Jubilee of the World of Work

 A Jubilee for workers was due to take place during the days 1st-4th May 2025, but was not able to take place following the death of Pope Francis. On 8th November 2025, a celebration of a Jubilee for Workers will take place.

In September 1981, Pope St John Paul II issued his Encyclical Letter Laborem Exercens, dedicated to the principles of the idea of human work and to discussing the contemporary problems relating to human work.

From the beginning therefore [man] is called to work. Work is one of the characteristics that distinguish man from the rest of creatures, whose activity for sustaining their lives cannot be called work. Only man is capable of work, and only man works, at the same time by work occupying his existence on earth. Thus work bears a particular mark of man and of humanity, the mark of a person operating within a community of persons. And this mark decides its interior characteristics; in a sense it constitutes its very nature.

Starting from an analysis of the teaching of the Book of Genesis (Gen.1:28) - "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it" - John Paul II presents work in both its objective and subjective senses. He first suggests that work is something characteristic of the human person that identifies the human person apart from other creatures. The objective sense of work lies in the nature of the actual tasks undertaken, and John Paul outlines how this has changed over time, developing from a largely manual form of work to an increasingly mechanised form.

Understood in this case not as a capacity or aptitude for work, but rather as a whole set of instruments which man uses in his work, technology is undoubtedly man's ally. It facilitates his work, perfects, accelerates and augments it. It leads to an increase in the quantity of things produced by work, and in many cases improves their quality. However, it is also a fact that, in some instances, technology can cease to be man's ally and become almost his enemy, as when the mechanization of work "supplants" him, taking away all personal satisfaction and the incentive to creativity and responsibility, when it deprives many workers of their previous employment, or when, through exalting the machine, it reduces man to the status of its slave.

This development towards an ever more technological form of work, viewed in its objective sense, brings to the fore the question of work in its subjective sense:

Man has to subdue the earth and dominate it, because as the "image of God" he is a person, that is to say, a subjective being capable of acting in a planned and rational way, capable of deciding about himself, and with a tendency to self-realization. As a person, man is therefore the subject of work. As a person he works, he performs various actions belonging to the work process; independently of their objective content, these actions must all serve to realize his humanity, to fulfil the calling to be a person that is his by reason of his very humanity. ...

...the basis for determining the value of human work is not primarily the kind of work being done but the fact that the one who is doing it is a person. The sources of the dignity of work are to be sought primarily in the subjective dimension, not in the objective one.

...This does not mean that, from the objective point of view, human work cannot and must not be rated and qualified in any way. It only means that the primary basis of the value of work is man himself, who is its subject. This leads immediately to a very important conclusion of an ethical nature: however true it may be that man is destined for work and called to it, in the first place work is "for man" and not man "for work". 

 From this starting point, John Paul goes on to discuss in detail the contemporary situation of the world of work. But this reflection itself can already prompt individuals to look at their own experience of work, and ask how they can try to achieve that agency with regard to their work that will allow them to more effectively act as a subject rather than a slave of their work. And it also brings to the attention of those fortunate enough to be able to work that long term unemployment represents an undermining of the dignity of the person.

Jubilee of the World of Education

The Jubilee of the world of education will take place in the days 27th October - 1st November, with the declaration of St John Henry Newman as a doctor of the Church to take place during the concluding Mass celebrated by Pope Leo XIV. A wide range of events are organised for the days of this Jubilee, as can be seen by following the link above. Perhaps of particular note is an International Congress that marks the 60th anniversary of the Declaration on Christian Education Gravissimum Educationis.

The then Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education issued a document Catholic Schools in March 1977.  That document suggests a two fold integration as the intention of the work of a Catholic school, an integration of faith and culture and an integration of faith and life:

n.49 (cf n.38-39, 44). The specific mission of the school, then, is a critical systematic transmission of culture in the light of faith and the bringing forth of the power of Christian virtue by the integration of culture with faith and faith with living.

In his Apostolic Constitution Ex Corde Ecclesiae, Pope St John Paul II described the identity of the Catholic university, as both university and as Catholic:

12. Every Catholic University, as a university, is an academic community which, in a rigorous and critical fashion, assists in the protection and advancement of human dignity and of a cultural heritage through research, teaching and various services offered to the local, national and international communities. It possesses that institutional autonomy necessary to perform its functions effectively and guarantees its members academic freedom, so long as the rights of the individual person and of the community are preserved within the confines of the truth and the common good.

13. Since the objective of a Catholic University is to assure in an institutional manner a Christian presence in the university world confronting the great problems of society and culture, every Catholic University, as Catholic, must have the following essential characteristics:

"1. a Christian inspiration not only of individuals but of the university community as such;

2. a continuing reflection in the light of the Catholic faith upon the growing treasury of human knowledge, to which it seeks to contribute by its own research;

3. fidelity to the Christian message as it comes to us through the Church;

4. an institutional commitment to the service of the people of God and of the human family in their pilgrimage to the transcendent goal which gives meaning to life".

Together, schools and universities are perhaps the main, though not exclusive, ways in which the Church is present in the world of education.

St John Henry Newman, to be declared a Doctor of the Church on the closing day of this Jubilee, perhaps summarised all of this for his own times in a sermon entitled "Intellect, the Instrument of Religious Training":

Here, then, I conceive, is the object of the Holy See and the Catholic Church in setting up universities; it is to re-unite things which were in the beginning joined together by God, and have been put asunder by man. ... I wish the intellect to range with the utmost freedom, and religion to enjoy an equal freedom; but what I am stipulating for is that they should be found in one and the same place, and exemplified in the same persons. ... It will not satisfy me if religion is here, and science there, and young men converse with science all day, and lodge with religion in the evening.  ...I want the same roof to contain both the intellectual and moral discipline. 

Jubilee of Synodal Teams and Participatory Bodies

 A Jubilee dedicated to Synodal Teams and other participatory bodies in the Church is being held 24th - 26th October 2025. It is being held under the aegis of the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops. I should, perhaps, declare a certain bias in my own sense of the process of Synodality to which this particular Jubilee refers - see An Aside on Synodality. An explanation of the working of the Synod of Bishops (in general, not just referring to the current Synod on Synodality) can be found here: The Synod. It is possible to recognise in the changes introduced by Pope Francis the pattern of preparatory, discussion and implementation phases that are a feature of the Synod on Synodality and which now would apply to every meeting of the Synod. 

One of the features of the Synodal process that may have been experienced in parishes, and will be the subject of one of the workshops at the Jubilee, is that of Conversations in the Spirit: see here and here. 

Watching the video clip, its three rounds reminded me of the "See, Judge, Act" of Cardinal Cardijn's Young Christian Workers (YCW). There is an account of one such Young Christian Workers meeting that has a specific family connection. During the section meeting one week my mother apparently could only think to mention that she had received a pay rise. This was during the "See" part of the meeting, when each member of the section mentioned some activity since the previous week's meeting. It became apparent that another girl in the group, who worked in a different factory, had not had a pay rise. This triggered a chain of events in which my mother introduced this girl to her trade union, and then to the establishment of the union in what had previously been a non- union factory. In due course, mother received a letter from the Secretary of the local branch of the National Union of Tailors and Garment Workers (NUTGW) thanking her for the work she had undertaken to get the union established in that factory. 

We found that letter amongst mother's things after she died ... and there then followed a chain of research into the whole story, both from the point of view of that particular YCW section (I have some letters from mother's then YCW colleagues, including from the girl she first recruited to the NUTGW) and the situation of the cotton industry at the time. 

This particular "Conversation in the Spirit" took place in ....  1942.

I have only just realised that Pope St John XXIII explicitly referred to the "See, Judge, Act" methodology in his Encyclical Letter Mater et Magistra of 1961 (nn.236-237), and we might see that as a foreshadowing of the practice of Conversation in the Spirit:

There are three stages which should normally be followed in the reduction of social principles into practice. First, one reviews the concrete situation; secondly, one forms a judgment on it in the light of these same principles; thirdly, one decides what in the circumstances can and should be done to implement these principles. These are the three stages that are usually expressed in the three terms: look, judge, act.

It is important for our young people to grasp this method and to practice it. Knowledge acquired in this way does not remain merely abstract, but is seen as something that must be translated into action.

Jubilee of Roma, Sinti and Travelling Peoples

 A Jubilee of Travelling Peoples is being marked in Rome on 18th October 2025. The main event looks as if it will be an extended meeting with Pope Leo XIV, followed by the opportunity to make a pilgrimage through the Holy Door at St Peter's Basilica. It seems particularly appropriate for this meeting to be taking place as part of Jubilee with the theme "Pilgrims of Hope", given the itinerant traditions of the different travelling peoples.

In England, the major gathering of Travelling Peoples each year is the Appleby Horse Fair. This takes place in early June each year and represents a massive undertaking on the part of the local community as it welcomes tens of thousands of visitors to what is a small market town.

The Marian shrine of Lourdes also welcomes an annual pilgrimage of travelling peoples (in French, "gens du voyage"), usually during August. Though the shrine itself is accustomed to welcoming large numbers of pilgrims, the accomodating of the many caravans of the travelling people requires the same sort of co-operation of the local authorities that takes place in Appleby.

On 26th November 1965, Pope St Paul VI visited an international encampment of travelling peoples on pilgrimage from all over Europe on the outskirts of Rome. The weather was awful, with persistent rain, but this appears not to have dampened the enthusiasm of those who welcomed the Holy Father. Pope Paul opened his homily with this greeting:

Our greeting to you, perpetual pilgrims; to you, voluntary exiles; to you, refugees always on the road; to you, travellers without rest! To you, without your own house, without a fixed home, without a homeland, without a public society! To you, who lack qualified work, lack social contact, lack sufficient means!

When Pope Benedict XVI met with gypsy pilgrims in June 2011 he reminded them of this earlier meeting with Paul VI: 

You have come to Rome from every part of Europe to express your faith and your love for Christ and for the Church — which is a home to you all — and for the Pope. The Servant of God Paul VI addressed these unforgettable words to Gypsies in 1965: “In the Church you are not on the fringes of society but in some respects in its centre, in its heart. You are in the heart of the Church”. Today too I repeat with affection: you are in the Church! You are a beloved portion of the pilgrim People of God and remind us that here “we have no lasting city, but we seek the city which is to come” (Heb 13:14). 

In his turn, Pope Francis met with a pilgrimage of gypsies undertaken to mark the 50th anniversary of that first meeting with Pope St Paul VI:

Many of you come from afar and have undertaken a long journey to come here. Welcome! I thank you for wishing to commemorate together the historic meeting of Blessed Paul VI with the nomadic people. Fifty years have passed since he came to visit you in the Camp at Pomezia. The Pope spoke to your grandparents and parents with fatherly care, saying: “Wherever you stop you are considered a bother and a stranger [...] Here not so; [...] here you find someone who loves you, esteems you, appreciates you and assists you”. With these words, he spurred the Church to a pastoral commitment with your people, encouraging you too at the same time to trust her.  

An aside on Synodality

 Rightly or wrongly, and perhaps the latter rather than the former, I have found it difficult to really grasp what has been intended by the term "synodality" and the extensive efforts in its regard at the different levels in the life of the Church. I have found it difficult to truly differentiate it from the idea of "co-responsibility" of which Cardinal Suenens might be seen as an advocate in the years shortly after Vatican II. I have also found it difficult to place "synodality" in relation to the "ecclesiology of communion" that might be seen as a balance to the idea of "co-responsibility". Perhaps some care should be taken, however, in summarizing like this in order to avoid falling for the perceptions that might accompany these different terms rather than the realities intended by their respective authors.

Be that as it may, I was intrigued by the terms in which Pope Leo XIV recently encouraged those taking part in the Jubilee of Consecrated Life to continue to engage with the synodal process. He chose to cite a paragraph from Pope St Paul VI first Encyclical Letter, Ecclesiam Suam. That paragraph (n.113 in the English version at the website of the Holy See, n.117 in the Italian) describes a third "circle" of dialogue that Pope Paul suggests for the Church:

We address Ourself finally to the sons of God's house, the one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church of which the Roman Church is "mother and head." How greatly we desire that this dialogue with Our own children may be conducted with the fullness of faith, with charity, and with dynamic holiness. May it be of frequent occurrence and on an intimate level. May it be open and responsive to all truth, every virtue, every spiritual value that goes to make us the heritage of Christian teaching. We want it to be sincere. We want it to be an inspiration to genuine holiness. We want it to show itself ready to listen to the variety of views which are expressed in the world today. We want it to be the sort of dialogue that will make Catholics virtuous, wise, unfettered, fair-minded and strong.

After this citation, Pope Leo went on to say (my own translation from the Italian):

It is the description of an exciting mission: a "domestic dialogue" that today is also entrusted to you, and to you in a special way, for an ongoing renewal of the Body of Christ in its relations, in its processes, in its methods. Your life, the very way in which you are organised, the often international and intercultural character of your institutes, place you in a privileged condtion to be able to live each day values such as reciprocal listening, participation, the sharing of opinions and abilities, a shared search for ways according to the voice of the Spirit. 

Can I, after all, assimilate the idea of "synodality" to that of "dialogue"? 

Jubilee of Marian Spirituality

The inclusion of the teaching of Vatican Council II on the Virgin Mary as a chapter in the Constitution on the Church, rather than as a separate document in its own right, suggests to us that every aspect of the Church's life has in some way a Marian dimension. In this light, a specific Jubilee dedicated to Marian spirituality, to be marked in the days 11th-12th October 2025, appears either to be unnecessary or to represent a celebration of the Church's life as a whole. 

The invitation to the Jubilee is described as follows:

All members of the movements, confraternities and various Marian prayer groups are particularly invited to this jubilee event.

The orginal statue of Our Lady of Fatima will be present in Rome for the Jubilee, and is a particular focus for the events of the Jubilee. The invitation, and the presence of the Fatima statue, place the focus on that aspect of the Marian life of the Church that might be covered by the term "popular piety". It is worth recalling that, as Pope Francis suggested in Evangelii Gaudium nn.122-126, the various expressions of popular piety should be seen as an inculturation of the Gospel, as a way in which a people embed a presence of their Christian faith in their daily lives and in the daily lives of those among whom they live. Different forms of Marian spirituality can easily be recognised as precisely this way of embedding Christian presence in a culture.

One element of the Marian spirituality being marked by this Jubilee is pilgrimage to Marian shrines. Some shrines, such as Lourdes and Fatima, have gained an international reach. Many countries have a national shrine to the Virgin Mary where devotion might reflect something of the local character of the people or of the place. Not infrequently, such a shrine will reflect a founding grace which gives to the devotion expressed at that shrine a specific character. The National Shrine for England at Walsingham, for example, offers a sense of the house of Nazareth as a distinctive aspect of its spirituality. There are also more local devotions such as the Lancaster diocesan shrine at Ladyewell, which has a particular historical context proper to that part of the country.

A second element is that of prayer groups, often based in meeting to pray the Rosary, with a specifically Marian devotion. Such prayer groups may arise with a certain spontaneity and may not have the specific connection to a place that belongs with a shrine. But nevertheless, for those who take part in them, they represent an embedding of their faith in their everyday lives.

Viewed from the point of view of the Church's liturgical life, these examples of popular Marian piety should both derive from the liturgy and lead back to it. Whilst seen in isolation they may appear to exist in parallel to the wider life of the Church, they are lived authentically when they are inserted into that wider life. The many different formulas contained in the Collection of Masses of the Blessed Virgin Mary and celebrations that occur in the universal and local calendars manifest this relationship between the Liturgy and devotional life.

Jubilee of Consecrated Life

 The Jubilee of Consecrated Life is being marked in the days 8th-9th October 2025. The invitation being extended on the Jubilee 2025 website indicates a range of charisms that express different ways of living a life very particularly dedicated to God:

All consecrated men and women from all forms of religious life are invited to this jubilee event: men and women religious, monks and contemplatives, members of secular institutes, members of the Ordo virginum, hermits, and members of "new institutes."

 The Catechism of the Catholic Church (n.915), citing the teaching of the Second Vatican Council, presents the evangelical counsels (chastity, poverty, obedience) as characteristics of the consecrated life:

Christ proposes the evangelical counsels, in their great variety, to every disciple. The perfection of charity, to which all the faithful are called, entails for those who freely follow the call to consecrated life the obligation of practicing chastity in celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom, poverty and obedience. It is the profession of these counsels, within a permanent state of life recognized by the Church, that characterizes the life consecrated to God.

 The word "consecrated" in the expression "Consecrated Life" is worthy of examination. The word can be used in different contexts - the consecration of a Church, the Marian consecrations of St Louis Marie Grignon de Montfort or Maximilimian Kolbe, for example. While these contexts have some analogous comparison to the consecration of a person that is effected by profession of the evangelical counsels, there is a decisiveness in the profession of those counsels that differentiates it from them. Reflecting on the idea of consecration can suggest something of the way of life to which those professing the evangelical counsels are called.

In his extensive study The Meaning of Consecration Today, Fr Rene Laurentin suggests the following as an account of the essence of consecration (italics in the original):

Consecration properly so called is nothing else but divinization: the transformation of human life into divine life by the communication of the latter, offered to our participating liberty. This process is not a passage or crossing in the material sense from earth into heaven. Rather, it is a transformation, or transfinalization, or transfiguration of human life - a life penetrated, elevated and supernaturalized from within by the gift of divine life, that is to say, by the love of God: his agape. It is given to us by means of consecration to know and love God as God, that is to say, by God's love, not by our own love.

After explaining how God brings about this divinization by means of his grace (and note that this action of grace is not the ex opere action of the sacraments), Fr Laurentin writes:

By grace we pass beyond the order of natural and scientific knowledge in order to arrive [at] a connatural and existential knowledge of God, comprising a special wisdom, intuition, and union. At the same time, eros (egoistic love) will be transformed into agape, that is, divine love, capable of loving quite gratuitously, as God knows how to love, in giving more than in desiring ...

The radical dedication expressed in the life of the evangelical counsels has an eschatological dimension, offering a particular witness in this world to the joys of the world to come. In the words of Pope Francis' Bull of Indiction for the Jubilee Year:

... by virtue of the hope in which we were saved, [we] can view the passage of time with the certainty that the history of humanity and our own individual history are not doomed to a dead end or a dark abyss, but directed to an encounter with the Lord of glory. As a result, we live our lives in expectation of his return and in the hope of living forever in him. In this spirit, we make our own the heartfelt prayer of the first Christians with which sacred Scripture ends: “Come, Lord Jesus!” ( Rev 22:20). 

And in the words of the Jubilee Prayer:

May the grace of the Jubilee reawaken in us, Pilgrims of Hope, a yearning for the treasures of heaven. 

Jubilee of Migrants

Coinciding with the Jubilee of Missions, the Jubilee of Migrants is being marked 4th-5th October 2025. The World Day of Migrants would normally be marked by the Church on the last Sunday of September, but this year it is being celebrated at the beginning of October to coincide with the Jubilee.

The care of the universal Church for migrants sits within a section of the Dicastery for Integral Human Development. The website is informative and, for example, carries the texts of the Pope's messages for past World Days of Migrants.

The theme for the 2025 World Day is "Migrants: missionaries of hope", and Pope Leo XIV writes in his message to mark the day:

This link between migration and hope is clearly evident in many contemporary experiences of migration. Many migrants, refugees and displaced persons are privileged witnesses of hope. Indeed, they demonstrate this daily through their resilience and trust in God, as they face adversity while seeking a future in which they glimpse that integral human development and happiness are possible. Moreover, we can see the itinerant experience of the people of Israel repeated in their own lives: “O God, when you went out before your people, when you marched through the wilderness, the earth quaked, the heavens poured down rain at the presence of God, the God of Sinai, at the presence of God, the God of Israel. Rain in abundance, O God, you showered abroad; you restored your heritage when it languished; your flock found a dwelling in it; in your goodness, O God, you provided for the needy” (Ps 68:7-10).

In a world darkened by war and injustice, even when all seems lost, migrants and refugees stand as messengers of hope. Their courage and tenacity bear heroic testimony to a faith that sees beyond what our eyes can see and gives them the strength to defy death on the various contemporary migration routes. Here too we can find a clear analogy with the experience of the people of Israel wandering in the desert, who faced every danger while trusting in the Lord’s protection: “he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence; he will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler. You will not fear the terror of the night, or the arrow that flies by day, or the pestilence that stalks in darkness, or the destruction that wastes at noonday” (Ps 91:3-6)

It is striking that an experience that would more readily be seen as one of despair and anguish is indicated as being an experience characterised by hope. I suspect that many migrants, though they hope for a better future, nevertheless have an everyday life that they may immediately experience as hardship.

In his encyclical Fratelli Tutti (n.129 ff), Pope Francis wrote of the situation where our neighbour is someone who has migrated into our own country. He started by suggesting an idea the he expressed on another occasion as a right to remain in one's country of origin as well as there being a right to migrate. It is also worth noting that he believes that a right to migrate arises from the need for personal fulfilment, and not just from the need to avoid persecution:

Complex challenges arise when our neighbour happens to be an immigrant. Ideally, unnecessary migration ought to be avoided; this entails creating in countries of origin the conditions needed for a dignified life and integral development. Yet until substantial progress is made in achieving this goal, we are obliged to respect the right of all individuals to find a place that meets their basic needs and those of their families, and where they can find personal fulfilment. Our response to the arrival of migrating persons can be summarized by four words: welcome, protect, promote and integrate. For “it is not a case of implementing welfare programmes from the top down, but rather of undertaking a journey together, through these four actions, in order to build cities and countries that, while preserving their respective cultural and religious identity, are open to differences and know how to promote them in the spirit of human fraternity”. 

This implies taking certain indispensable steps, especially in response to those who are fleeing grave humanitarian crises. As examples, we may cite: increasing and simplifying the granting of visas; adopting programmes of individual and community sponsorship; opening humanitarian corridors for the most vulnerable refugees; providing suitable and dignified housing; guaranteeing personal security and access to basic services; ensuring adequate consular assistance and the right to retain personal identity documents; equitable access to the justice system; the possibility of opening bank accounts and the guarantee of the minimum needed to survive; freedom of movement and the possibility of employment; protecting minors and ensuring their regular access to education; providing for programmes of temporary guardianship or shelter; guaranteeing religious freedom; promoting integration into society; supporting the reuniting of families; and preparing local communities for the process of integration. 

For those who are not recent arrivals and already participate in the fabric of society, it is important to apply the concept of “citizenship”, which “is based on the equality of rights and duties, under which all enjoy justice. It is therefore crucial to establish in our societies the concept of full citizenship and to reject the discriminatory use of the term minorities, which engenders feelings of isolation and inferiority. Its misuse paves the way for hostility and discord; it undoes any successes and takes away the religious and civil rights of some citizens who are thus discriminated against”.

Towards the end of his message, Pope Leo XIV suggests that migrants and refugees remind us of the pilgrim nature of the Church: 

Migrants and refugees remind the Church of her pilgrim dimension, perpetually journeying towards her final homeland, sustained by a hope that is a theological virtue. Each time the Church gives in to the temptation of “sedentarization” and ceases to be a civitas peregrine, God’s people journeying towards the heavenly homeland (cf. Augustine, De Civitate Dei, Books XIV-XVI), she ceases to be “in the world” and becomes “of the world” (cf. Jn 15:19). This temptation was already present in the early Christian communities, so much so that the Apostle Paul had to remind the Church of Philippi that “our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself” (Phil 3:20-21).

Jubilee of the Missions

The days 4th-5th October 2025 are being marked as the Jubilee of the Missions, with a particular invitation to religious and lay participants in the Church's missionary activity to join in the events in Rome. It coincides with the Jubilee of Migrants, being marked on the same days.

The Decree Ad Gentes of the Second Vatican Council (n.6) defined the term "missions" as follows:

"Missions" is the term usually given to those particular undertakings by which the heralds of the Gospel, sent out by the Church and going forth into the whole world, carry out the task of preaching the Gospel and planting the Church among peoples or groups who do not yet believe in Christ. These undertakings are brought to completion by missionary activity and are mostly exercised in certain territories recognized by the Holy See. The proper purpose of this missionary activity is evangelization, and the planting of the Church among those peoples and groups where it has not yet taken root.

In a chapter addressing the nature of missionary work, the Decree (nn.10-18) goes on to identify three stages to that work: the presence of a Christian witness,  the preaching of the Gospel and building of a Christian community through catechesis and the Sacraments of initiation, and then the forming of self-sustaining Christian life.

The missionary work of the Church is overseen by the secretariats of the four Pontifical Mission Societies, which sit within the Dicastery for Evangelisation (see organisational structure here). In collaboration with the Dicastery for Evangelisation, they are sponsoring a conference The Missio ad Gentes today: Toward new Horizons to mark the Jubilee of Missions. The website of the Pontifical Mission Societies is very informative about the founding and work of the four different societies.

In May 2023, Pope Francis dedicated a General Audience address to the person of St Francis Xavier, one of two patron saints of the missions. It was part of a series addressing the theme of a passion for evangelisation and presenting examples of apostolic zeal. At the start of his address, Pope Francis drew attention to an aspect of the missionary impulse, the leaving of one place to preach the Gospel in another, as he gave an account of Francis Xavier's missionary life:

And a missionary is great when he or she goes. ...

[Francis Xavier] was the first of a numerous band of passionate missionaries in modern times, to depart, ready to endure immense hardships and dangers, to reach lands and meet peoples from completely unknown cultures and languages, driven only by the powerful desire to make Jesus Christ and his Gospel known.

 In October that same year, Pope Francis dedicated an Apostolic Exhortation C'est la confiance to the second patron saint of the missions, St Therese of Lisieux.

The name of Jesus was constantly on her lips, as an act of love, even to her last breath. She had also written these words in her cell: “Jesus is my one love”. It was her interpretation of the supreme statement of the New Testament: “God is love” (1 Jn 4:8.16).

A missionary soul

As with every authentic encounter with Christ, this experience of faith summoned her to mission. Therese could define her mission in these words: “I shall desire in heaven the same thing as I do now on earth: to love Jesus and to make him loved”. She wrote that she entered Carmel “to save souls”. In a word, she did not view her consecration to God apart from the pursuit of the good of her brothers and sisters. She shared the merciful love of the Father for his sinful son and the love of the Good Shepherd for the sheep who were lost, astray and wounded. For this reason, Therese is the Patroness of the missions and a model of evangelization.

The final pages of her Story of a Soul are a missionary testament. They express her appreciation of the fact that evangelization takes place by attraction, not by pressure or proselytism. It is worthwhile reading her own words in this regard: “ Draw me, we shall run after you in the odour of your ointments. O Jesus! It is not even necessary to say: When drawing me, draw the souls whom I love! This simple statement, ‘Draw me’ suffices. I understand, Lord, that when a soul allows herself to be captivated by the odour of your ointments, she cannot run alone; all the souls whom she loves follow in her train; this is done without constraint, without effort, it is a natural consequence of her attraction for you. Just as a torrent, throwing itself with impetuosity into the ocean, drags after it everything it encounters in its passage, in the same way, O Jesus, the soul who plunges into the shoreless ocean of your Love, draws with her all the treasures she possesses. Lord, you know it, I have no other treasures than the souls it has pleased you to unite to mine”.

Jubilee of Catechists

The Jubilee of Catechists is to be marked during the days 26th-28th September 2025. The Institution of new catechists is due to take place during Mass celebrated by the Holy Father on Sunday 28th September 2025. 

In the Motu Proprio Antiquum Ministerium , Pope Francis established the lay ministry of catechist for the universal Church. 

The role played by catechists is one specific form of service among others within the Christian community. Catechists are called first to be expert in the pastoral service of transmitting the faith as it develops through its different stages from the initial proclamation of the kerygma to the instruction that presents our new life in Christ and prepares for the sacraments of Christian initiation, and then to the ongoing formation that can allow each person to give an accounting of the hope within them (cf. 1 Pet 3:15). At the same time, every catechist must be a witness to the faith, a teacher and mystagogue, a companion and pedagogue, who teaches for the Church. Only through prayer, study, and direct participation in the life of the community can they grow in this identity and the integrity and responsibility that it entails (cf. Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization, Directory for Catechesis, 113). ...

Referring more specifically to the stable ministry envisioned by the Motu Proprio, Pope Francis continued: 

This ministry has a definite vocational aspect, as evidenced by the Rite of Institution, and consequently calls for due discernment on the part of the Bishop. It is in fact a stable form of service rendered to the local Church in accordance with pastoral needs identified by the local Ordinary, yet one carried out as a work of the laity, as demanded by the very nature of the ministry. It is fitting that those called to the instituted ministry of Catechist be men and women of deep faith and human maturity, active participants in the life of the Christian community, capable of welcoming others, being generous and living a life of fraternal communion. They should also receive suitable biblical, theological, pastoral and pedagogical formation to be competent communicators of the truth of the faith and they should have some prior experience of catechesis (cf. SECOND VATICAN ECUMENICAL COUNCIL, Decree on the Pastoral Office of Bishops in the Church Christus Dominus, 14; CIC can. 231 §1; CCEO can. 409 §1). It is essential that they be faithful co-workers with priests and deacons, prepared to exercise their ministry wherever it may prove necessary, and motivated by true apostolic enthusiasm. 

 In most parishes in Britain, catechists are likely to be involved in particular programmes - preparing children for First Communion or Confirmation, or preparing adults to be received into the Church at Easter - so they may not experience the full range of the catechetical role outlined in the first paragraph above. It is unlikely that they will be familiar with the Directory for Catechesis, to which Pope Francis referred, and they may not have a good knowledge of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The focus of catechetical activity only on these specific moments also has, in my view, a weakness of its own making. If the parish is a locus in which to experience the universal call to holiness, it is also a locus in which there is a need to experience a specificity in how that universal call is lived out by the individual Catholic. In other words, it needs to be a locus to experience a specific charism, and it is this need that is missed out by a catechetical strategy that focuses only on three specific moments. A formation within a specific charism is also needed, which is why I sometimes think that the formational structures of a new movement such as the age based groups of the Focolare can form a model for parish catechesis, into which the specific moments of First Communion and Confirmation can fit. 

The situation of catechists in less developed nations can be very different. At the Third International Congress on Catechesis, held at the Vatican in September 2022, the Bishop of Lolo in the Democratic Republic of Congo presented the work of the Mobokoli Catechetical Formation Centre. In a one year programme, the centre trains married couples to then return to their parishes as catechists. A combination of religious and practical training enables couples to proclaim the Gospel and promote an integral human development:

The spouses are formed in basic theology, spirituality, sacred scripture, catechetics, and pedagogy.  They are also schooled in matters of agriculture, animal husbandry in both theoretically and practically, cultivating model rice and manioc corn fields, practicing various methods of raising poultry, sheep and goats, etc.   Spouses are formed in basic language skills (reading/writing), sewing, life education, catechesis of children, young girls and women.

Catechists might make their own the words of the Jubilee Prayer:

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. 

Jubilee of Justice

 It is interesting to see that those invited to take part in the event of the  Jubilee of Justice in St Peter's Square on 20th September 2025 are those persons who are involved in the world of law. This suggests that the protagonists of justice are primarily lawyers, judges and other legal practitioners. 

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (n.1807), however, identifies justice as a moral virtue, and so indicates that we are all called to the practice of justice:

 Justice is the moral virtue that consists in the constant and firm will to give their due to God and neighbor. Justice toward God is called the "virtue of religion." Justice toward men disposes one to respect the rights of each and to establish in human relationships the harmony that promotes equity with regard to persons and to the common good. The just man, often mentioned in the Sacred Scriptures, is distinguished by habitual right thinking and the uprightness of his conduct toward his neighbor. "You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor." (Lev. 19:15) "Masters, treat your slaves justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven." (Col. 4:1)

The definition of law that St Thomas Aquinas offers (S. Th. I-II Q. 90 a. 4) allows us to make a connection, by way of their common orientation towards the common good, between justice seen as a virtue and justice as a practice of law (my italics added). Justice in the latter sense is at the service of justice in the former sense.

As stated above (Article 1), a law is imposed on others by way of a rule and measure. ... Thus from the four preceding articles, the definition of law may be gathered; and it is nothing else than an ordinance of reason for the common good, made by him who has care of the community, and promulgated.

Each October, at the beginning of the new legal year in England, a votive Mass of the Holy Spirit is celebrated in Westminster Cathedral with the participation of members of the legal profession. A service in Westminster Abbey follows. Bishop James Curry, auxiliary of the diocese of Westminster, celebrated the votive Mass in October 2024:

Every person lives and dies with a certain sense of an insatiable hunger for justice. This hunger reflects a deeper yearning for divine justice, which ultimately finds fulfilment in God. The legal community is called to be a mirror of justice, reflecting God's own justice in their dealings and decisions. 

The beginning of the legal year, marked by this Red Mass, and the service in the Abbey with their invitation to prayer and plea for the guidance of the Holy Spirit, serves as a profound moment for reflection on the interplay of law, justice, and faith. This occasion invites you here present to renew your commitment to the principles of truth and justice, which are foundational to your vocation. ...

Justice is not merely a human convention but is innately connected to the dignity and rights of each person, which are inherent and God-given.

Justice is a multifaceted virtue that governs interpersonal relations, ensuring that individuals receive what is rightfully theirs while promoting the common good and the dignity of all persons. 

You, as advocates and judges, give a voice to those who seek justice, truth and right. Sometimes you are the only voice a person has.  

In the Bull of Indiction for the Jubilee (n.16), Pope Francis draws attention to a particular cause of injustice:

Another heartfelt appeal that I would make in light of the coming Jubilee is directed to the more affluent nations. I ask that they acknowledge the gravity of so many of their past decisions and determine to forgive the debts of countries that will never be able to repay them. More than a question of generosity, this is a matter of justice. It is made all the more serious today by a new form of injustice which we increasingly recognize, namely, that “a true ‘ecological debt’ exists, particularly between the global North and South, connected to commercial imbalances with effects on the environment and the disproportionate use of natural resources by certain countries over long periods of time”.  As sacred Scripture teaches, the earth is the Lord’s and all of us dwell in it as “aliens and tenants” ( Lev 25:23). If we really wish to prepare a path to peace in our world, let us commit ourselves to remedying the remote causes of injustice, settling unjust and unpayable debts, and feeding the hungry.

Jubilee of Consolation

The Jubilee of Consolation is being marked on 15th September 2025.

All those who are experiencing a time of pain and affliction, due to illness, bereavement, violence or abuse, are especially invited to this jubilee event, together with their families and friends. 

The recent canonisations of Pier Giorgio Frassati and Carlo Acutis bring to mind the life of another young person who lived her Catholic faith to an heroic extent, Blessed Chiara "Luce" Badano. In the story of her life and of her illness there are countless moments that might be characterised as being acts of consolation. In some instances these moments are offered by Chiara to people she encounters; in others they are offered to her by her friends, particularly those in the Focolare. The following stories are told in Michele Zanzucchi's account of Chiara's life (I have an early French language edition - I think there is an updated English edition available). The first occurs during a hospital stay early in the course of Chiara's illness; the second occurs during a hospital stay during what was Chiara's last Christmas before she died. 

Her father, Ruggero, says: "At the hospital Pietra Ligura, despite the suffering and the fever, she did not stop. She concerned herself with a young girl suffering from depression in the next room. She accompanied her everywhere, for very long walks in the corridors, even if she needed to rest. Before our suggestions to take more care, she replied: 'I will have plenty of time to sleep later'."

[That day], a hospital volunteer fell into a deep existential crisis: how can a God exist if in this hospital children are dying of cancer? While Maria Teresa [Chiara's mother] went down to the bar, this woman sat with Chiara. I do not know what they said to each other, but this woman confirmed, having recovered all her courage, that this Christmas was the most beautiful of her life. "For us too, it was the same thing", insists Ruggero. 

The Bull of  Indiction for the Jubilee 2025 includes the following paragraphs:

Signs of hope should also be shown to the sick, at home or in hospital. Their sufferings can be allayed by the closeness and affection of those who visit them. Works of mercy are also works of hope that give rise to immense gratitude. Gratitude should likewise be shown to all those healthcare workers who, often in precarious conditions, carry out their mission with constant care and concern for the sick and for those who are most vulnerable.

Inclusive attention should also be given to all those in particularly difficult situations, who experience their own weaknesses and limitations, especially those affected by illnesses or disabilities that severely restrict their personal independence and freedom. Care given to them is a hymn to human dignity, a song of hope that calls for the choral participation of society as a whole.

Film: Young Mothers (Jeunes Meres)

 Young Mothers has just gone on release in the United Kingdom, though, as might be expected for a foreign language film, it will probably only be shown in selected cinemas. The film premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival where it gained the award for best screenplay. It was also awarded the prize of the Ecumenical Jury at that festival. The press pack from the Cannes Festival, and the video of the press conference on the Cannes Festival website are both informative about the background to the making of the film. It is interesting to reflect that two brothers, now in their seventies, should turn their attention to a film about young, single mothers.

The film is well worth seeing. It holds the attention in the way in which it interleaves the stories of the five young mothers, including as each situation moves towards their respective outcomes. There is a certain frankness in the way in which, at different points in the film, you realise that a particular experience is being portrayed -and with five stories the questions raised in the experience of each of the young mothers are very different and very challenging. The supportive manner of the life of the home, both in terms of how the young people are shown helping each other out, and in the way in which the staff work alongside the young women to develop their skills, is something that is well portrayed and which attracted the Dardenne brothers as they made the film.

Jubilee 2025: Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation

 In the decree that promulgated the texts for the votive Mass for the Care of Creation, we find the following paragraph:

The mystery of creation is the beginning of salvation history, which culminates in Christ and from the mystery of Christ it receives definitive light; in fact, by manifesting His goodness, “in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen 1,1) God already from these origins had in mind the glory of the new creation in Christ.

This Christological orientation is reflected in the texts themselves, which can be downloaded from the website of the Catholic Bishops Conference: Mass for Care of Creation. The Prayer after Communion reflects the theme of hope of the Jubilee Year:

May the sacrament of unity which we have received, O Father, increase communion with you and with our brothers and sisters, so that, as we await the new heaven and the new earth, we may learn to live in harmony with all creatures. 

 It is reflected in the choice of the New Testament reading from Colossians 1:15-20:

For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities - all things were created through him and for him.

The Jubilee Prayer prompts a reading of St Paul's words in the Letter to the Romans:

For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

The "new creation in Christ" embraces both the new creation of men and women and the glory of the created world in which they live. As such, it needs to be distinguished from an environmentalism that does not take account of this full reality of our world and therefore becomes, to a greater or lesser extent, an ideology.

A Man for All Seasons

 I had a "birthday treat" opportunity to see the production of Robert Bolt's play A Man for All Seasons at the Harold Pinter Theatre last week. The stage set and costumes were very much true to the Tudor setting of the play, and the dialogue was very faithful to the published text of the play. 

Since seeing the play I have read again the Preface written by Robert Bolt for a 1961 publication of the play. In that Preface, Robert Bolt offers an "explanation and apology for treating Thomas More, a Christian saint, as a hero of selfhood."

... Thomas More, as I wrote about him, became for me a man with an adamantine sense of his own self. He knew where he began and left off, what area of himself he could yield to the encroachment of his enemies, and what to the encroachments of those he loved. It was a substantial area in both cases for he had a proper sense of fear and was a busy lover. Since he was a clever man and a great lawyer he was able to retire from those areas in a wonderfully good order, but at length he was asked to retreat from that final area where he located his self. And there this supple, humorous, unassuming and sophisticated person set like metal, was overtaken by an absolutely primitive rigour, and could no more be budged than a cliff.

The other aspect of Thomas More that was attractive to Robert Bolt was what he termed "his splendid social adjustment". After briefly surveying the range of Thomas More's social and political life, Bolt observes:

He parted with more than most men when he parted with his life, for he accepted and enjoyed his social context.... But why did a man so utterly absorbed in his society, at one particular point disastrously part company from it?

For a Catholic, the explanation can readily be seen in Thomas More's faithfulness to the universal Christian Church. But for Bolt, writing his play, that Christian faith can only be a metaphor representing a larger context into which a man can be excluded when he no longer enjoys the regard of society. 

More's trust in the law was his trust in his society; his desperate sheltering beneath the forms of the law was his determination to remain within the shelter of society. Cromwell's contemptuous shattering of the forms of law  by an unconcealed act of perjury showed how fragile for any individual is that shelter. Legal or illegal had no further meaning, the social references had been removed.

 I was interested to see that the revived production currently running in London (until early September) did leave the play in the original historical setting of its narrative. But it is interesting to ask how it might have been translated into a contemporary narrative. Where today would Robert Bolt be able to find a leading character who combines the selfhood amidst the ebbs and flows of a society that he discovered in Thomas More?

Witnesses to that hope which urges us toward the good things yet to come

Pope Leo XIV met on 23 August 2025 with members of four female religious institutes with dedications to the Holy Family and to the home of the Holy Family in Nazareth. The four congregations were marking their General Chapters, and this was the occasion for their meeting with Pope Leo. 

You are holding your assemblies during this year, the Jubilee of Hope. This hope, as Saint Paul says, does not disappoint; it is the fruit of proven virtue and is animated by the love of God poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit (cf. Rom 5:5). These words aptly describe the richness you bring here today, in this hall. You bring the charismatic gift that the Paraclete once bestowed upon your Foundresses and Founders, a gift that continues to be renewed. You bring the faithful and providential presence of the Lord in the histories of your Institutes. You bring the virtue with which those who came before you — often enduring severe trials — responded to God’s gifts. All this makes you, in a special way, witnesses of hope, especially of that hope which constantly urges us toward the good things yet to come, and of which, as religious, you are called to be a sign and a prophecy (cf. Phil 3:13–14; Lumen Gentium, 44).

 Pope Leo went on to refer to the work that many in these four institutes have carried out in favour of the family:

... there is an aspect that unites many of you: the desire to live and to transmit to others the values of the Holy Family of Nazareth, the hearth of prayer, forge of love and model of holiness. I would like to reflect for a moment on this point.

Saint Paul VI, during his journey to the Holy Land, speaking to the faithful in the Basilica of the Annunciation, expressed the hope that, by looking to Jesus, Mary and Joseph, we might come to understand ever more deeply the importance of the family: its communion of love, its simple and austere beauty, its sacred and inviolable character, its gentle pedagogy and its natural and irreplaceable role in society (cf. Address at the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth, 5 January 1964).

 

Mary: " ... sign of certain hope and comfort to the pilgrim people of God"

 Pope Leo XIV, in his Angelus address for the Solemnity of the Assumption, suggests that this truth of our faith is perfectly in line with the theme of the Jubilee 2025.

Mary, who the risen Christ carried body and soul into the glory, shines as an icon of hope for her pilgrim children throughout history.

How can we not think of Dante’s verses in the last canto of the Paradiso? Through the prayer put on Saint Bernard’s lips, which begins “Virgin Mother, daughter of thy Son” (XXXIII, 1), the poet lauds Mary because here among us mortals she is “the living fountain-head of hope” (ibid., 12), that is the living spring, gushing with hope.

Sisters and brothers, this truth of our faith is perfectly in line with the theme of the present Jubilee: “Pilgrims of hope.” Pilgrims need a goal that orients their journey: a beautiful and attractive goal that guides their steps and revives them when they are tired, that always rekindles in their heart a desire and hope. On the path of life, our goal is God, infinite and eternal Love, fullness of life, peace, joy and every good thing. The human heart is drawn to such beauty and it is not happy until it finds it; and indeed it risks not finding it if it gets lost in the middle of the “dark forest” of evil and sin.

Let us consider this grace: God came to meet us, he assumed our flesh fashioned from the earth, and has carried it with him into the presence of God, or as we commonly say “into heaven.” It is the mystery of Jesus Christ, who became flesh, died and rose for our salvation. Inseparable from him, is also the mystery of Mary, the woman from whom the Son of God has taken flesh, and of the Church, the mystical body of Christ. It concerns a unique mystery of love, and thus of freedom. Just as Jesus said “yes,” so also Mary said “yes;” she believed in the word of the Lord. All of her life has been a pilgrimage of hope together with her son, the Son of God, a pilgrimage which, through the Cross and Resurrection, has reached the heavenly homeland, in the embrace of God.

After praying the Angelus, Pope Leo recalled how the proclamation of the dogma by Pope Pius XII in 1950 occurred at a time when memories of the Second World War were still recent. In entrusting a prayer for peace in the world to the intercession of the Virgin Mary, Pope Leo likened these earlier times to those of today.

Jubilee 2025: The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

 The Liturgical texts for the celebration of the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary echo rather nicely the words of the Jubilee Prayer, and so perhaps encourage us to pray that prayer with a particular intensity on this feast day.

The Collect at Mass during the day:

Almighty ever living God, who assumed the Immaculate Virgin Mary, the Mother of your Son, body and soul into heavenly glory, grant we pray, that, always attentive to the things that are above, we may merit to be sharers of her glory.

Compared to:

May the grace of the Jubilee reawaken in us, Pilgrims of Hope, a yearning for the treasures of heaven. 

From the Preface at Mass:

For today the Virgin Mother of God was assumed into heaven as the beginning and image of your Church's coming to perfection and a sign of sure hope and comfort to your pilgrim people. ..

Compared to:

Father in heaven, may the faith that 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. 

From the Prayer after Communion at the Vigil Mass:

Having partaken of this heavenly table, we beseech your mercy, Lord our God, that we, who honour the Assumption of the Mother of God, may be freed from every threat of harm.

Compared to:

 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.

 

Jubilee 2025: The Hope of the Bride

In Dom Anscar Vonier's book The Spirit and the Bride there is a short chapter entitled "The Bride's Hope". The chapter suggests that, through the living presence of the Holy Spirit in the Church, there is a perfection of hope that is intrinsic to the Church and is more than the sum total of the individual hopes of believers or local communities.

What we may truly call the official hope of the Church is an overwhelming reality; there is simply no vestige of hesitation in any acts and movements of the Church concerning her power to obtain eternal life. This is manifested before all men through the Church's way of praying. Ecclesiastical prayer is the visible sign of the Church's hope; she hopes as she prays, and she prays as she hopes.  Now of the Church's prayer there is no end; it is an unceasing stream, unfathomable in its depth, though all eyes can behold its surface. If the Church ceased to pray, her life of hope also would come to an end.... More truly than Moses on the mountain, the Bride is stretching forth her arms in supplication, and she is not in need of any supporters, as she know of no lassitude, for the power of the Spirit is in her.

If you are familiar with Edith Stein's essay "The Prayer of the Church", Anscar Vonier's chapter is a natural jumping off point to a re-reading of that essay. In English translation it is published in the Institute of Carmelite Studies collected works of Edith Stein vol. 4 The Hidden Life. The essay makes some striking comparisons between the Jewish liturgy and the Christian liturgy, reflecting Edith Stein's own lived experience, and is worth reading for those insights alone. 

... it is not a question of placing the inner prayer free of all traditional forms as "subjective" piety in contrast to the liturgy as the "objective" prayer of the Church. All authentic prayer is prayer of the Church. Through every sincere prayer something happens in the Church, and it is the Church itself that is praying therein, for it is the Holy Spirit living in the Church that intercedes for every individual soul "with sighs too deep for words". This is exactly what authentic prayer is, for "no one can say 'Jesus is Lord' except by the Holy Spirit". What could the prayer of the Church be, if not great lovers giving themselves to God who is love!

Anscar Vonier places the expression of hope within the Church's prayer since that prayer shows an absolute confidence in the ability of the Church to gain eternal life for the persons who are the object of that prayer. A connection can be made to the words of the Jubilee prayer:

May the grace of the Jubilee reawaken in us, Pilgrims of Hope, a yearning for the treasures of heaven.

Jubilee 2025: Therese of Lisieux - today it is important to revive hope.

In 1973, Pope St Paul VI wrote to the Bishop of  Bayeux and Lisieux to mark the centenary of the birth of St Therese of the Child Jesus. In one paragraph of that letter, Paul VI refers to the "little way" in terms of "dependence on the mysterious Love of Christ" in a way that Pope Francis has more recently expressed in terms of "confidence in the merciful love of God". He also casts that confidence in terms of hope, thereby offering an appropriate meditation for the Jubilee 2025.

So today it is important to revive hope.  Many people have experienced harshly the limits of their physical and moral strength.  They feel powerless before the immense problems of the world, with which they rightly feel solidarity.  Their daily work seems to them overwhelming, obscure, and useless.  Also, illness sometimes condemns them to inaction; persecution spreads a suffocating fog over them.  Those who are more lucid are even more aware of their own weakness, their cowardice, their smallness.  The meaning of life can no longer be made clear; the silence of God, as some say, can be oppressive.  Some resign themselves passively; others focus on their selfishness or on their immediate gratification; others become hardened or rebel; still others finally despair.  To each and every one, Thérèse “of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face” proclaims: learn to rely not on yourself, whether on your virtue or on your limitations, but instead to depend upon the mysterious Love of Christ, which is greater than our hearts and which unites us with the offering of his passion and with the power of his Life.  She can teach us all to follow the “royal little way” of the spirit of childhood, which is the opposite of childishness, of passivity, of sadness!  Cruel trials within her family, scruples, fears, and other difficulties seemed very likely to thwart Thérèse’s development; she was not spared severe sickness in her youth; moreover, she experienced profoundly the night of faith.  And yet God made her find, in the midst of this very night, confident abandonment and courage, patience, and joy--in a word, true freedom.  We invite all people of good will, especially the little and the humbled, to meditate on this paradox of hope.

The original text of Pope Paul VI's letter, in French. is available on the website of the Holy See: Lettre du Pape Paul VI. An English translation can be found here: Letter of Pope Paul VI. Pope Francis' Apostolic Exhortation, written to mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of St Therese, is here: C'est La Confiance.