The Year of Prayer 2024 - 2025

The Year of Prayer 2024 -2025 Pilgrims of Hope

Every 25 years, the Catholic Church celebrates a Holy Year of Jubilee. The Jubilee year will begin in 2025, but in preparation for this, Pope Francis wants us to undertake a year of prayer with a particular emphasis on the Lord's Prayer. He asks us all to join in a great “symphony” of prayer, “to renew our desire to be in the presence of the Lord, to listen to him and to adore him."

“Prayer unites us; it makes us brothers and sisters. It is in prayer that our hearts find the strength not to be cold and insensitive in the face of injustice. In prayer, God keeps calling us, opening our hearts to charity. ” Pope Francis

The Year of Prayer started on the first Sunday of Advent, 2023. 

What is a Jubilee?

Taking place every 25 years, a Jubilee year is a tradition that is recognised and respected throughout the world as being a significant part of the history of our faith.

Excluding the Extraordinary Year of Mercy in 2016, the last Jubilee year took place in 2000, marking an historic moment as the Church entered into her third millennium.

A Jubilee is a special year of grace, in which the Catholic Church offers the faithful the possibility of asking for a plenary indulgence – a remission of sins for themselves or deceased loved ones.

The year begins with the well-known custom of the opening of the Holy Door at St Peter’s Basilica, following the other three papal basilicas in Rome. The Pope grants permission for Holy Doors to be situated throughout the world for Catholics everywhere to take part in this most special rite.

The Our Father is the prayer that Jesus taught us to pray. We will focus on this prayer in school over the next year and hope that you can spend some time as a family praying it together too.