This year has been declared a Holy Year as we celebrate the Church’s Jubilee. These jubilee years are held normally every 25 years. According to Mike Aquilina’s “Going into Jubilee Mode” in the January 24, 2025, issue of Angelus, these years are supposed “to be particular moments of grace in the life of the Church.”
Celebrating jubilee years every 25 years goes back to the year 1300. In Leviticus 25, God commands: “and you shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants; it shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his family.”
“Christians have always seen the time since Jesus as a jubilee – a period of perpetual grace and mercy.” With the Jubilee year, there is an opportunity to get the Jubilee indulgence. What is an indulgence? An indulgence is a remission of the temporal punishment in purgatory still due for sins after absolution.
[From this same article in Angelus] According to Vatican guidelines on how to receive the plenary indulgences announced by Pope Francis as part of the 2025 Jubilee Year:
Go to confession and get those sins forgiven.
Go to Mass and receive Communion.
Truly repent. Pledge to be detached, with God’s help, from all sin.
Pray an Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be for the intentions of the Holy Father.
Once those first requirements are filled, do one of the indulgences devotions suggested by the pope, including:
Make a pilgrimage to one of the designated churches in Rome or elsewhere. (Many are in Italy and the Holy Land, but the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., was the only national site designated by the U.S. bishops.)
Perform an extraordinary work of mercy – give a generous gift to the poor, or visit a nursing home or prison.
Participate in local devotions or visit a local cathedral, shrine, or other special church designated by your bishop for obtaining the Jubilee indulgence.
Fast at least one day a week from ‘futile distractions’ such as social media, TV, video games, or entertainment apps.
Blessings -
Rev. James M. Bevacqua