News from St Mary West Melbourne:
Jubilee 2025 - Pilgrims of Hope
January 22, 2025
St Mary Star of the Sea
A Place of Pilgrimage, for Pilgrims of Hope
On 24 December, Pope Francis opened the Holy Door of St Peter’s Basilica to inaugurate the Jubillee Year of Hope for the Universal Church - a special time of grace for prayer, conversion, repentance, and pilgrimage, with a specific focus on Christian Hope. Pope Francis has stated that;
“Pilgrimage is of course a fundamental element of every Jubilee event. Setting out on journey is traditionally associated with our human quest for meaning in life. A pilgrimage on foot is a great aid for rediscovering the value of silence, effort and simplicity of life. In the coming year, pilgrims of hope will surely travel the ancient and more modern routes in order to experience the Jubilee to the full.” (Pope Francis, Spes Non Confundit, 9 May 2024).
Locally, the Archdiocese of Melbourne has nominated 12 churches, with St Patrick’s Cathedral being the primary Pilgrim Place, so that pilgrims can set out on their own journey by visiting these pilgrim places, and walking through their Holy Doors to obtain special indulgences.
We are pleased to announce that St Mary Star of the Sea has been nominated as a Pilgrim Place. This would mean that by visiting our parish, individually, or in groups, and by spending time in prayer, Eucharistic Adoration, or meditation, going to confession, and concluding this time of prayer with the Our Father, the Profession of Faith and the Hail Mary (or any other invocation to Mary the Mother of God), one could be granted the grace of the Jubilee Indulgence.
“Indulgences are a wonderful support on the great pilgrimage towards heaven. While indulgences do not absolve people of sin—that is for the sacrament of Reconciliation—they orient hearts towards God and are characterised by a mysterious interior renewal...Normally only one plenary indulgence can be received per day, but for the duration of the 2025 Jubilee Year, pilgrims will be able to ‘pay it forward’ and obtain a second, on condition that they have
carried out an act of charity offered for the souls in purgatory and received Holy Communion a second time that day.” (Melbourne Catholic, 17 December 2024)
We look forward to meeting you on your journey to our place of pilgrimage where we can provide you with your own Pilgrim Passport and other material. We pray that as you encounter Christ Jesus in the quiet of prayer and contemplation, you will be renewed in hope.
“Everyone knows what it is to hope. In the heart of each person, hope dwells as the desire and expectation of good things to come, despite our not knowing what the future may bring. . . May the Jubilee be an opportunity to be renewed in hope.” (Pope Francis, Spes Non Confundit, 9 May 2024)
For further reading and more information go to:
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 for ever.
Amen
