By Bishop Alberto Rojas
My Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Are you ready to celebrate? Are you ready to make a journey to the loving embrace of our God? Are you ready to feel hope? The kind that can only be found in the Lord Jesus?
We have a blessed opportunity for all these things and more within the 2025 Jubilee Year. This celebration is a nearly thousand-year-old tradition of our Church. As we enter into it, we will embark on a journey to be reconciled with our God and with each other. That’s why the theme of this Jubilee is “Pilgrims of Hope.”
When he proclaimed the Jubilee Year, Pope Francis invited us to reflect on the virtue of Christian hope as a path to forgiveness and renewal in the Lord. The Holy Father wrote, “Hope is born of love and based on the love springing from the pierced heart of Jesus upon the cross.”
My dear friends, today’s world is filled with anxieties and divisions that challenge our hope. So, we take this moment of the Jubilee to proclaim our hope in God’s saving power, His grace and His love for us.
During the Jubilee Year, we will not only be invited to make a spiritual pilgrimage to God in our hearts. We can also make a physical journey of pilgrimage. Some will travel all the way to Rome to join thousands of faithful Catholics from around the world in passing through the Holy Doors of the Jubilee and visiting pilgrimage sites.
Here in our diocese, there are many chances and places to make a pilgrimage during the Jubilee. Several churches and Catholic schools in each of our six vicariates have been designated as official pilgrimage sites. I encourage you to pick one that works best for you and make your journey. When you arrive you can attend Mass, adore the Blessed Sacrament, go to Confession and pray for the intentions of the Pope. This is how you will receive a Plenary Indulgence. This removes temporal punishment for sins we have committed and for which we have been forgiven. It is not every day that you have an opportunity to receive a Plenary Indulgence. So please take advantage of this great blessing!
Our celebration of the Jubilee Year began with an opening Mass on Sunday, December 29. The faithful joined in this Eucharistic celebration at Our Lady of the Rosary Cathedral in San Bernardino and thousands more watched via livestream. It was a great start! For more information about the Jubilee, including prayers, pilgrimage sites, history and many other topics visit our diocesan website.
God gives us this time of Jubilee to celebrate, to pray, to journey and to experience hope in the Lord Jesus, who loves us and redeems us.
Jubilee 2025 – Let’s do this!