Dear Friends,
Peace of Christ Jesus. Merry Christmas and a blessed Jubilee Year to you all. As we enter 2025,the Church celebrates with a Jubilee Year. This celebration occurs every 25 years; the previous celebration being the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000. My conversion that led me to intentionally follow Christ was a fruit of that Jubilee, so I enter this one with great anticipation and excitement.
Historically, in the Sacred Scriptures, Jubilees are associated with the forgiveness of sins and debts. Sinners and debtors were invited to begin again. In Rome, the Church will invite a variety of her faithful: young people, laity, athletes, priests, religious, and military personnel to gather in Rome to celebrate. Each diocese will have a Holy Door at its Cathedral to commemorate the incarnate presence of Christ Jesus in our world and the sanctification of our time.
As school leaders, we must ask: How do we enter the Jubilee so that our students, faculty, and staff concretely experience the joy of the renewal proposed through this celebration? How can the invitation of forgiveness and mercy that the Jubilee calls us to be lived out within our school communities? There are a few things we can do. I invite you to consider offering a pilgrimage as a school community: to the Cathedral in your Diocese, to a major pilgrimage site such as the National Basilica in Washington D.C., or even to St. Peter’s in Rome. Additionally, consider extending the Jubilee invitation of mercy by increasing the availability of the Sacrament of Reconciliation at your school.
May the grace of the Christ Child fill you with consolation and peace as we begin 2025 and begin to celebrate this joyous Jubilee.
In Christ,
Fr. Paul Kostka