Dear brothers and sisters,
we would like to invite you today to celebrate the Jubilee Holy Year 2025, which will be a time of extraordinary graces. It is proclaimed by Peter's successor as a manifestation of the power that the head of the church receives directly from Christ: “I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven: whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” (Mt 16:19). It also follows the Old Testament Year of Jubilee, a year in which captives were set free, debts and interest were forgiven, and every injustice was rectified (cf. Lev 25:8–16).
Holy years (or also Jubilee years) are celebrated regularly every twenty-five years, and extraordinary Holy Years may be proclaimed between these Holy Years. The Holy Year 2025 will begin with the opening of the Holy Door of the Vatican Basilica of St. Peter during this year's Vigil of the Nativity of the Lord on Christmas Eve, and will end with the closing of the doors on the Feast of the Epiphany, January 6, 2026. In individual dioceses, the Jubilee Year will commence on the Feast of the Holy Family on Sunday, December 29, 2024.
As flows from what has already been said, the significance of the Holy Year far exceeds a mere celebration of an anniversary in the calendar. Together we will enter the Year of Jubilee, in which the church, as the mystical body of Christ, will especially draw from the treasury of God's mercy. Jesus's command from today's Gospel – “Effatha” – meaning “be opened”, can be an encouragement for us to not be afraid to open our hearts at this opportunity and draw from God everything we need, especially forgiveness and spiritual healing. Along with God's forgiveness, extraordinary indulgences are also associated with the Holy Year, granted during pilgrimages to holy sites and when visiting these places. These indulgences can also be obtained through acts of mercy and repentance. A special destination for pilgrims from around the world will become Rome, the capital of the church, where, in addition to the catacombs and basilicas, new paths will be opened along the footsteps of faith and church history.
In the bull titled Spes non confundit, Hope does not disappoint (cf. Rom 5:5), which Pope Francis proclaimed to announce the Holy Year 2025, he calls Christians “pilgrims of hope”. The hope, which is the main theme of the Holy Year, is born from love and stands on the love that flows from Jesus’s heart pierced on the cross: “For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life” (Rom 5:10). His life is manifested in our life of faith, which has its beginning in baptism, develops through the reception of God’s grace, and is invigorated by constant hope, strengthened by the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit of God that gives us the permanent light of hope and keeps it burning like a torch that never goes out. Christian hope does not mislead or disappoint because it stands on the certainty that nothing and no one can separate us from God's love.
With hope, we want to experience the Holy Year also in our dioceses. Therefore, we warmly invite you all to the national pilgrimage to Rome from March 28 to March 30. However, even those who cannot travel are given the opportunity by the Holy Father to receive gifts of God's mercy: by visiting local holy places in connection with acts of Christian love and repentance. The ways and means to obtain these gifts of God's mercy are published on the website www.cirkev.cz, where you will also find all the information about the national pilgrimage to Rome. Details can also be obtained from the spiritual leaders of the parishes.
God's mercy, from which the church wants to draw and alert believers and the world during the Holy Year, is not only an offer for Christians but also a calling. The Lord invites each of us to bring His grace into the world and to multiply the gifts that flow from it. We manage the treasures of God's mercy in the communion of the church; therefore, the Holy Year is our common task. It is primarily an opportunity for a new beginning, an encouragement to pause in the flow of everyday life, to reconcile with God, to reassess our lives, and to examine whether the risen Christ is the only meaning and goal of our lives.
Such a stance requires preparation, to which Pope Francis has already invited us this year, which he declared the Year of Prayer. He suggests that we approach the sacrament of reconciliation more frequently and try to change our thinking where it is not grounded in Christ. He wishes that the strength of the believers’ repentance and their desire for conversion overshadow the ungodliness of the world, caught up in unrest, wars, confusion, and hatred that lead to death. The Holy Father is already prophetically calling us this year to an intensified prayer that connects us with the Lord, leads us into a personal relationship with Christ, and awakens in us the awareness that without God we can do nothing, that He is our only hope, leading from death to life. Materials, including the prayer of Pope Francis, which should already sound throughout the world in all churches and communities where the Holy Mass is celebrated, are also available on the mentioned websites for the Year of Prayer.
“May from this moment onwards hope attract us and let us allow it to infect those who long for it through us,” writes the Holy Father at the end of his bull. The same we also invoke for you, and we bless you from our hearts, that the Holy Year 2025 may not be a wasted opportunity for any of you, but that it may instead become your new beginning on the road to the fullness of God's mercy.
In Christ and Mary
Your Czech and Moravian Bishops
