In a few months, the Catholic Church will celebrate the great Jubilee 2025. In preparation for this great event, Pope Francis ordered that this year 2024 be dedicated to prayer.
In calling for this Year of Prayer, Pope Francis referred to 2024 as “a great ‘symphony’ of prayer; above all, to recover the desire to be in the presence of the Lord, to listen to him and worship him.”
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During the press conference to present the Year of Prayer (January 23, 2024) it was recalled that man’s encounter with God in prayer occurs from the heart of the Church and in harmony with it; and even when prayer has a double dimension (individual prayer and community prayer), both are harmoniously integrated into a whole whose center is the liturgy.
What is the Year of Prayer 2024?
This year 2024 has been declared by Pope Francis as the Year of Prayer, a year dedicated “to rediscovering the great value and absolute necessity of prayer in personal life, in the life of the Church and in the world” (Angelus , January 21, 2024). That is, a year in which Catholics must commit to praying more and better, according to the different circumstances and possibilities of each one.
If we pause in our daily activities, we can perceive how many shortcomings and needs there are in the world. By doing so, perhaps we will be able to perceive how many of these situations are also part of our own existence – although we may feel them “far away” -: poverty, violence, illness, abandonment, meaninglessness, loneliness; moral and spiritual misery. When quickly considering such a list, this call from the Pope resonates even stronger: “Let us feel the responsibility to pray and build peace!”
Why a Year of Prayer?
The celebration of this Year of Prayer, in addition to seeking for God’s people to walk closer to the Lord guided by the Holy Spirit, has an additional objective.
Mons. Rino Fisichella, pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, assured that “it is a Year of preparation for the Jubilee that is about to begin and a Year during which the spiritual horizon of the jubilee event must emerge” (Press Conference to present the Year of Prayer – January 23, 2024).
This Year of Prayer 2024 is closely linked to the Jubilee 2025 and constitutes the time of preparation that the Holy Father has arranged for the great event that is coming.
Next year’s Jubilee has an ‘ordinary’ character but that does not mean that it is unimportant; quite the opposite. ‘Ordinary’ means that a period or temporary ‘order’ has been established to celebrate it. In this case it is a 25-year cycle. The Jubilee of 2025 was announced by Pope Saint John Paul II at the conclusion of the Jubilee of the year 2000.
In addition, events of similar magnitude can take place between one jubilee and another. An example was the extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy 2016 called by Pope Francis, and the extraordinary Jubilee of Redemption called by Saint John Paul II in 1983, on the occasion of the 1950 years of the resurrection of Christ and it is anticipated that in 2033 will celebrate another extraordinary Jubilee for the 2000 years of the same event.
When did the Year of Prayer begin?
Pope Francis publicly and officially declared the beginning of the Year of Prayer on Sunday, January 21, 2024, at the Angelus prayer in St. Peter’s Square, during the celebration of the Sunday of the Word of God.
This period of preparation must conclude with the opening ceremony of the Jubilee 2025: the Opening of the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica, on December 24, 2024.
“The coming months – Pope Francis noted – will lead us to the opening of the Holy Door, with which we will begin the Jubilee (of 2025). I ask you to intensify your prayer to prepare us to live this event of grace well and thus experience the strength of God’s hope” (Angelus, January 21, 2024).
What is the motto of the Year of Prayer?
This year’s motto is taken from the Gospel passage in which the disciples ask Jesus: “Teach us to pray” (Lk 11, 1).
Central Editorial
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