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.

MICHAEL MORRISSEY
Bishop of the Diocese of Geraldton W.A.

Jubilee Year is a sign of reconciliation because it establishes a “favourable time” for conversion. In 2 Corinthians 6:2, the apostle Paul says, “As we work together with him, we urge you also not to accept the grace of God in vain. For he says, “At an acceptable time I have listened to you, and on a day of salvation I have helped you.”
In keeping with the theme of Jubilee 2025, the call to be Pilgrims of Hope, as announced by Pope
Francis, I am encouraging people both within and outside the Diocese of Geraldton to join that spirit of Pilgrimage within our own territory.

I hereby decree the following for the Diocese of Geraldton:

Three sites within the Diocese are formally dedicated as places of pilgrimage for the duration of the Jubilee Year. They are the Cathedral Church of St Francis Xavier in Geraldton; Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church including a visit to Mass Rock in Mullewa; and St Cecilia’s Church in Port Hedland.

With this document I decree that a Plenary Indulgence may be obtained under the following
conditions:
1. Going to Confession and Communion within 20 days either side of a visit to either
Pilgrim Church.
2. A visit to the Blessed Sacrament in either of these Churches.
3. Recitation of the Creed
4. Praying the Lord’s Prayer
5. Praying for the intentions of the Holy Father
6. Having a serious intention to avoid all attachment to sin.

Pilgrims are encouraged to discover other ways in which Indulgences may be gained during the
Jubilee Year.

This Decree is to be published in all Parishes and becomes effective on Sunday February 2, 2025.

AD MAJOREM DEI GLORIAM

  Pilgrims of Hope

The Jubilee Year 2025 Hymn
Original text: Pierangelo Sequeri
English translation: Andrew Wadsworth

Chorus:
Like a flame my hope is burning,
may my song arise to you:
Source of life that has no ending,
on life’s path I trust in you.

Ev’ry nation, tongue, and people
find a light within your Word.
Scattered fragile sons and daughters
find a home in your dear Son.
(Chorus)

God, so tender and so patient,
dawn of hope, you care for all.
Heav’n and earth are recreated
by the Spirit of Life set free.
(Chorus)

Raise your eyes, the wind is blowing,
for our God is born in time.
Son made man for you and many
who will find the way in him.
(Chorus)

  Charity

What gives the Pilgrimage and the Jubilee Indulgence their ultimate meaning is a life of charity. It is the virtue of charity that makes our faith a credible sign of Christian witness. There is no true believer who does not love their neighbour, especially the needy and the marginalised.



After washing the feet of his disciples, Jesus tells them, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35)

In Colossians 3:12-15, St Paul points out the convergence between faith and love. “As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; 

just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. 

In light of the Jubilee Year, charity is affirmed as a “more expressive form of conversion.”

The Jubilee is an event for all the Holy People of God, who are in a journey - a pilgrimage illuminated by Christ, their only hope.

  The Profession of Faith

The profession of Faith, also known as the “symbol of faith”, expresses the central content and main truths the universal Church accepts, witnesses to, and transmits to all her members. By professing the faith, the baptised recognise their Christian identity, expressing with conviction, belief in them fundamentals of the Christian faith which were first spoken by or for us on the day of our baptism.

St Paul emphasises how professing the faith requires inner conversion. He says, “If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved” (Romans 10:9-10).

Liturgically, whenever we profess the faith, either by reciting the Apostles’ Creed (The Baptismal Creed of the Church of Rome) or the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed (formulated 1700 years ago in 325 in Nicaea, and then refined in 381 in Constantinople), we keep the principal truths of the faith alive in our collective memory as God’s people.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states, “As on the day of our Baptism, when our whole life was entrusted to the "standard of teaching", [Rom 6:17] let us embrace the Creed of our life-giving faith. To say the Creed with faith is to enter into communion with God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and also with the whole Church which transmits the faith to us and in whose midst we believe.”

This Creed is the spiritual seal, our heart's meditation and an ever-present guardian; it is, unquestionably, the treasure of our soul. (St. Ambrose of Milan)

  The Holy Door

One of the most characteristic signs of the Jubilee is the Opening of the Holy Door, which marks its official beginning. 

Why the Holy Door? Jesus says, “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture” (John 10:7).

The Jubilee Holy Door symbolises one’s decision to be a disciple of Jesus, to follow and be guided by Him, who is the Good Shepherd.

This door also represents a welcoming pathway into a church, into a sacred place - a place of encounter, dialogue, reconciliation, peace, communion.

The Church awaits every pilgrim to cross this threshold and experience for themselves the space of the Church as a community of Christ’s disciples.

  Diocesan Places of

Pilgrimage

The four major basilicas in Rome are the main pilgrimage destinations - St. Peter’s Basilica, St. John Lateran, St. Mary Major, and St. Paul Outside the Walls. However, pilgrims may also go to the Holy Land, their diocesan cathedral or other officially designated locations.

In the Geraldton Diocese, the following churches are designated as pilgrimage sites:

• St Francis Xavier Cathedral in Geraldton
• Our Lady of Mt Carmel Church in Mullewa & Mass Rock
• St Cecilia’s Church in South Hedland

Those who cannot make the Jubilee Pilgrimage due to illness or other circumstances are nevertheless invited to take part in the spiritual journey that accompanies the Jubilee Year.

The Jubilee calls us to embark on a journey. Like Abraham who ventured from his own land of Ur (Southern Iraq) to the Promised Land (cf. Genesis 12:1 & Deuteronomy 26:5), and Jesus, who resolutely walked the journey from Galilee to Jerusalem (cf. Luke 9:51), we set forth on the road of Christian discipleship, leaving behind our selfish motives and interests to embrace a God-centred life.

When we make this journey, we not only change location, but also ourselves. A pilgrimage is an experience of conversion, “of putting on the mind of Christ” (cf. Philippians 2:5) and striving to conform one’s life to God’s holiness.

Christian hope is dynamic and illuminates the pilgrimage of life,
demonstrating the face of those brothers and sisters who are
companions on the journey. It is not like a lone wolf wandering,
but a journey as a people, confident and rejoicing, that moves
toward a new destination.