“For pilgrims of hope” is the prayer intention chosen by Francis for the month of December, a special call in the context of the upcoming Jubilee 2025. For this reason, the Pope asks us to “pray that this Jubilee strengthens us in faith, helps us recognize the risen Christ in the midst of our lives, and transforms us into pilgrims of Christian hope.”
The theme of the Pope Video for December, pilgrims and hope, reflects one of the fundamental pillars of this pontificate. For this reason, Francis invites the faithful to be witnesses of “Christian hope” in a world where despair and mistrust predominate. “Christian hope is a gift from God that fills our lives with joy. And today we need it so much. The world needs it so much!” he says in his video message entrusted through the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network and produced in collaboration with the Fondazione Pro Rete Mondiale di Preghiera del Papa and the Dicastery for Evangelization.
The boat and the anchor
During the time of the pandemic, during the Statio Orbis in a deserted St. Peter’s Square, Francis had used the evangelical metaphor of the boat in the middle of the storm, to recall the fragility and bewilderment of humanity in the face of great trials. In a certain sense, in this month’s prayer intention, the Holy Father puts us back in that boat, but to underline the importance of the anchor: “Hope,” he says, in fact, accompanying his words with very eloquent gestures, “is an anchor that you throw with a rope and it takes root on the shore. And we must hold on to the rope of hope.”
Following in the footsteps of Abraham
“The virtue of hope gives us so much strength to walk through life,” said Francis at the General Audience of December 28, 2016, dedicated to the figure of Abraham, who, on the one hand, is not “afraid to see reality for what it is” and, on the other hand, is capable of “going beyond human reasoning, beyond the wisdom and prudence of the world, beyond what is normally considered common sense, to believe in the impossible.” Like Abraham, the protagonists of this month’s Pope Video also set out on the journey, starting from their own difficulties: the worries of a woman facing her empty pantry, the doubts of a student about her future.
“Let us fill our daily life with the gift of hope that God gives us and let it reach through us all those who seek it,” says the Pope in the message that accompanies his prayer intention. And this is precisely what happens to the two protagonists of the video: both meet, on their way, “pilgrims of hope” who welcome and console them, inviting them to join their metaphorical journey to the Holy Door, which will remain open throughout the Jubilee.
Jubilee 2025, a call to walk with hope
Jubilee 2025, whose theme is “Pilgrims of Hope,” will be a time of celebration and deep reflection. The so-called “Holy Year” is not only a stage on the journey of faith, but also a call to recognize Christ in everyday life. In his letter to the pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, Monsignor Rino Fisichella, Francis stressed that the pandemic weakened hope in society and that “we must keep the flame of hope that has been given to us alive.” In this sense, the Jubilee presents itself as an opportunity to strengthen this hope and share it in a world that urgently needs it.
The same Dicastery collaborated with the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network in the production of this month’s video, which – as Archbishop Rino Fisichella explains – aims to convey a fundamental message also to young people: “We are grateful for the opportunity to support the Holy Father and the initiative of the Pope’s Video on Hope in view of the Jubilee 2025. A few days before the opening of the first Ordinary Jubilee of the 21st century, we recall the verse from Psalm 27 that Pope Francis placed at the end of the Bull indicting the Holy Year: Spes non confundit: “Hope in the Lord, and be strong; be of good courage, and hope in the Lord” (Ps 27:14). These words are an invitation never to let hope be taken away from us, in any controversy or in any particular difficulty of life, not even in the situation in which our world finds itself, today wounded by wars, violence and suffering. Let us pray that, through this video, a means of communication designed for young people, the message that hope does not disappoint because it is founded on the love of God will reach everyone.”
The world needs hope
“Hoping against all hope”, as Abraham did, is not rationally possible. “But reason does not have all the solutions, even more so in today’s society, so full of contradictions, and hope is an inevitable challenge,” stresses Stefano Simontacchi, founding member and member of the board of directors of the PRO Global Network of Prayer Foundation of the Pope, which contributed to the production of this video: “For a long time, young people have lived the future as a threat that causes unhappiness. Giving in to fear risks losing the very meaning of existence. And as Jesus teaches us in the Gospels, faith is the antidote to fear. Hope is the manifestation in our lives of the dimension of faith. I believe that the positive spiral that triggers a life lived with awareness and purpose is composed of a state of beginning, of hope (trust), of a disposition of gratitude and of an energy that moves everything and translates everything into action, which is love. So, let us accept Pope Francis’ invitation and prepare to live as pilgrims of hope.”
A call to walk together
Father Cristóbal Fones S.J., interim International Director of the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, reflects: “With the opening of the Holy Door at the beginning of the Jubilee 2025, the Pope symbolically shows us the many doors that need to be opened, doors to go out to meet others and to let others into our lives; doors of freedom that are founded on our Christian hope. As disciples of the Risen Jesus, we do not drift on our pilgrim journey, but firmly anchored to Him. This Jubilee is a great opportunity to open ourselves boldly to share the light of hope that faith brings us, especially with all those who, in the midst of the immediacy and uncertainty in which we live, have lost the ability to dream.”
