A New Year has begun. Pope Francis has inaugurated 2025 as a jubilee year dedicated to the theme “Pilgrims of Hope.” The year ahead will be an important time for reflection on the Christian virtue of Hope. The world around us strives for many things in the name of progress. Without God as its referent, we see so much discouragement, cynicism and hate. Pope Francis calls us to be that Christ which will bring Hope alive.
We are amid the Holy Season of Christmas, a new day of Hope, the birth of our Jesus. Today we celebrate the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, the bearer of Hope. The richness of our Catholic faith, its saints, symbolisms and celebrations, the blessing of our Eucharist, call us deeper into a mystical understanding of our relationship with Our Lord. The year ahead is to be a time of illumination of that interior faith, and a re-igniting of our desire for Hope.
"The year ahead will be an important time for reflection on the Christian virtue of Hope."
Hope is, simply put, the gift of human imagination made holy and put into practice. To be clear, imagination imagines things as they really are and could be. It is not fantasy as the world loves to present it. Hope involves human involvement to include envisioning, planning, taking next steps, collaborating, and incorporating the virtues of Faith and Love. Hope builds bridges to seeing God in all things, surrendering, and dedicating one’s life to His purpose. Hope involves constant, joyful, sometimes difficult little steps leading to one goal: to be with God.
As we enter the first stages of this New Year, let us pray that the child Jesus, born of Mary, be given and received in an enlightened beauty of Hope into our hearts. For those who have lost hope, we pray the Lord comes bearing the gift of true life beyond expectation. For those who have lost sight of any goal but worldly validation or gain, we pray for conversion of Hope. For those who think Jesus as long ago and far away, we pray for an experience of His presence and awakening of Hope.
"As we enter the first stages of this New Year, let us pray that the child Jesus, born of Mary, be given and received in an enlightened beauty of Hope into our hearts."
And for all of us, we pray for goodness and blessings throughout the coming year, for our families and concerns, for the true gift of Hope. May we all be so blessed in the coming New Year.
If you would like to read the papal bull, titled “Spes Non Confudit,” meaning “Hope Does Not Disappoint,” please click here.
+Most Reverend Stephen J. Berg
Bishop of Pueblo
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