A Call to Be Signs of Hope

Image: Vatican News

The Holy Father, Pope Francis, has proclaimed a Jubilee Year through his apostolic bull Spes non confundit ("Hope Does Not Disappoint"). This extraordinary year of grace will be inaugurated in all local churches (dioceses) on Sunday, December 29, 2024, the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. 

In our Diocese, Bishop McGrattan will preside over the solemn opening of the Jubilee Year during the Eucharistic celebration at St. Mary’s Cathedral on December 29, 2024, at the 12:00 pm Mass. All priests, deacons, religious, and lay faithful are warmly invited to join the Bishop for this historic moment. 

This Jubilee Year calls the entire Church to search for signs of hope and to become signs of hope for others. We are reminded of our mission to be sources of hope in our families, for our neighbours, and especially for those who are imprisoned, sick, dying, or marginalized. The young and the elderly alike are called to unite in this faith journey, embracing the transformative power of hope in our lives and communities. 

Rite of the Opening of the Jubilee Year 

As part of the Eucharistic celebration, the solemn opening of the Jubilee Year will begin with a special entrance through the principal door of the Cathedral, a symbol of Christ (cf. Jn 10:9). The opening will include a moment of prayer outside the Cathedral, the singing of the Jubilee hymn, an invitation to bless and praise God, the proclamation of the Gospel passage, and a reading from the Bull of Indiction of the Jubilee Year. 

At the threshold of the Cathedral door, the Bishop will lift up the cross and invite the faithful to venerate it with the acclamation: “Hail, cross of Christ, our only hope.” The faithful will respond, “You are our hope, we will never be confounded.” 

The Bishop will then proceed to the baptismal font to lead the rite of the memorial of Baptism. The sprinkling with water serves as a living reminder of Baptism, the gateway into the journey of sacramental initiation and entry into the Church. 

​The celebration of the Mass will be the high point of the Rite of the Opening of the Jubilee Year. As the General Instruction of the Roman Missal (16) reminds us: “As the action of Christ and of the People of God arrayed hierarchically, [the Mass] is the center of the whole of Christian life for the Church both universal and local, as well as for each of the faithful individually. For in it is found the high point both of the action by which God sanctifies the world in Christ and of the worship that the human race offers to the Father, adoring him through Christ, the Son of God, in the Holy Spirit.” 

Let us come together as one body in Christ, celebrating the Feast of the Holy Family and committing ourselves anew to the mission of being signs of hope in a world longing for God’s light. Mark your calendars and join us for this sacred beginning of the Jubilee Year. 

Opening of the Jubilee Year
​Sunday, Dec. 29 at Noon - Mass with Bishop McGrattan at St. Mary's Cathedral

Brothers and sisters,
the mystery of the Incarnation of our Saviour Jesus Christ,
fostered in the communion of love of the Holy Family of Nazareth,
is for us the ground of deep joy and certain hope.
In fellowship with the universal Church,
as we celebrate the love of the Father that reveals itself
in the flesh of the Word made man and in the sign of the cross, anchor of salvation,
we solemnly open the Jubilee Year for the Church of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Calgary. This rite is for us the prelude to a rich experience of grace and mercy;
we are ready always to respond to whoever asks the reason for the hope that is in us,
especially in this time of war and disorder.
May Christ, our peace and our hope, be our companion on the journey
in this year of grace and consolation.
May the Holy Spirit, who today begins this work both in us and with us,
bring it to completion in the day of Christ Jesus.”
(Exhortation to be proclaimed at the Rite of the Opening of the Jubilee Year)

PAPAL BULL - SPES NON CONFUNDIT

JUBILEE 2025 RESOURCES FROM CCCB