Making a Pilgrimage in the Jubilee Year of Hope

In the Bull of Indiction for this Jubilee Year of Hope, Spes Non Confundit – “Hope does not disappoint” (Rom 5:5), it states that a Pilgrimage is “a fundamental element of every Jubilee event. Setting out on a journey is traditionally associated with our human quest for meaning in life. A pilgrimage on foot is a great aid for rediscovering the value of silence, effort and simplicity of life. In the coming year, pilgrims of hope will surely travel the ancient and more modern routes in order to experience the Jubilee to the full.” (SNC No. 5)

The designated symbol in this Jubilee Year of Hope is the Cross of Christ. It figured prominently in our opening Mass for the Jubilee Year of Hope. The Diocesan Cross was carried in pilgrimage on foot to the Cathedral as we chanted the Litany of the Saints. Upon entering the front doors of the Cathedral, I invited the faithful who were present to venerate the Cross with the invocation “Hail, cross of Christ, our only hope,” and they responded, “You are our hope, we will never be confounded”. It is important to note that the Diocesan Cross for the Jubilee Year is the Cross that has been carried for many years through the downtown streets of Calgary on Good Friday. 

This Cross inaugurated our pilgrimage of faith as a diocese in this Jubilee Year of Hope. Since then, it has remained at St. Mary’s Cathedral to receive individual pilgrims, parish groups, and lay associations who have journeyed to the mother Church of the Diocese to receive an indulgence of mercy and forgiveness by offering prayers, approaching the sacrament of Reconciliation, and celebrating the Eucharist.

In August, the Cross will travel to the Rockies for our Jubilee Marian Week, beginning in Banff on Friday, August 15, the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary, for which the church in Banff is named in dedication to Mary. Then throughout the following week, it will be at our Shrine Church of Our Lady of the Rockies, for a week of Marian Jubilee events "Mary, Mother of Hope."

There will be concerts, daily Marian devotions, Confession, the celebration Eucharist, and three days of a spiritual mission with Bishop Pierre-Olivier Tremblay (August 19-21), culminating on Friday, August 22, the Memorial of the Queenship of Mary. This is the Marian feast day, which our Shrine church celebrates and is depicted in the stained-glass window behind the altar and above the tabernacle in the Eucharistic chapel. At the conclusion of that Mass, the Apostolic Blessing will be imparted to those present as it was at the inaugural Mass, which opened the Jubilee Year of Hope at St. Mary’s Cathedral. 

Another fundamental element of this Jubilee Marian Week is the pilgrimage of the Jubilee Year of Hope Cross from Banff to Canmore on Monday, August 18. St. Francis Xavier Chaplaincy has planned the Cross of Hope Pilgrimage, engaging many of our young adult professionals and university students in a pilgrimage on foot, carrying the Cross over 28 kilometres along the National Park parkway. The physical demands of this endeavour should not be underestimated, but like other pilgrimage traditions in Europe, this challenge serves a greater purpose. It is a means of entering into a spiritual experience of the Christian life. To understand commitment, great effort is often required, the willingness to sacrifice, to encounter silence and contemplation in such physical activities, to enter into prayer and to be united to Christ and one another as they walk together on this pilgrimage, carrying the Cross.  

There are many graces that one can receive in making a pilgrimage. For our young people, it might be that they find meaning in their lives. “[In] a world in which progress and regression are intertwined, the Cross of Christ remains an anchor of salvation: a sign of hope that does not disappoint because it is founded on the love of God, merciful and faithful.” (Pope Francis, General Audience, Piazza San Pietro, 21 September 2022). May this also be the grace for those who will make a spiritual pilgrimage in this Jubilee Year of Hope.

Finally, it is my hope that this first Jubilee Marian Week of cultural events, Eucharistic celebrations, spiritual conferences, prayer, and devotions, the walking pilgrimage of the Cross with our young people, will sow the seeds in establishing an annual diocesan tradition of spiritual events that will take place in St. Mary's, Banff, and at our Marian Shrine Church of Our Lady of the Rockies in Canmore. This can be one of the enduring fruits that will continue to be a sign of the Renewal underway in our Diocese.

Written by Most Reverend William T. McGrattan, Bishop of Calgary

August 5, 2025