Jubilee Year 2025! Feast of Holy Family and Mary, Mother of God! Blessed New Year 2025!!
Jubilee Year 2025! Feast of Holy Family and Mary, Mother of God! Blessed New Year 2025!!
The Jubilee year – Year of Hope – officially began on Christmas Eve with Pope Francis's opening of the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica. Pope writes in his letter, “For everyone, may the Jubilee be a moment of genuine, personal encounter with the Lord Jesus, the “door” (cf. Jn 10:7.9) of our salvation, whom the Church is charged to proclaim always, everywhere and to all as “our hope” (1 Tim 1:1).”
Every cathedral around the world will celebrate the Jubilee Year this Sunday, December 29th. In Christ the King Cathedral, Superior, it will take place at 3 p.m.
During the Jubilee year, we will be able to attain plenary indulgence. A plenary indulgence is a grace the Catholic Church grants through the merits of Jesus Christ to remove the temporal punishment due to sin. What are the ways we can get these graces? During the Jubilee year, make a pilgrimage to Rome, or with this intention, to a specific Church and through the Work of Mercy. Our diocese has two designated pilgrimage centers: Christ the King Cathedral in Superior and St. Joseph Catholic Church, Bayfield (Madeline Island). You can find more information about the Jubilee year at https://catholicdos.org/2025-jubilee-year
Happy Feast of the Holy Family! The mission of Mary and Joseph was to bring up the child Jesus and give Him to the world. It was not an easy journey for them. They had lots of unknown factors in their lives. We read in the Gospel that Mary kept pondering on them (Luke 2:19). Mary was betrothed to Joseph, but they didn’t live together. According to their custom, after the betrothal, they are legally married. They didn’t live together until the wedding ceremony, which could be a year later. When Joseph learned that Mary was pregnant, he struggled to receive Mary as his wife. Mary and Joseph followed the will of God. With the taking of Mary as his wife and the birth of Jesus, a new family is founded, which is a holy one.
In the first reading, Ben Sirach reminds the Fourth Commandment, “Honor your father and mother.” In the book of Exodus 20:12, we read, “Honor your father and your mother, that you may have a long life in the land the LORD your God is giving you.” Ben Sirach reminds us that those who honor their parents will gain riches and long life. In the second reading from the Colossians, St. Paul tells us about virtues in life. He describes a family code.
In today’s Gospel (Luke 2:41-52), Luke alone provides the episode of Jesus' boyhood. It brings more completion to Luke’s infancy narrative. After this episode, we don’t see Jesus until his public ministry. At the time of Christ all Jewish men were required to pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem. Some men take their families with them. In the Gospel, Mary and Joseph go to the temple with their twelve-year-old Jesus for Passover. They lost Jesus, and then they began their search for three days with great anxiety. St. Ambrose says the discovery of Jesus in the Temple prefigures his resurrection. Jesus spent three days in the tomb and was resurrected on the third day. When they found him, he asked them, “Did you not know I must be in my Father’s house?” If you are a parent, how does it sound to you? Mary kept everything in her heart and pondered over it.
Happy New Year! January 1st we embrace New Year 2025, and celebrate the Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God. It is also World Day of Peace. Let us ask the blessing of the Holy Family as we embrace New Year 2025. New Year is a time to thank the past, a time to ask blessing…
In this New Year 2025, we have the Jubilee Year – Year of Hope; we continue the Maintenance to Mission by living the Eucharist, praying, and walking with one whom we would like to see with us at the Mass. Let us grow in love for the Eucharist and live the Eucharist in our daily lives. We are Eucharistic people, and it is our mission. Women from our cluster bought a Christmas gift for us, “33 Days of Eucharistic Glory.” If you didn’t get one, please pick one up and read it. Let us thank them for the gift.
Let us take the passage from the book of Numbers and bless each other in this New Year 2025!
The LORD bless you and keep you!
The LORD let his face shine upon
you, and be gracious to you!
The LORD look upon you kindly and give you peace!
Blessed New Year 2025 and Happy Feast of Mary, Holy Mother of God!
Thank you! I would like to express my gratitude to cluster parishioners, councils and committees, organizations, cluster parish staff, deacons, musicians, and those who participated in different ministries, volunteers, and well-wishers. Thank you!