A letter from Sr. Walter

Dear university community,

Hope does not disappoint! This is a truism and also the title of Pope Francis' bull of indiction for the ordinary Jubilee of the year 2025. Did you know that next year is a Jubilee year? What does that mean? And so what?

First, a little bit of history...The jubilee has Jewish origins. Every 50 years, a year of rest was celebrated by letting the earth rest (i.e., no planting or harvesting) and liberating slaves (i.e., restoring equality). The beginning of the Jewish Jubilee was marked by the sound of the ram's horn, in Hebrew jobel, from which the Christian name Jubilee derives. The Catholic Church began the tradition of the Holy Year in 1300 with Pope Boniface VIII, who had foreseen a Jubilee every century. Subsequently, it was lowered at intervals of 33 (like the duration of Jesus' earthly life, and from 1450 onwards, the cadence of the Jubilee was further reduced. Since then, it is celebrated every 25 years to allow each generation to experience at least one Holy Year. A Jubilee usually lasts a year and a few days, beginning just before Christmas and ending on the Epiphany of the following year. As a special year of grace, the Jubilee year offers the faithful the possibility of asking for a plenary indulgence, that is, the remission of sins for themselves or for deceased relatives. The last Jubilee was an extraordinary one (i.e., out of sync with the 25-year rule), and it happened in 2015. The one that will take place in 2025 will be an ordinary Jubilee year, dedicated to the theme: Hope does not disappoint. The most exciting and well-known rite during a Jubilee year is the opening of the Holy Door (located in St. Peter's Basilica) and the doors of the other three major basilicas in Rome, namely, the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran, St. Paul Outside the Walls, and St. Mary Major.

And so what? Pope Francis has asked Catholics worldwide to prepare for the next Jubilee year by spending 2024 studying the documents of the Second Vatican Council, especially its four constitutions, which focused on: the liturgy (Sacrosanctum Concilium); the church as the people of God (Lumen Gentium); Holy Scriptures (Dei Verbum); and the role of the church in the modern world (Gaudium et Spes). As members of a university community, we are all invited to study these documents in a spirit of prayerful discernment. Further, Pope Francis wants 2024 to be especially dedicated to prayer in preparation for the Jubilee of 2025. Here are some resources for all of us to appreciate the centrality of prayer, both personal and communal. Furthermore, we, members of the University of the Incarnate Word, a Catholic university, are particularly charged with proclaiming, by word and deed, the following: Christian hope does not deceive or disappoint because it is grounded in the certainty that nothing and no one may ever separate us from God's love (Rom 8:35.37-39).

Here we see the reason why this hope perseveres in the midst of trials: founded on faith and nurtured by charity, it enables us to press forward in life. As Saint Augustine observes, "Whatever our state of life, we cannot live without these three dispositions of the soul, namely, to believe, to hope and to love." As we begin a new semester, let us recommit to living a life of charity, faith and especially hope—a hope that does not disappoint.