Jubilee Year: Pilgrims of Hope 2025
“The threshold of the house of God I prefer to the dwellings of the wicked.” ~ Ps. 84:10
Sister stands at the threshold of the Jubilee Year Doors of Hope!
Each year, around Our Lady of Mount Carmel’s Feast Day on July 16, the Sisters make a pilgrimage to a Marian site in Our Lady’s honor. This year we journeyed to the Basilica and National Shrine of Our Lady of Consolation in Carey, Ohio, which has been designated as a Jubilee site where pilgrims may gain the plenary indulgence, either for themselves or for the souls in Purgatory.
It was a beautiful day, with a picnic in the Shrine park, followed by a pious pilgrimage to the Basilica. We noticed that Our Lady and Infant Jesus were actually clothed in the habit of Carmel and on the altar were placed purple and white flowers—a wink from Our Lord and Our Lady!
This Jubilee Year of Hope is a time of mercy and freedom. We hope you’ll take the time to obtain the graces Holy Mother Church offers!
A plenary indulgence is a grace granted by the Church through the merits of Jesus Christ to remove the remission of all temporal punishment due to sin! The indulgence applies to sins already forgiven and cleanses the soul as if the person had just been baptized. According to the Apostolic Penitentiary, there is a possibility of gaining two plenary indulgences for the deceased in one day during the Jubilee Year.
To obtain this great gift, you can make a “pious pilgrimage” to a Jubilee site in a diocese near you. This would include spending a suitable amount of time during a prayerful visit. You could participate in Holy Mass, the Stations of the Cross the Rosary or a penance service with individual confession; or spend time in Eucharistic Adoration and meditation concluding with the Our Father, the Creed, and invocations to the Blessed Virgin Mary. You can also participate in popular missions, spiritual exercises, formation activities on Vatican II documents or a study of the Catechism held at the Jubilee site.
The ordinary conditions that must be fulfilled for a plenary indulgence are:
Be truly repentant and free from attachment to all sin, even venial
Make a Sacramental Confession
Receive Holy Communion with the intention of gaining the plenary indulgence
Pray for the intentions of the Holy Father (Our Father, Hail Mary)
*These conditions can be fulfilled a few days before or after performing the works to gain the indulgence, but it is appropriate that Communion and the prayer take place on the same day that the work is completed.
For more information on the Basilica and Shrine, and the Jubilee Year, visit their website here.
**Information in this post taken from the Diocese of Toledo’s Information on the Jubilee Year.
