17 January 2025 · 2025-01 newsletter
Our Shrines at Mt Richon in Perth and at Mulgoa in Sydney have both been made special places of pilgrimage for the Jubilee Year 2025. This is a wonderful privilege. There is even a new sign at Mt Richon to make sure visitors know where to go!
In an official letter from the Bishop of Parramatta, the diocese of our Schoenstatt Shrine in Mulgoa, regarding the Jubilee Year 2025, the Bishop wrote:
“A Jubilee Indulgence is granted to those who make a Jubilee pilgrimage during the year.
For those who cannot make a jubilee pilgrimage due to illness or other circumstances, you are invited to take part in the spiritual movement that accompanies the Jubilee year, offering up the sufferings of their daily lives, and participating in reconciliation, prayer, and the Eucharistic celebration.”
Why the Indulgence is so important
St Paul says, in his letter to the Romans, “hope does not disappoint” (Rm 5:5). Pope Francis begins his explanation of the Jubilee Year with those words and it is worth reading by clicking here.
In his explanation Pope Francis says that “the indulgence is a way of discovering the unlimited nature of God’s mercy” (para.23). He encourages us to remember that the Jubilee is about God’s indulgence, or special mercy.
It is there for us to reach out and accept in hope, both for ourselves as well as for those who have gone before us.
Schoenstatt sees the slow but necessary organic growth we all experience on our journey through life. The Jubilee Year is all about accepting God’s grace for a period of intense growth in our journey to holiness, for both ourselves and for others, through our striving for the Jubilee Indulgence.
Why our Schoenstatt Shrines?
The Church does not invite us to simply visit Mount Schoenstatt, but to make a pilgrimage there. The journey involved in a pilgrimage reminds us that our lives are also a journey.
This Jubilee Year provides an opportunity to make that journey more intense. Speaking of all Marian Shrines in the world, Pope Francis wishes “during the Jubilee Year, may these shrines be sacred places of welcome and privileged spaces for the rebirth of hope.” (Hope does not disappoint, para.24)
The conditions for obtaining the Indulgence:
- Pilgrimage to a Church designated as a Jubilee Church (among others our two Schoenstatt Shrines)
- Works of mercy and penance
- Reception of the sacrament of reconciliation
- Celebration of the Eucharist
- Prayers for the intentions of the Holy Father: Profession of faith: I believe in God the Almighty…, Our Father…, Hail Mary…, Glory be…
Also click here to read Decree on the Granting of the Indulgence.
Filed underNewsletter · Shrine News