We are a Jubilee Year Pilgrimage Site 2025!
OUR CHURCH HAS BEEN DESIGNATED AS A JUBILEE YEAR PILGRIMAGE SITE 2025 – PILGRIMS OF HOPE – We are honored and blessed to announce that St. Rita of Cascia Parish has been designated as an official Archdiocesan Pilgrimage Site for the Jubilee Year of Hope 2025! As part of this extraordinary time of grace and renewal, we joyfully invite all the faithful from across the Archdiocese of Chicago to visit our church and experience the spiritual blessings of this holy year.
We look forward to welcoming individuals, families, and groups from all over the archdiocese as we journey together in faith during this upcoming year. Our schedule for Masses, reconciliation, and adoration will be posted on the archdiocesan Jubilee Year page (linked below) for pilgrims across the archdiocese to see and plan a pilgrimage visit to our church. Let us celebrate the Jubilee Year 2025 as a year of renewal with open hearts full of hope.
The Jubilee asks us to set out and overcome some limits. When we move, in fact, we do not just change places, but we transform ourselves.
Abraham, in the Bible, is described like this, as a person on his way: “Leave your land, your country, and your father’s house” (Gen 12:1). With these words his adventure begins, which ends in the Promised Land, where he is remembered as a “wandering Aramean” (Dt 26:5).
The pilgrimage is an experience of conversion, of changing one’s existence to direct it towards the holiness of God.
ARCHDIOCESAN JUBILEE YEAR WEBSITE
INSTAGRAM VIDEO ABOUT ST. RITA OF CASCIA CHURCH
INSTAGRAM VIDEO ABOUT ST. CLARE OF MONTEFALCO CHURCH
JUBILEE PRAYER – Pope Francis shared the following prayer at the beginning of the Jubilee Year: Father in heaven, may the faith you have given us in your Son, Jesus Christ, our brother, and the flame of charity poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit awaken in us the blessed hope of the coming of your Kingdom. May your grace transform us into dedicated cultivators of the seeds of the Gospel that will ferment humanity and the cosmos, in confident expectation of the new heavens and the new earth, when, with the forces of evil vanquished, your glory will be revealed forever. May the grace of the Jubilee rekindle in us, Pilgrims of Hope, the longing for heavenly goods and pour out upon the whole world the joy and peace of our Redeemer. To you, God blessed forever, be praise and glory forever. Amen.
“JUBILEE” IS THE NAME OF A PARTICULAR YEAR – In 1300, Boniface VIII declared the first Jubilee, also called the “Holy Year” because it is a time in which we experience the transformation of God’s holiness. Over time, the frequency has changed: at first, it was every 100 years; in 1343, it was reduced to 50 years by Clement VI, and in 1470, to 25 years by Paul II. The way this year is celebrated has also been different: originally, it coincided with visits to the Roman Basilicas of St. Peter and St. Paul, and therefore, with the pilgrimage; later, other symbols were added, such as that of the Holy Door. This year, our parish of St. Rita of Cascia has been chosen as a pilgrimage site. By participating in the Holy Year, one obtains a plenary indulgence.
INDULGENCE – During this Jubilee year, Pope Francis has granted Plenary Indulgence for faithful who make a pilgrimage. Indulgence is a concrete manifestation of God’s mercy, which exceeds the limits of human justice and transforms them. Indulgence allows one’s heart to be freed from the weight of sin, to be able to freely offer due reparation. The faithful may obtain the indulgence by: Visiting a place designated as a pilgrimage site, Spending time in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, Praying the Liturgy of the Hours or the Rosary or the Stations of the Cross, Making a profession of faith and praying for the intentions of the Holy Father, Participating in the celebration of the Eucharist (within 2 weeks) and Reconciliation (within 2 weeks).
Pope Francis announced that “Pilgrims of Hope” is the theme for this Holy Year. The Pope prays that the Holy Year be marked by “profound faith, living hope, and active charity.” A Holy Year or Jubilee is a time of pilgrimage, prayer, repentance, and acts of mercy, based on the Old Testament tradition of a Jubilee year of rest, forgiveness, and renewal. During Holy Years, Catholics can receive a plenary indulgence, which is a remission of the temporal punishment due for sins. On the occasion of the Jubilee Year, Pope Francis has granted a Plenary Indulgence. One of the means of obtaining the Indulgence is for the faithful to make a pilgrimage to a church designated as a Jubilee Year Pilgrimage Site from December 29, 2024 to December 28, 2025.
CHARITY – Charity constitutes the principal characteristic of Christian life. No one can think that the pilgrimage and the celebration of the Jubilee indulgence can be relegated to a form of magical rite, unaware that it is the life of charity that gives them their ultimate meaning and real effectiveness. Likewise, charity is the preeminent sign of the Christian faith and its specific form of credibility. In the context of the Jubilee, we must not forget the invitation of the Apostle Peter: “Above all else, have intense love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins” (1 Pet 4:8). According to the Evangelist John, love for one’s neighbor, which does not come from man but from God, will allow us to recognize Christ’s true disciples in the future. It is therefore evident that no believer can claim to believe if he does not then love, and, conversely, no believer can claim to love if he does not believe.
PROFESSION OF FAITH – The profession of faith is a sign of recognition proper to the baptized. It expresses the central content of the faith and summarizes the principal truths that a believer accepts and bears witness to on the day of their baptism and shares with the entire Christian community for the rest of their life.
“For if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe with your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is righteous, and with the lips one confesses and is saved” (Rom 10:9-10). This passage from Saint Paul emphasizes how the proclamation of the mystery of faith demands a profound conversion not only of one’s own words, but also and above all of one’s vision of God, of oneself, and of the world. “To recite the Creed with faith is to enter into communion with God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; it is also to enter into communion with the whole Church which transmits the faith to us and in whose bosom we believe” (CCC 197).
JUBILEE LITURGY – The liturgy is the public prayer of the Church: according to the Second Vatican Council, it is “the summit towards which all her action tends” and “at the same time the source from which all her energy flows”. At the centre is the Eucharistic celebration, where the Body and Blood of Christ is received: as a pilgrim, he himself walks alongside the disciples and reveals to them the secrets of the Father, so that they can say: “Stay with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far gone” (Lk 24:29).
JUBILEE YEAR OF PRAYER – There are many ways and many reasons to pray; The basis is always the desire to open oneself to the presence of God and his offer of love. Jesus who entrusted to his disciples the prayer of the Lord’s Prayer also commented on by the Catechism of the Catholic Church (cf. CCC 2759-2865). Christian tradition offers other texts, such as the Hail Mary, that help find the words to address God: “Through a living transmission, the Sacred Tradition, the Holy Spirit, in the Church, teaches the children of God to pray” (CCC 2661).
The moments of prayer carried out during the trip show that the pilgrim possesses the ways of God “in his heart” (Ps 83:6).
JUBILEE YEAR OF RECONCILIATION – The Jubilee is a sign of reconciliation, because it opens a “favorable time” (cf. 2 Cor 6:2) for one’s own conversion. One puts God at the center of one’s existence, turning towards Him and recognizing His primacy.
As Pope Francis recalled in the letter of convocation of the extraordinary holy year of 2015: “Mercy is not opposed to justice, but rather expresses God’s behavior towards the sinner, offering him a new opportunity to repent, convert and believe […].
Specifically, it is about living the sacrament of reconciliation, taking advantage of this time to rediscover the value of confession and personally receive the word of God’s forgiveness. There are some jubilee churches that continually offer this possibility. You can prepare by following a scheme.