All geared up to celebrate the Jubilee Year of Hope

Mar 07, 2025

Faithfully Speaking - Julie Lim Seet Yin
A Jubilee Year in the Catholic Church comes every 25 years. It is a time for renewal, forgiveness and celebration, making it one of the most significant events in the Catholic Church. We are now in the Jubilee Year of Hope that began on Christmas Eve, December 24, 2024 and will end on the Feast of the Epiphany on Jan 6, 2026.

The beginning of awareness
The Jubilee Year of Hope began in a subtle and unexpected way for me, when someone asked in a chat group about the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy that took place in 2015. She had read about that particular jubilee year in social media and thought that the Catholic Church was celebrating the same jubilee in 2025. As people say about the internet, whatever posted in social media has a digital footprint and will remain in cyberspace forever. So, when the person in the chat group had confused the two jubilee years, I read up about the Jubilee Year of Hope and clarified to the misinformed person. That was how awareness about the Jubilee Year began in me.

The opportunity to welcome pilgrims
In the Jubilee Year, there are certain parishes that have been designated as pilgrimage centres. Catholics may visit these centres to receive a plenary indulgence.

The Cathedral of St John the Evangelist, which I belong to, is a designated pilgrimage centre in the Archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur. In preparation to welcome pilgrims from far and near, a Jubilee Committee has been set-up to ensure that pilgrims are attended to when they visit the cathedral. What an opportunity it is to be able to provide hospitality to pilgrims from other parishes and dioceses.

Whilst the cathedral is geared up to receive pilgrims, there are also ministries and groups in the cathedral who are planning their own pilgrimages to other pilgrimage centres, giving these centres in turn, the opportunity to welcome us as pilgrims. It is an exchange of hospitality and kindness that comes with celebrating the Jubilee Year.

Celebrating the Jubilee Year as a BEC
At the time of writing, my BEC St Mary is organising a pilgrimage on March 8 to the Church of St Mary in Ayer Salak, Melaka, which is a designated pilgrimage centre in the Diocese of Malacca Johore. We thought it would be meaningful to kick off the season of Lent by going on pilgrimage to a parish with the same name as our BEC.

Whilst at the parish, we are planning to do the Way of the Cross on The Path of Repentance, pray the Rosary and do The Path of Purification.

Perhaps my BEC should organise another pilgrimage to St Mary’s Cathedral in Sandakan, Sabah which is also a designated pilgrimage centre in this Jubilee Year.

My personal Jubilee Year mission
When I was looking at the list of pilgrimage centres in Malaysia and Singapore, I was inspired to make pilgrimages to the 12 centres in Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore. Since a Jubilee Year comes once every 25 years, might as well do something memorable like completing these pilgrimages to remember the Jubilee Year of Hope.

There are three pilgrimage centres each in the Diocese of Penang and Diocese of Malacca-Johor, five centres in the Archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur, and one centre in the Archdiocese of Singapore.

Over in East Malaysia there are 25 pilgrimage centres spread out across six dioceses in Sabah and Sarawak. Many of these centres are in locations that are not easily accessible by public transport, thus I aborted my idea to visit all 25 centres in East Malaysia.

Stamping the Pilgrim Passport
One of the unique features of the Jubilee Year of Hope is that pilgrims may obtain a pilgrim passport and get it stamped at pilgrimage centres when they make their pilgrimage there.

I thought that the Pilgrim Passport is a brilliant, novel idea to inspire Catholics to go on pilgrimage. Countries like Japan and Taiwan have a similar concept where stamps of various designs are available at trains stations and tourist spots for tourists to stamp in their notebook or postcard as a souvenir. As an avid traveller and inspired by the Pilgrim Passport, I may bring my expired Malaysian passport and stamp the empty pages with stamps from the pilgrimage centres.

We have already entered into the third month of the Jubilee Year of Hope, with nine more months to plan what we are going to do in this Jubilee Year. Seize the opportunity that comes once every 25 years. It is going to be an exciting journey with reflections and lessons to ponder along the way.

Julie Lim Seet Yin believes that a satisfied life measured by one’s heart, mind and soul is better than a successful life measured by worldly yardsticks. 

(The views expressed are entirely the writer’s own.)