The school year began in the northern hemisphere between August and September; in the south, it will begin in February. The Augustinian-Recollect Family proposes a motto and pastoral objectives linked to the ecclesial Jubilee, under the common motto “Pilgrims of Hope”.
In 2025, the Catholic Church is celebrating the Holy Year, a Jubilee called by Pope Francis for the entire Church under the motto “Pilgrims of Hope”. This extraordinary period of grace and spiritual renewal is usually celebrated every 25 years or in certain special and important circumstances.
Pope Francis’ proposal
Pope Francis proposed this motto for the Jubilee two years ago, in the midst of the hangover from the pandemic. After the pause, fear and pain it created, especially among the weakest and the excluded, the intention was to recover the best of the human being. He said:
“We must keep the flame of hope alive (…) and do everything possible to ensure that everyone regains the strength and certainty to look to the future with an open mind, a trusting heart and a broad vision.
The Jubilee can greatly help to re-establish a climate of hope and confidence, (…) for this reason I chose the motto ‘Pilgrims of Hope’. It will be possible if we are able to recover the sense of universal brotherhood, if we do not close our eyes to the tragedy of rampant poverty that prevents millions (…) from living in a humanly dignified manner. (…) May the voices of the poor be heard.
(…) Conversion must be joined to fundamental aspects of social life to form a coherent whole. Feeling ourselves all as pilgrims (…) let us not neglect, along the way, the contemplation of the beauty of Creation and the care of our common Home, (…) an essential expression of faith in God and obedience to his will.”
St. Augustine
The virtue of hope is not a matter foreign to St. Augustine and the Augustinian Recollect charism, as well as the idea of “pilgrimage together.” The Jubilee 2025 is an opportunity to deepen Augustinian spirituality and materialize it in works and actions.
The Augustinian value that we wish to deepen in the academic year is friendship, in deep connection with the Jubilee itself. Thus, in the face of the challenge of superficiality and insensitive indifference, friendship provides bonds of sympathy and empathy.
In the case of friendship according to St. Augustine, his ideal is “to have everything in common” and to go “together” in search of God with “one soul and one heart.” This implies that friendship, lived according to the Augustinian proposal, necessarily implies trust, confidence, loyalty and personal dedication to the common good.
Objectives
The Jubilee 2025 allows the Augustinian-Recollect Family to make known and deepen the Augustinian experience of the pilgrimage of friends: walking without feeling alone, uniting in a common destiny, accompanying each other.
In the midst of daily news about conflicts and wars, in the Augustinian-Recollect Family we promote peace, care, good treatment, community… These are signs of hope for our world and, above all, for those who suffer the most from the consequences of their opposite behavior: selfishness, individualism, revenge, indifference or the imposition by force of ideologies, governments, powers or customs.
It is also an opportunity for the Augustinian-Recollect Family to foster its spirit of service and solidarity, to support from the rear the mission areas and socio-transformative pastoral projects. In this way we will also be “missionaries of hope.”
Same image of the Universal Church
In other years, the Augustinian-Recollect Family designed a logo and posters referring to its annual motto. This year, 2025, it has adopted and disseminated the same logo and poster for the Jubilee 2025.
It represents all of humanity with its four figures embracing each other, indicating the solidarity and fraternity that unites peoples.
The first one clings to the Cross, a sign of faith and hope. Surrounded by waves, because life does not always flow through calm waters, it lengthens at its lower part, transforming itself into the “anchor of hope”, in marine jargon the one used in emergency maneuvers during storms.
The pilgrim’s path is not individual, but communal: it grows as it tends toward the cross. This is not static, but dynamic and curves toward humanity, meeting it with the certainty of its presence and the security of its hope.
Pilgrimage
Anyone who has ever experienced a physical pilgrimage can well remember their experience on the road: many pilgrims heading for the same destination, each at their own pace and in their own circumstances. This is the life of the Augustinian community: a common destination, in mutual aid, each at their own pace and respecting their times and needs.
The word Jubilee comes from yobel, the ram’s horn that announces the Day of Atonement, the festival of Yom Kippur. The Jewish people celebrated it every 50 years (the year after 7 x 7 annual periods), with the forgiveness of debts, the restitution of rented lands and the rest of the land. The basic idea is to reestablish the correct relationship with God, with people and with nature; something like restarting and reestablishing the system:
“The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you: you shall not sow or reap the new shoots or harvest the uncultivated vines. (…) It shall be sacred to you. You shall eat what your fields yield (…) and each one shall return to his property” (Leviticus 25,11-13).
For its part, pilgrimage has its origin in the Latin expressions “across the fields” and “crossing the borders”, an accurate and expressive image of life itself, beyond the physical act of walking.
All this linked to Augustinian friendship, we want to proclaim signs of hope in 2025: promote peace and dialogue; avoid all aggression against people, living beings, nature; propose good treatment and coexist with respect and acceptance of the diversity and richness of each person.
Music to sow hope
The Augustinian High School Ciudad Salitre of the Augustinian Recollects in Bogotá (Colombia) has proposed this song Pilgrims of Hope, composed by Andrea Lorena Montaño and performed by seven of its students between 13 and 16 years old.
Sometimes I walk down the road and I feel fear, I feel fear
I get anxious and I think I’m lost in the darkness and in the pain.
But I remember that in life I’m not alone:
my hope is in you.
I am the seed that fertilizes the world, your word is life for me.
Oooh oooh! Pilgrims of your love!
Oooh oooh! Pilgrims of hope! (2)
The new heavens and the earth will praise you, they will praise you
the nations will sing your glory, they will rejoice, they will rejoice.
But I remember that in life I am not alone.
My hope is in you
I am the seed that fertilizes the world. Your word is life for me
Oooh oooh! Pilgrims of your love!
Oooh oooh! Pilgrims of hope! (2)
“The hope that is seen is no longer hope:
Because what I can see, how can I hope for it?”
Oooh oooh! Pilgrims of your love!
Oooh oooh! Pilgrims of hope! (2)
