Jubilee 2025 in Lourdes
All roads lead to Hope...
Pilgrims from all over the world will be converging on Rome to pass through the Holy Door, but it will also be possible to experience the grace of the Jubilee at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes. The Jubilee Year will be officially opened in Lourdes during the Mass at the Grotto on 31stDecember at 11pm.
Lourdes, a Jubilee venue
On 21st November 2024, Bishop Jean-Marc Micas of Tarbes and Lourdes issued a decreedesignating the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes as the place where the faithful may receive the grace of a plenary indulgence during the Jubilee Year.
Our mission and our evangelical message depend less on our actions, necessary though they may be, than on our visible communion, our respect for one another, and the deep affection we feel for one another.
For those unable to travel to Rome, the Sanctuary of Lourdes is inviting them to make a pilgrimage under the watchful eyes of Mary, Mother of Hope and Mother of the Church. This will be an opportune time to pray for the Church, for the world, for peace, and for all visitors and pilgrims to the Sanctuary, so that everyone may be united in hope, faith and charity.
Receiving a plenary indulgence in Lourdes
The Vatican has announced that plenary indulgences will be granted as part of the 2025 Jubilee Year. By granting a plenary indulgence, the Catholic Church expresses its desire for the faithful to experience God’s mercy. The granting of a plenary indulgence constitutes a declaration of the remission or forgiveness of sins.
The conditions for receiving the grace of a plenary indulgence:
To obtain a plenary indulgence, the following conditions must be met: carry out the works attached to the indulgence (going to the cathedral or the Sanctuary of Lourdes), and no more than seven days later, receive forgiveness through sacramental confession, receive Eucharistic Communion, pray for the Pope’s intentions.
Works to be performed to receive the grace of the Plenary Indulgence:
The faithful may receive the indulgence by performing one of the following works.
Participating in the Stations of the Cross, praying the Rosary, participating in a Marian Procession at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes, completing the Sanctuary’s Jubilee Way.
Since divine mercy will be offered on a large scale during the Jubilee Year, the ‘chapelains’ will bemaking themselves generously available to celebrate the sacrament of Penance.
All the pathways of Lourdes lead to Hope:
– Carry the flame of hope in procession with our sick brothers and sisters.
– Sing the song of hope in every language.
– Pray to Mary, the Way of Hope.
The Jubilee Way, a journey through the Sanctuary
The Jubilee Way, a new feature for the Jubilee Year in Lourdes.
From 11th February 2025, pilgrims in Lourdes will be able to follow the Jubilee Way. This route will be open at weekends until the opening of the pilgrimage season, and then every day during the season and school holidays.
Two time slots will be available: 9.30am and 2pm.
The meeting point is at the Information Centre. Along the way, pilgrims will meditate on the Gospel of the disciples of Emmaus while stopping off at places of consolation and hope in the Sanctuary of Lourdes, such as the OCH (Christian Office for Handicapped People), the Hospitality of Our Lady of Lourdes and the Accueil Notre-Dame.
At the foot of the crowned Virgin, pilgrims will be invited to turn towards the basilicas where the Eucharist is celebrated every day, and to the Chapel of Reconciliation to receive the sacrament of God’s mercy. Passing through the garden of reflection, pilgrims can encounter Mary, comforter of the afflicted, who on 25th March 1858 revealed her name: ‘I am the Immaculate Conception.’
The tour ends at the Good Samaritan rotunda with the Water Gesture, a symbol of purification and renewal.
Pilgrims can conclude this spiritual journey by going to Mass at 11.15am in the Rosary Basilica, or by praying the rosary at the Grotto at 3.00pm.
God is always ready to forgive, and he never tires of forgiving in ways that are continually new and surprising. … In the Sacrament of Reconciliation, God forgives our sins, which he truly blots out; and yet sin leaves a negative effect on the way we think and act. But the mercy of God is stronger even than this. It becomes indulgence on the part of the Father who, through the Bride of Christ, his Church, reaches the pardoned sinner and frees him from every residue left by the consequences of sin, enabling him to act with charity, to grow in love rather than to fall back into sin.
