Preparation through Prayer
Pope Francis has called for 2024 to be observed as a Year of Prayer and preparation through prayer for 2025. Many recent years have been assigned some special theme, such as the Year of St. Joseph in 2021. This year’s theme, however, has a particular importance.
Upcoming Jubilee Year
The unique character of the theme for 2024 has to do with its relationship to 2025, a Jubilee Year in the Church. A Jubilee, or Holy Year, a custom which has its roots in the law of Moses (cf. Lev 25:10–14), is a time of special opportunities for grace. In the words of the Vatican website:
It is a year of forgiveness of sins and also the punishment due to sin, it is a year of reconciliation between adversaries, of conversion and receiving the Sacrament of Reconciliation, and consequently of solidarity, hope, justice, commitment to serve God with joy and in peace with our brothers and sisters. A Jubilee year is above all the year of Christ, who brings life and grace to humanity. (Vatican.va, “What Is a Holy Year?”)
The coming Jubilee has been declared a Year of Hope, offering Christ’s light of hope to a world surrounded by troubles.
Why Prayer?
The Year of Prayer, then, is a preparation for this Holy Year, much as Advent and Lent prepare for Christmas and Easter. By a deeper, closer union with Our Lord through a renewed life of prayer, the faithful can increase their capacity to receive His gift of hope and become, in Pope Francis’s words, “Pilgrims of Hope.”
Speaking with Jesus in Prayer
What, then, can we do to cultivate this spirit of prayer? Fr. Paul Check, Executive Director of Our Lady’s Shrine, offers some comments. One important aspect of prayer is as a dialogue of love: “When we pray, we say things to Jesus, Whom we love—because that’s in the nature of love, to want to share things that are in the heart … but correspondingly, we pay attention to what’s in the other person’s heart, because they’re conveying things to us.”
This dialogue requires an attentive heart, practicing discipline in setting aside the many other things that compete for attention. “When two people love each other,” Fr. Check continues, “they pay very close attention to each other; and not only do they pay attention to each other, but they try to remove distractions and obstacles that would keep them from the person that they love.”
The Importance of Prayer
Though this discipline in prayer represents an ongoing effort, the fruits are more than worth it. “When the Church encourages us to pray, she does so because she knows, like all good mothers, that … we forget just how important something is,” Fr. Check concludes. “By designating a Year of Prayer, our mother the Church is bringing back our attention to something that can fulfill the heart like nothing else.” In prayer, we approach Our Lord, the source of all fulfillment and hope. In this Year of Prayer, the Church calls her children to rediscover the gift of time spent with Him.
