On 24 December 2024, the Holy Door of St Peter’s Basilica in Rome will open, commencing the Jubilee Year. To prepare for this year of celebration, Pope Francis invites us into a Year of Prayer throughout 2024, reflecting on the Jubilee’s theme, ‘Pilgrims of Hope.’
‘In this time of preparation, I would greatly desire that we devote 2024, the year preceding the Jubilee event, to a great “symphony” of prayer,’ Pope Francis has said. ‘Prayer, above all else, to renew our desire to be in the presence of the Lord, to listen to him and to adore him.’
The year invites us to ‘intensify prayer as a personal dialogue with God’ and ‘foster a renewed ardour’ for evangelisation, that our hearts will be ready to welcome the gifts of grace and forgiveness that the Jubilee Year offers.
To assist parishes, communities, families and individuals to take up Pope Francis’ invitation to rediscover ‘the great value and absolute need for prayer in [our] personal life, in the life of the Church, and in the world’, Proclaim: the Office for Mission Renewal has produced a guide and other resources, and will again be promoting Fiat, a weekend of prayer in 2024.
I would greatly desire that we devote 2024, the year preceding the Jubilee event, to a great ‘symphony’ of prayer.
New prayer resources
The Archdiocese’s new guide to the Year of Prayer draws from Teach us to Pray, the resource aide prepared by the Vatican’s Dicastery for Evangelisation, which contains an abundance of practical ideas, prayers and reflections in sections devoted to parishes, communities, families, young people, shrines and monasteries.
Archbishop Peter A Comensoli has also offered reflections on how to rediscover prayer this year. In his introduction to the Year of Prayer, he points us to the Jubilee theme, ‘Pilgrims of Hope’, as a ‘beautiful image for us to carry’ as we pray together as the local Church in Melbourne.
Fiat returns in 2024
For the second year running, our local communities of grace across the Archdiocese of Melbourne will unite for a weekend of prayer from Friday 31 May to Sunday 2 June 2024. The weekend coincides with the Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi).
Following the example of Mary and Elizabeth, Fiat is an opportunity for us to celebrate and rejoice in prayer.
A pivotal moment in the history of salvation occurred when a young woman, Mary, listened to God’s call and then gave a free and wholehearted ‘yes’ to the Lord and his mission, and to his gift of salvation. We too are assured of new life in Jesus Christ.
Following the example of Mary and Elizabeth, Fiat is an opportunity for us to celebrate and rejoice in prayer, in communion with the Lord and the local church in Melbourne.
Fiat ends with the feast of Corpus Christi as we renew our devotion to the Eucharist and commit ourselves to be bearers of Jesus Christ to others.
Fiat is also an opportunity to continue our Year of Prayer journey as an Archdiocesan community as we prepare for the Jubilee Year 2025.
As we continue our local journey of missionary renewal with Take the Way of the Gospel, may this Year of Prayer be an opportunity to renew our hearts and minds towards the Lord and reach out to others in prayer and hope.
