Guidelines Sheet - Pilgrims of Hope (Feb. 3-7, 2025)

guidelines_sheet_-_feb_3-7_2025.pdf
File Size:	312 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

---

General Theme:
Pilgrims of Hope
 
General Objective:
To live with faith and hope this Jubilee Year
 
Objective of the week:
To value the grace of Plenary Indulgence

---

BRIEF EXPLANATION ABOUT THE PLENARY INDULGENCE GRANTED DURING THE JUBILEE YEAR 2025

In our guidelines sheet for this week, we will explain about the Plenary Indulgence granted by the Catholic Church during the Ordinary Jubilee Year of 2025.  We will also pray on some biblical passages on the mercy of God.
 
  In the CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH (CCC) and in the CATECHISM FOR FILIPINO CATHOLIC (CFC), published by Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines on 1997, we find some numbers which can help us to know more about Plenary Indulgence.
 
A)      In the first place, in these two documents, we find a clear definition of sin and its consequences: 
 
CFC 1860. What really is sin?
 
Sin is:
   a) a moral attitude, power, action, or refusal to act,
   b) that leads us into evil,
   c) alienates/separates us from
       • our true selves,
       • our neighbors, the community, and
       • God.
It often becomes “compulsive” or “addictive,” and weakens our power of resistance.
Despite its often-glamorous cover, actually sin injures, destroys, dishonors, poisons, and
corrupts.
  
CFC 1820. By its very nature sin has two effects. When grave/mortal, it destroys our communion with God, thus depriving us of eternal life (eternal punishment). But all sin also weakens and wounds our union with God and our relations with others and the community (temporal punishment). Both these “punishments” are not imposed by God, but rather flow from the very reality of sin.
Eternal punishment of sin is remitted when the guilt of our sins is forgiven and we are restored to communion with God. Yet the temporal consequences remain. We are called to work against these temporal effects by patient suffering, toil, prayer, and acceptance of death as term of our earthly human condition. We are urged to put aside “the old self” corrupted through deceitful desires, and “put on that new man created in God’s image, whose justice and holiness are we born of truth” (Eph 4:22-24).
 
CCC 1472. To understand this doctrine and practice of the Church, it is necessary to understand that sin has a double consequence. Grave sin deprives us of communion with God and therefore makes us incapable of eternal life, the privation of which is called the "eternal punishment" of sin. On the other hand, every sin, even venial, entails an unhealthy attachment to creatures, which must be purified either here on earth, or after death in the state called Purgatory. This purification frees one from what is called the "temporal punishment" of sin. These two punishments must not be conceived of as a kind of vengeance inflicted by God from without, but as following from the very nature of sin. A conversion which proceeds from a fervent charity can attain the complete purification of the sinner in such a way that no punishment would remain.
 
CFC 1821. But we carry on this effort precisely as members of one great communion, Christ’s Body, the Church. Now the Church, as “communion of saints,” helps its members by granting indulgences, that is, by authoritatively assigning the penitent a portion of the treasury of merits of Christ and the saints to remit the temporal punishment due to sins already forgiven. These indulgences remit before God
either all (plenary indulgence) or part (partial indulgence) of the temporal punishment due to sins that have already been forgiven.
 
  B) Secondly, in the CFC and CCC we can discover the meaning of Plenary Indulgence:
 
CFC 1865. What are “indulgences”?
Indulgences are the remission of all (plenary) or part (partial) of the temporal punishment due to sins which have already been forgiven. They are granted in view of the merits of Christ the Redeemer, and the prayers and good works of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the saints.
 
    Upon reading these numbers from the CCC and CFC, we can emphasize that “Punishment is not imposed by God, but rather flows from the very reality of sin.”   We believe that our God is an eternal merciful Father. 
 
      In fact, in the “Decree on the Granting of Indulgence during the Ordinary Jubilee Year 2025” given in Rome, from the Offices of the Apostolic Penitentiary on 13 May 2024, is emphasize that the indulgence is a grace from the merciful God who loves us. As it is written in this Decree:
 
   In the Bull of Indiction of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy in 2015, Pope Francis emphasized how indulgences acquired in that context had "a particular importance" (Misericordiae vultus, 22), since the mercy of God "becomes the indulgence of the Father who, through the Bride of Christ, reaches out to the forgiven sinner and frees him from every residue of the consequence of sin". Similarly, for this Holy Year, the Holy Father emphasizes that the gift of the Jubilee Indulgence "is a way of discovering the unlimited nature of God’s mercy. Not by chance, for the ancients, the terms ‘mercy’ and ‘indulgence’ were interchangeable, as expressions of the fullness of God’s forgiveness, which knows no bounds." (Spes non confundit, 23). The Indulgence is, therefore, a very real Jubilee grace.

---

PASSAGES FOR THE WEEK ON THE MERCY OF GOD

Psalm 103:8
“Merciful and gracious is the Lord, slow to anger, abounding in mercy.”
 
Jeremiah 3:12
“Go, proclaim these words toward the north, and say: Return, rebel Israel—oracle of the Lord—I will not remain angry with you; For I am merciful, oracle of the Lord, I will not keep my anger forever.”
 
Do I return to God because I believe that He is a merciful Father welcoming me?
 
Psalm 33:1-5
 “Rejoice, you righteous, in the Lord; praise from the upright is fitting. Give thanks to the Lord on the harp; on the ten-stringed lyre offer praise. Sing to him a new song; skillfully play with joyful chant. For the Lord’s word is upright; all his works are trustworthy. He loves justice and right. The earth is full of the mercy of the Lord.”
 
How often do I give thanks to God for His mercy? Do I rejoice in the mercy of the Lord?
 
Matthew 9:27-29
Jesus left that place, and as he walked along, two blind men started following him. “Have mercy on us, Son of David!” they shouted.
 When Jesus had gone indoors, the two blind men came to him, and he asked them, "Do you believe that I can heal you?" "Yes, sir!" they answered. Then Jesus touched their eyes and said, "Let it happen, then, just as you believe!"
 
Do I pray to God for all those in need of His mercy? Do I trust in His mercy seeing the conflicts and hard situations in this world?
 
Matthew 18:25-35
“You should have had mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you.”
 
Matthew 5:7
"Happy are those who are merciful to others; God will be merciful to them”
 
Do I know somebody expecting from me to be merciful to him/her?
 
Psalm 26:3
“Your mercy is before my eyes; I walk guided by your faithfulness.”
 
What does it mean for me to be guided by His mercy? When do I lose sight of His mercy?

---

HOW TO OBTAIN A PLENARY INDULGENCE DURING THE 2025 JUBILEE

As we have said above, the basis document to explain to earn the Plenary Indulgence is the “Decree on the Granting of Indulgence during the Ordinary Jubilee Year 2025” given in Rome, from the Offices of the Apostolic Penitentiary on 13 May 2024.
 
In order to gain a plenary indulgence, a person must:
 

1. Fulfill the specific act to which the Plenary Indulgence is attached, and
2. Fulfill the “usual conditions” for an Indulgence.

 
1) Specific acts to which the Jubilee Plenary Indulgence is attached:
 
a.       Perform works of mercy.
 
   The Jubilee Year is a time when Catholics are especially encouraged to practice the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. The Apostolic Penitentiary states:
 
In a special way "during the Holy Year, we are called to be tangible signs of hope for those of our brothers and sisters who experience hardships of any kind" (Spes non confundit, 10). Therefore, the Indulgence is also linked to certain works of mercy and penance, which bear witness to the conversion undertaken. The faithful, following the example and mandate of Christ, are encouraged to carry out works of charity or mercy more frequently, especially in the service of those brothers and sisters who are burdened by various needs. More especially, they should rediscover these “corporal works of mercy: to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, welcome the stranger, heal the sick, visit the imprisoned, and bury the dead" (Misericordiae vultus, 15) and rediscover also "the spiritual works of mercy: to counsel the doubtful, instruct the ignorant, admonish sinners, comfort the afflicted, forgive offences, bear patiently those who do us ill, and pray for the living and the dead" (ibid.).
 
In this way, the faithful will be able to obtain the Jubilee Indulgence if they visit, for an appropriate amount of time, their brothers and sisters who are in need or in difficulty (the sick, prisoners, lonely elderly people, disabled people...), in a sense making a pilgrimage to Christ present in them (cf. Mt 25, 34-36) according to the usual spiritual, sacramental and prayer conditions. The faithful can repeat these visits throughout the Holy Year, even daily, acquiring a plenary indulgence each time.
 
 
b.       To develop a spirit of penance and fasting.
 
The Decree stays: “The Jubilee Plenary Indulgence can also be obtained through initiatives that put into practice, in a concrete and generous way, the spirit of penance which is, in a sense, the soul of the Jubilee. In particular the penitential nature of Friday can be rediscovered through abstaining, in a spirit of penance, at least for one day of the week from futile distractions (real but also virtual distractions, for example, the use of the media and/or social networks), from superfluous consumption (for example by fasting or practicing abstinence according to the general norms of the Church and the indications of the Bishops), as well as by donating a proportionate sum of money to the poor; by supporting works of a religious or social nature, especially in support of the defense and protection of life in all its phases, but also by supporting the quality of life of abandoned children, young people in difficulty, the needy or lonely elderly people, or migrants from various countries; it can also be obtained by dedicating a reasonable portion of one’s free time to voluntary activities that are of service to the community or to other similar forms of personal commitment.
 
c.        Formation in the teaching of the Second Vatican
 
   Then Decree states: In addition, the faithful will be able to obtain the Jubilee Indulgence if, with a devout spirit, they participate in popular missions, spiritual exercises, or formation activities on the documents of the Second Vatican Council and the Catechism of the Catholic Church, held in a church or other suitable place, according to the mind of the Holy Father.
 
d.       Visit your local cathedral
 
   The Decree states: The faithful, pilgrims of hope, will be able to obtain the Jubilee Indulgence granted by the Holy Father if they undertake a pious pilgrimage by visiting the Cathedral or other church or sacred place designated by the local Ordinary. Bishops will take into account the needs of the faithful as well as the opportunity to reinforce the concept of pilgrimage with all its symbolic significance, so as to manifest the great need for conversion and reconciliation.
   Likewise, the faithful can obtain the Jubilee Indulgence if, individually or in a group, they devoutly visit any Jubilee site and there, for a suitable period of time, engage in Eucharistic adoration and meditation, concluding with the Our Father, the Profession of Faith in any legitimate form, and invocations to Mary, the Mother of God, so that in this Holy Year everyone "will come to know the closeness of Mary, the most affectionate of mothers, who never abandons her children" (Spes non confundit, 24).
 
2) Conditions for obtaining an Indulgence
 
    In addition to the specific acts required to obtain Plenary Indulgence, the faithful must fulfill all the usual conditions, which are:
 

1. Detachment from all sin, even venial sin.
2. Sacramental confession and reception of Holy Communion.
3. Praying the ‘Our Father,’ ‘Hail Mary,’ and ‘Glory Be’ for the specific intentions of the Pope.

 
3) Plenary Indulgence in special cases
 
   The Decree takes also into consideration all those in special situations: The faithful who are truly repentant of sin but who cannot participate in the various solemn celebrations, pilgrimages and pious visits for serious reasons (especially cloistered nuns and monks, but also the elderly, the sick, prisoners, and those who, through their work in hospitals or other care facilities, provide continuous service to the sick), can obtain the Jubilee Indulgence, under the same conditions if, united in spirit with the faithful taking part in person, (especially when the words of the Supreme Pontiff or the diocesan Bishop are transmitted through the various means of communication), they recite the Our Father, the Profession of Faith in any approved form, and other prayers in conformity with the objectives of the Holy Year, in their homes or wherever they are confined (e.g. in the chapel of the monastery, hospital, nursing home, prison...) offering up their sufferings or the hardships of their lives.
 
4) Benefits of a Plenary Indulgence
 

• A plenary indulgence removes the temporal punishment for sin
• It cleanses the soul as if the person had just been baptized
• It can be applied to souls in purgatory

---

THE JUBILEE PRAYER

Father in heaven,
may the faith you have given us
in your son, Jesus Christ, our brother,
and the flame of charity enkindled
in our hearts by the Holy Spirit,
reawaken in us the blessed hope
for the coming of your Kingdom.
 
May your grace transform us
into tireless cultivators of the seeds of the Gospel.
May those seeds transform from within both humanity
and the whole cosmos
in the sure expectation
of a new heaven and a new earth,
when, with the powers of Evil vanquished,
your glory will shine eternally.
 
May the grace of the Jubilee
reawaken in us, Pilgrims of Hope,
a yearning for the treasures of heaven.
May that same grace spread
the joy and peace of our Redeemer
throughout the earth.
To you our God, eternally blessed,
be glory and praise for ever.
Amen