Pope Francis has declared 2025 a Jubilee Year with the theme, “Pilgrims of Hope.” For Benedict, our entire life is a pilgrimage of hope, one where we are to “run while we have the light of life” towards our heavenly home. Benedict and Pope Francis are there to guide us on our way and we’re grateful, that you are with us on this pilgrimage.
The Jubilee Year tradition predates Benedict by at least a thousand years — it goes back to the Hebrew Scriptures’ Book of Leviticus. It includes a homecoming call to return to one’s ancestral land, the forgiveness of debts, the freeing of slaves, and the return of land to original owners. In other words, the Jubilee Year is about recognizing that even in our broken humanness and frailty, we have a home, we are to care for each other and our earth, we belong to God. And because we belong to God we can live as pilgrims of hope, choosing mercy, forgiveness, and compassion.
St. Benedict would be among the ranks of those joining Pope Francis in finding hope through living the biblical tradition of Jubilee.
Why? Because Benedict was very clear in the Gospel life he offered his followers, telling them at the outset that such living would be difficult, that his wasn’t pie-in-the-sky piety. He knew that hope is an act of will that requires conscious effort until the day we die. It’s something we bear witness to when we choose Jesus’ way of mercy and forgiveness and something we share when we respond with compassion to the needs of others. Will you join us in making this conscious effort with a financial gift?
The Benedictine Sisters have been physically serving our brothers and sisters in Erie since 1856. We don’t have to return home this Jubilee Year because we are home, committed to our local region through our ministries, our hospitality at the monastery, and our collaboration with our neighbors in local organizations committed to building spaces where justice, peace, and love can grow. Hope is in many ways local because mercy, forgiveness, and compassion are embodied where we are planted. When we protect the immigrant, welcome the stranger, feed the hungry, comfort the sick and lonely, care for the children, tend the earth respectfully, and do it all from a spiritual center, we are hope. Your support gives us hope and helps us embody the Jubilee message to the best of our ability.
Yet, it is hard to imagine how Benedict would encourage his monks to live in today’s world where a women’s monastery in Erie, Pennsylvania, can have a virtual global presence and a real impact beyond our walls. But we can be sure he would still champion hope and Jubilee. It might more closely resemble a “trickle up” effort—we live Jubilee as best we can where we are and with enough of us making a local difference the hope will trickle up and out in ever wider circles.
Pope Francis tells us that “we are called to be tangible signs of hope for those of our brothers and sisters who experience hardship of any kind.” Bringing hope to our world is the light of our life, and, as Benedict encourages in his Rule, we must run while we have this light of life.
May God bless you with hope,
Stephanie Schmidt, OSB
Prioress
P.S. If you have already responded to our appeal, we thank you. If you are able to help us now, we thank you.
