Lent During the Holy Year of Hope: Uncovering Signs of Hope – Becoming Beacons of Hope
The Third Week of Lent: He redeems your life from destruction, crowns you with kindness and compassion. (Ps. 103:4)
In Spes Non Confundit or “Hope does not disappoint” (Rom 5:5), the Papal Bull that officially established the Holy Year of Jubilee 2025, Pope Francis invites us on the one hand to discover signs of hope in our world and on the other hand to be “tangible signs of hope for those brothers and sisters who experience hardships of any kind.” Recognizing that the lives of too many people are marked by darkness and despair, this Lenten Season is an opportunity for us to extend light and hope to people who experience different kinds of hardships. In Spes Non Confundit the Pope asks us to extend kindness to our children and young people who often “see their dreams and aspirations frustrated.”
During his opening address at the first global Summit on Children’s Rights held in the Vatican on February 3, 2025, Pope Francis told world leaders that “nothing is worth more than the life of a child.” He implored those present to protect our children and youth who too often are victims of conflict, poverty, migration and of a “throwaway culture.”
A year earlier, in his message to the 2024 World Youth Day Pope Francis wrote that our times are marked by “the tragedy of war, social injustices, inequalities, hunger and the exploitation of human beings and the natural environment.” As a result, “the ones who pay the highest price are young people” who “sense the uncertainty of the future and are not sure about where their dreams will lead.
Rather than being mere tourists on this planet, Pope Francis challenged the youth and all of us to be pilgrims on our earthly journey by engaging deeply with the world and one another, avoiding the temptation of superficiality. Do not be “like superficial sightseers, blind to the beauty around you, never discovering the meaning of the roads you take, interested only in a few fleeting moments to capture in a selfie,” he wrote. That is what tourists do. “Pilgrims, on the other hand, immerse themselves fully in the places they encounter, listen to the message they communicate, and make them a part of their quest for happiness and fulfilment.”
During this third week of Lent let’s pay special attention to our children and our young people and allow for the miracle of hope to happen through the three disciplines of Lent.
Abstinence (fasting):
Every year on the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, the Pope baptizes the children of Vatican employees born the previous year. This tradition was started by St. John Paul II and has been continued by successive popes. It is one of a handful of liturgies that take place in the Sistine chapel.
On January 12, 2020, while Pope Francis presided over this service, some of the children started crying. Rather than losing his patience or becoming frustrated, Pope Francis said: “Let the children cry. It is a beautiful homily when a child cries in church, a beautiful homily.”
Let’s take this to heart. We have many young families in our parish. The voices of their children often reverberate in The Basilica. This is a beautiful thing, something to be celebrated. Let’s not allow frustration to take hold, rather let’s embrace the beauty of the future of our church and thank parents for bringing their children to church.
Appeal (prayer):
In a message to children, leading up to the Catholic Church’s first World Children’s Day, which took place in Rome May 25-26, 2024, Pope Francis reminded them that prayer is the key to happiness and cultivating a personal relationship with Christ forms the basis of social action. “Prayer,” the Pope wrote “connects us directly to God. Prayer fills our hearts with light and warmth” and “it helps us to do everything with confidence and peace of mind.”
He then suggested that children pray the Lord’s prayer in the morning and in the evening while carefully pondering the words. They can do that by themselves, but it would be even more fruitful according to Pope Francis if the family did this together.
If you don’t pray together with your family yet or even individually, marking the beginning and the end of the day with the Lord’s Prayer is a good start. Since we are members of a church dedicated to the Blessed Mother we might want to add a Hail Mary as well.
Action (almsgiving):
Speaking to representatives of the Italian Red Cross on Paril 6, 2024, Pope Francis emphasized that “each person is sacred.” He went on to explain that “every human creation is loved by God and, because of this, the bearer of inalienable human rights.” He implored everyone present to be close to all our sisters and brothers, no matter their “physical condition, abilities, place of origin or social status.” This is of the greatest importance in our times “when racism and contempt are growing like weeds.”
In the face of all that is going on in our world, making a difference may seem like a daunting task, and yet, in the same way as we can train ourselves to pray by reciting the Lord’s Prayer twice a day, we can train ourselves to be better people by taking small incremental steps. The most important thing is to approach others with generosity rather than with suspicion, with a smile rather than with a growl. We can indeed make the world better, one small step at a time.
And please remember to be patient with yourself. Lent is neither an endurance test nor a demonstration of Christian heroism. Instead, it is a period for reflection on the core aspects of our faith and mend our lives accordingly. It is important to proceed at a manageable pace and to be patient with yourself and others.
Johan van Parys, PhD
Managing Director of Ministries/ Director of Liturgy & Sacred Arts