Would you like to deepen your faith in this Jubilee Year? Register to join our webinars exploring Jubilee themes.
Did you miss our webinar on hope as a spiritual practice for the Jubilee Year? Explore the resources here.
Did you miss our webinar on rest as a spiritual practice for the Jubilee Year? Explore the resources here.
Find out more about how to be a pilgrim of hope with us in the Church's holy year.
Cultivating spiritual practices can help us to live a life that truly reflects God's presence. These practices make our faith more tangible, allowing for deeper engagement and growth.
As the theme of the Jubilee Year is Pilgrims of Hope, we are beginning by exploring Christian hope as a spiritual practice - a way of living that transcends mere optimism and does not seek an escape from the harsh realities of our world.
Let’s start by hearing from CAFOD’s Chair of the Board of Trustees, Bishop Stephen Wright.
"Hope does not disappoint” but how do we make this tangible? What does hope look like?
Take some time to look at the images below. Is there one of them which speaks of hope to you?
Or perhaps there is a different image or short sentence in your mind that expresses hope.
Take some time to ponder this before moving on.
We now invite you to look at two Picasso pictures (both are easily available by Google search).
The first is called “The Charnel House." Picasso painted this as news of the concentration camps spread to France. It’s a pile of bodies and limbs. with three identifiable figures: a woman, a man and a baby.
The second is called “First Steps.” It’s a cubist rendering of a mother supporting her child who’s learning to walk, capturing the excitement of that shared experience.
In her book “Though the Fig Tree Does Not Blossom: Toward a Responsible Theology of Christian Hope”, Professor Ellen Ott Marshall suggests that moving between these two pictures helps us to cultivate hope as a spiritual discipline.
One artwork moves us to grieve and challenge life's hardships and sorrows. The other highlights the potential for love, growth and liberation available to us now.
When we consider these two perspectives together, we can discuss hope authentically, without ignoring suffering or minimising challenges.
This isn't just about famous paintings; it's about continuously connecting with the harsh realities of the world while also recognising the resilience of individuals who, despite difficult circumstances, are actively working to resist violence and support each other.
It may surprise you to know that the Hebrew word for hope is related to the word for rope. Think of the things that have been done with a rope in people’s daily lives over the ages, lifting, climbing, gathering up and binding together, rescuing.
Perhaps we can see hope not as a rope that dangles down from heaven to help us escape the difficulties of this world, but as a resource that helps us hold things together. True Hope is about attention, losing sight neither of the horror captured in Picasso’s first picture, nor of the promise of joy captured in the second picture.
20 May 2025 marks the 1700th anniversary of the opening of the council of Nicaea, which defined the doctrine of the incarnation for the early Church.
The Vatican Theological Association has published a reflection on this which relates to our theme of hope:
“To proclaim Jesus our salvation on the basis of the faith expressed at Nicaea does not ignore the reality of humanity. It does not turn away from the sufferings and upheavals that plague the world and today seem to undermine all hope. On the contrary, it confronts these troubles by professing the only possible redemption, won by the one who experienced the violence of sin and rejection, the loneliness of abandonment and death, and who, from the very abyss of evil, rose to bring us too in his victory to the glory of the resurrection.”
It goes onto say that the most vulnerable of our sisters and brothers “are Christ among us, in the strongest possible sense.”
Katy Nembe Katonda
Take some time to read these words from Katy Nembe Katonda, from our team in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, who explains how her faith sustains her in hope even amidst the escalating conflict, which has left over 7 million people are internally displaced.
"My faith inspires my work because I always feel like today is a new day. When you have faith, you see future with hope and that's what we live by. Nothing is impossible to God.
Currently, the situation in Goma has not improved. We continue to experience the crisis due to war and this has affected very much the lives of the people that have had to be displaced.
Those are the displaced camp around Goma. But unfortunately, in a way or another, some of these people have also been victims of bombing in those camps where they thought it will be secure.
It's not only about the community that we serve, it's also about the partners that we work with... The social services, like in the context of DRC, are very much provided by the Catholic Church. Other agencies are there, but you're talking about crises that have taken so long. We have had rebels at the gates of Goma for many months and there's no sign that this is going to be ending any soon. And it feels very, very moving.
We stand with these families that really want to thrive. We work through local partners and local partners are there before the crisis, during the crisis and after the crisis.
It doesn't have to be always giving them food, giving them cash, but also encourage them, work with them, let them have faith in themselves and believe that there is a better tomorrow.
And myself, I'm Congolese and I feel so bad to see many street children that previously you could not see that number. They are begging. It is raining and they don't have somewhere else to go. You will see children shivering, pregnant women asking for help because there is no other way to survive.
The Catholic Church is a very strong player in the social economic life, but also the spiritual life of DRC community. It's also provides the social services such as schooling, hospital. In the far interior, where you cannot find any other social service, you can be sure to find the Catholic Church that we are able to reach where otherwise others are not able to reach. DRC is a huge country. The logistics are very difficult. We are able to respond to different situation in those areas, thanks to the presence of our local partners that are established. They don't come, they are there."
(Since Katy offered these words there have been further developments and the displaced people have been ordered out of the camp. Rebels have taken the town of Goma)
Reflect -
Katy has told us something of what gives her hope in a situation where there is no easy solution in sight. Can you think of other examples of hope in devastating circumstances?
Watch this short video on a project CAFOD supports in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Reflect -
In light of Daniel’s experience, what practical projects and activities can sustain hope? What could you commit to in order to be a sign of hope for other people this year?
Praise the Lord, O my soul!
I will praise the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.
Put not your trust in princes,
in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.
When his breath departs, he returns to the earth;
on that very day his plans perish.
Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord his God,
who made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them,
who keeps faith forever;
who executes justice for the oppressed,
who gives food to the hungry.
The Lord sets the prisoners free;
the Lord opens the eyes of the blind.
The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down;
the Lord loves the righteous.
The Lord watches over the sojourners;
he upholds the widow and the fatherless,
but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.
The Lord will reign forever,
your God, O Zion, to all generations.
Praise the Lord!
Psalm 146
