The Year of Prayer 2024 and The Jubilee Year 2025
The Year of Prayer
In preparation for the 2025 Jubilee Year 'Pilgrims of Hope', 2024 has been designated a Year of Prayer by Pope Francis.
There is a particular focus on the Our Father, and this presents us with a great opportunity to go back to the basics of prayer.
Our Father, 
Who art in Heaven,
hallowed be Thy name;
Thy Kingdom come,
Thy will be done
on earth as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
Amen.
If the Gospel is a message of Joy, then it is one we should be eager to share with others, and this can be done especially by inviting people to a deeper, prayerful encounter with Jesus Christ this year.
On Evangelii Gaudium Sunday (Sept 2023) the Diocesan Office for Mission encouraged every Catholic to reflect on their life of prayer: what they pray, how they pray, and why they pray. This is for two reasons:
To encourage people to go deeper in their commitment to pray, and in their love of God;
To think about how they might accompany someone else to pray during the coming Year of Prayer.
The Office for Mission is now providing suggestions and resources on the Year of Prayer.
Paul Northam, from the Office for Mission, is the Diocesan Co-ordinator for the Jubilee Year 2025.
2025 Jubilee Year
The official Jubilee website states: After the year devoted to reflecting on the documents and studying the fruits of the Second Vatican Council, Pope Francis has proposed that 2024 should be marked as a year dedicated to prayer. In preparation for the Jubilee, dioceses are invited to promote initiatives to remind people of the centrality of both individual prayer and community prayer.
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
Official Hymn for the Jubilee:
Keep an eye on our Catholic Life of our School page to find out how we are celebarting the Year of Prayer.
St Mary's Catholic Academy - 2023 - 2024 (stmarysstoke.co.uk)
Resources for the Year of Prayer from the Archdiocese of Birmingham Vocation Office