"Our ability to hope is rooted in our faith"

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

Today we begin a journey of faith through the Jubilee Year 2025. Our Holy Father, Pope Francis, has provided a beautiful theme for this Jubilee Year quoting from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans (5:5), Spes non Confundit – “Hope does not disappoint.”

Our ability to hope is rooted in our faith which is a sure sign of hope.

As we celebrate the feast of the Holy Family, we are reminded of the beginning of hope, peace, joy, and happiness found in the family. Jesus was born into a family. Mary and Joseph, two humans, welcomed among them the divine Son of God. Through Mary’s humanity, God now shares our humanity and together with Joseph the Holy Family becomes the model for every family.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life” (John 3:16).

When Jesus is welcomed into and becomes the center focus of the family, the family has the grace and potential to be a dwelling of love and hope. Without him we have no hope. When the disciples of Jesus questioned his promise of eternal life, Jesus responded: “For human beings this is impossible, but for God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26).

This simple make-up of persons, the humble virgin, the Carpenter of Nazareth, and Jesus, the divine among the human persons gives meaning to all families. It is the sign of hope for all humanity. God can and will dwell with the family that keeps Jesus at their heart.

As we initiate this Holy Jubilee Year of 2025, the Holy Year of Hope, let us look to the family as a true sign of hope for today and the future. The family, often characterized as irrelevant, is truthfully the Welcome Center for every human person.

I encourage all of you to give welcome to Jesus in your family this year. Pray together, spend more time together with family, listen to one another, help each other carry the crosses of life, reconcile and forgive one another, spend time with those who are elderly, sick, poor or forgotten. These and so many other family undertakings can bring a new enthusiasm for the beauty and joy of being a family.

I invite you to visit together the six holy sites in the diocese designated as pilgrimage sites during this year. Each site bears the name of Our Lady of Guadalupe and one of Our Mother Thrice Admirable. Other activities and explanations are available on our website.

May God and all the Saints, especially the persons of the Holy Family give you personally and as a family the graces you need to be People of Hope.

Very sincerely yours in Christ,

Most Reverend W. Michael Mulvey
Bishop of Corpus Christi