Year of St. Francis

In January 2026, Pope Leo XIV proclaimed a special Year of St. Francis to commemorate the 800th anniversary of the saint’s death. 

This Franciscan Jubilee Year, considered a gift for the entire Church and an occasion for authentic spiritual renewal, was inaugurated on January 10 and will last until 10 January 2027.

During this year, we will be looking closer at the values which St Francis lived his life by and thinking about how we can use his example in our own lives. To support our Franciscan journey, we will focus on monthly themes throughout the year based around spiritual renewal:

Month	Prayer Focus
Feb	Introduction to St. Francis
Mar	Creation Caring for Creation-creating a ‘Thank you God, for creation leaf’ and writing down what we are grateful for before hanging it on the tree.
Apr	Humility
May	Kindness
Jun	Peace & Reconciliation
Jul	Trust with God
Sept	Living Simply
Oct	Joy of Service
Nov	Compassion for the Sick
Dec	Faith in Action

‘Year of Jubilee’ (2025-26) in St. Mary’s:

The Jubilee Year was a landmark moment in the life of the global church. School communities were invited to join together as pilgrims of hope, pledging to work together for God’s kingdom of justice, peace and love. Every 25 years, we have a Jubilee Year, a moment of significance in the Church when we refocus and open ourselves to special graces. This Jubilee Year was entitled ‘Pilgrims of Hope’, starting on 24th December 2024 with the opening of the Holy Door in Rome. The Jubilee Year formally concluded in Rome on the Solemnity of Epiphany, 6 January 2026. St. Mary’s travelled together throughout the Jubilee Year, providing opportunities for our students to reflect on the needs of their community, consider a merciful Christ-like response and bring hope through the actions they took.

2025 was a Jubilee Year. A year to celebrate God’s love even more than usual and share that love with others. A year to show mercy and forgiveness. A time to renew our relationship with God, with one another and with the whole of creation. It was a year of justice, freedom and celebration. Pope Francis called the Jubilee Year, “Pilgrims of Hope,” and invited us to be people of hope. Hope comes from knowing that God loves each one of us and God has defeated sin and death. Hope knows that all ends well because all ends in God. God’s love wins, we know that. Therefore, we are confident that God’s love will see us all through all the difficulties in life. That is true hope.

Throughout Jubilee Year, we made our very own Jubilee pledges, a shared commitment to honour our past, celebrate the present, and work together to build a hopeful future for all. To support our Pilgrims of Hope Journey, we focused on monthly themes throughout the year based around the theme of hope. On Jubilee Day in June, pupils from St Mary’s, proudly captured our thoughts for the Jubilee Year of Hope using fabric and haberdashery. The children, supported by their grown ups, created a ‘square of hope’ and these were assembled to make our Jubilee Blanket which takes pride of place near the entrance to school.