Forget old hurts and forgive – bishop says for 2025 Jubilee Year

The Jubilee Year of Hope is a chance for a fresh start and time a return to the heart of Jesus, Bishop Alan McGuckian declared after officially opening the Holy Door in St Peter’s Cathedral, Belfast.

The Bishop of Down and Connor told a packed congregation on Sunday that everyone has the ability to begin again.

“The new beginning we are talking about is not about us,” he said. “The same Jesus who grew in wisdom and stature, wonderfully and wondrously, is the one who will grow in wisdom and stature in us. Whether we feel we are too old, or too tired, or too weak, or too sinful or too empty, there is another new start in us.”

Speaking to 700 Mass-goers, Bishop McGuckian said: “In one way or another we are all in a prison or various kinds of prisons and Jesus is the door out of my prison or our prison. What is your spiritual prison? What would you like to be released from during this Jubilee Year?

“For some of us, it is a prison of fear that saps our energy and keep us focused on ourselves, for some of us it is holding onto old hurts and inability to forgive, or a sense of unworthiness our sins loom so large we don’t experience the mercy Jesus has come to pour out upon us.”

He cited opportunities for pilgrimage to Rome, Fatima or Lourdes as well as places closer to home such as Lough Derg or Saul, Co Down, where St Patrick began his mission in Ireland.