Pope Francis' Message for Lent 2025 has as its theme, “Let us journey together in hope”. This year's Lenten season begins on 5 March, Ash Wednesday, and ends on 17 April, Holy Thursday.
The Holy Father's Message is inspired by the Jubilee 2025 theme “Pilgrims of Hope”.
“This Lent, as we share in the grace of the Jubilee Year, I would like to propose a few reflections on what it means to journey together in hope, and on the summons to conversion that God in his mercy addresses to all of us, as individuals and as a community,” Pope Francis writes.
In his Message, the Holy Father underlines that to journey “evokes the lengthy journey of the people of Israel to the Promised Land” and adds that “a first call to conversion thus comes from the realization that all of us are pilgrims in this life”, as we reflected during World Day of Migrants and Refugees 2024.
Secondly, the Pope underlines that this journey is made together and explains that “Christians are called to walk at the side of others, and never as lone travelers”, it is necessary “to walk together, to be synodal” because “this is the vocation of the Church”.
In conclusion, the Holy Father affirms that it is necessary “to journey together in hope, for we have been given a promise”, in that “hope does not disappoint” (Rom 5:5).
This is the third call to conversion, which is the central message of the Jubilee, “a call to hope, to trust in God and his great promise of eternal life”. For this reason, the Pope encourages us so that hope “may be the focus of our Lenten journey towards the victory of Easter”.