Welcome to Burleigh Heads Catholic Parish

The Year of Prayer 2024 and

The Jubilee Year 2025

Pope Francis has asked Catholics to dedicate 2024 to intensifying their prayer lives in preparation for the celebration of the Holy Year 2025.

‘In this Year of Prayer, all communities are invited to promote times of Eucharistic Adoration, an indispensable element for encountering the Lord,’ the booklet says. While ‘each community should find the most appropriate ways and times to develop this practice that brings so many fruits of holiness to the Church,’ the resource guide provides suggestions.

The Catholic Church began celebrating Holy Years in the 1300s as ‘a special time to meditate on the great gift of divine mercy that always awaits us, as well as the importance of inner conversion,’ the booklet’s introduction says. The Year of Prayer is meant to help Catholics individually and as a community to prepare to receive God’s grace.

‘May prayer be the compass that guides, the light that illuminates the path and the strength that sustains us on the pilgrimage that will lead to entering the Holy Door,’ the traditional sign of having made a jubilee pilgrimage, the booklet says. ‘Through prayer, may we arrive at the Holy Door with our hearts ready to welcome the gifts of grace and forgiveness that the Jubilee offers as a vivid expression of our relationship with God.’

In Luke’s Gospel we find Jesus’ disciples coming to the Master with a profound and significant plea, «Lord, teach us to pray» (Lk 11:1). This request, which certainly reflects an awareness of their inadequacy and of the need for even practical guidance on how to pray, also conceals, at its core, a dimension inherent in every person: the need for a teacher, a guide to accompany them toward the most important things in life. In the school of a master, the disciple can only grow if he follows in the tracks of the one before him: in fact, by walking in the same footsteps as the master, he will be able to grasp his master’s skill and, slowly, the sense of emulation will emerge which one day will enable him to attain the same knowledge: «you are my friends if you do what I command», «the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these» (Jn 15:12; 14:12). These words are experienced by the disciples, even as far as prayer is concerned. Being in the Master’s presence, they are attracted to his way of praying, his withdrawal to a deserted place, and his relationship with the Father that is also manifested through consciousness deeply rooted in continuous prayer.

Please join our Parish Family in:

Mass

Divine Office

Adoration

Benediction

Retreats

Processions

Rosary

Prayer Groups

Meditation Groups

Personal private prayer

Adult Education Sessions

Lectio Divina

(Check newsletter for details).

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