On the road to Jubilee of Hope The month of May stands out as a privileged time for experiencing the spiritual dimension of the Holy Year through the simple but profound signs of Marian piety. Since its origins, the Church has recognized in these expressions of faith an open door to what is essential: the personal encounter with God and the conversion of the heart.
In the bull "Spes non confundit"Pope Francis recalls the singular importance of Marian shrines as places where the faithful can experience the divine presence with particular intensity. In these sacred spaces, many find consolation, peace, encouragement and hope for their lives. It is not by chance, Francis stresses, "that popular piety continues to invoke the Blessed Virgin as Stella maris, a title expressive of the certain hope that, in the stormy events of life, the Mother of God comes to our aid, sustains us and invites us to trust and to continue to hope" (n. 24).
Marian devotion, a living and missionary expression of faith
During this Marian month, the Jubilee 2025 naturally intertwines with popular devotion to the Virgin Mary. In many dioceses and parishes, community moments of Marian prayer are planned: processions, rosaries, youth vigils and local pilgrimages that express the faith of the people.
As the Pope pointed out in the exhortation "Evangelii gaudium" (2013) - and previously in the Aparecida Document (2007) -, popular piety constitutes "a legitimate way of living the faith, a way of feeling part of the Church, and a way of being missionaries" (n. 124). This religiosity, Francis adds, possesses "an actively evangelizing force that cannot be underestimated" (n. 126), since it represents an authentic expression of the spontaneous missionary action of the People of God.
Pompeii: 150 years of devotion
In this jubilee context, the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the painting of Our Lady of the Rosary in Pompeii takes on special relevance. This significant event is commemorated every year in the Neapolitan sanctuary on May 8 (the date on which the construction of the basilica began in 1876) and on the first Sunday of October with the traditional and solemn Supplication.
On the occasion of this anniversary, Pope Francis sent a letter to the Archbishop Prelate of Pompeii Tommaso Caputo stressing that the Rosary, although "a simple tool accessible to all, can support the renewed evangelization to which the Church is called today". For this reason, he stressed the importance of bringing this practice closer to young people, "so that they feel it not as something repetitive and monotonous, but as an act of love that never tires of pouring itself out."
Mary, companion on our path of hope
In an address to shrine rectors in November 2018, Francis recalled that, in most shrines dedicated to Marian piety, "the Virgin Mary opens wide the arms of her maternal love to hear the supplication of each one and grant it."
And as she expressed in Fatima on May 13, 2017, "We have a Mother! Clinging to her as children, let us live from the hope that rests on Jesus." A hope that, as he always reminds us in "Spes non confundit," finds in Mary "its highest witness," not "a futile optimism, but a gift of grace in the realism of life."
