“O Jesus, Open to Us the Doors of All Heavenly Graces in This New Year”: Head of the UGCC on the Start of the 2025 Jubilee
Our hope is in the Lord Jesus. We rejoice today and march forward into the New Year, trusting in our Savior. We pray, O Jesus, who was born of the Virgin Mary and rests in fullness in your Church, open to us the door of all heavenly graces in this New Year. His Beatitude Sviatoslav, the Father and Head of the UGCC, emphasized this during the Divine Liturgy on the Sunday after Nativity, opening the Holy Door in the Patriarchal Cathedral in Kyiv.
On December 29, 2024, His Beatitude Sviatoslav opened the Holy Door of the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ in Kyiv before the Liturgy as a symbol of the beginning of the Jubilee Year 2025, which Pope Francis proclaimed the Year of Hope. During the Liturgy, before praying the Creed, the faithful also renewed their baptismal vows.
Delivering the sermon, the Patriarch noted that “today the hope of Ukraine is in the One in whom there is the fullness of all blessings—our Lord, Jesus Christ.”
“The Pope invites each of us to be a pilgrim of hope, calling us to walk through this Jubilee Door and to approach the Sacraments of Confession and Communion. By doing so, we are offered the opportunity to receive full indulgence—a complete liberation not only from sin but also from its consequences in our souls. Through this, the Church reminds us that in Christ, we find the answer to all of life’s questions. Therefore, when we speak of the search for justice, we speak of Christ Jesus,” added the Primate.
Explaining the Gospel of Matthew 2, 13-23 describing the events after the birth of Jesus Christ, namely the fleeing of the Holy Family to Egypt, Herod’s murder of the Bethlehem babies, the life of Jesus with Mary and Joseph in Egypt and their return to the land of Israel, the preacher emphasized that “Jesus is the core of history. He is the answer to all the questions that the prophets asked, people sought, which the Lord answers today.”
“All the fullness of life, all the fullness of both divine and human life is in the person of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,” His Beatitude Sviatoslav emphasized.
The Head of the UGCC emphasized that today, with the opening of the Holy Doors in cathedrals around the world, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church launches the Jubilee Year of Hope: “Today, when we hear the word of fullness, of accomplishment, we have solemnly begun a new Jubilee year.”
“I congratulate you today on the upcoming calendar year, which we have now begun by opening this Jubilee Door. Pope Francis, when proclaiming the new Jubilee Year, called it the Year of Hope, pointing out that the source of Christian hope is the person of Jesus Christ, the One in whom all fullness rests, the One in whom the person of the third millennium finds anew the fulfillment of their own life’s vocation and destiny. In Christ, everything that happens to us is fulfilled—both now and in the coming year,” said His Beatitude Sviatoslav.
The UGCC Department for Information
