As with every journey, preparation can make or break the experience. You can book the best flights and the right hotels, pack all the right clothes and plan your tours but inevitably you will have to adjust for unforeseen circumstances — weather, travel delays, illness and a myriad of other things. We’ve all experienced it as I write this from the tarmac in Rome where we’ve been delayed several hours and are likely to miss our connection home.
Our pilgrimage through the holy doors in this Jubilee Year 2025, the year of hope, was truly a journey in every sense for our preparation went far beyond booking flights and transfers, choosing the right hotel or packing the right things to wear. Preparation for this journey started almost two years ago when my husband and I set our hearts on taking a pilgrimage of faith with our daughter to celebrate her promotion from middle school to high school.
When in Rome visiting the Vatican in 2023 with my husband, our tour guide Christina, a fellow Catholic, exclaimed her enthusiasm for the coming Jubilee celebrations in 2025, imploring us to come back to experience it. The hope and jubilation of her invitation was truly contagious and before we even left Rome, we were already planning our return.
Our journey through the holy doors of three of the four major basilicas was guided by Fabiola, a lifelong Catholic and native Italian. Despite the countless tours she had already led, she had not yet traveled through the holy doors in this Jubilee Year, explaining that it hadn’t felt like the right time but now she was both ready and excited. “We’ll all go together!” Fabiola exclaimed as we started our ambitious tour weaving through heavy traffic and record high temperatures. Fellowship proved to be an important piece of this journey for Fabiola and for me, too. It would not have felt the same without my husband and daughter. Sharing our impressions, thoughts and prayers, and simply being together made it profoundly more memorable and transcendent.
Not only did we travel through the holy doors at St. Paul Outside the Walls, St. John Lateran, and St. Mary Major but we observed the procession of faithful climbing prayerfully on their hands and knees up the Scala Santa (the marble steps that Jesus climbed to the Roman Praetorium in Jerusalem where he would be condemned to death by Pontius Pilate). It was an incredibly sacred sight and a difficult physical feat. Students, Religious, old and young, Catholics and non from various corners of the world were crawling in Christ’s footsteps. It was a stark reminder that people all around us in everyday life are walking or crawling in the footsteps of Christ. I prayed for wisdom and patience to show grace to those around me who may look like they are walking but are really crawling.
Our passage through the holy door at St. Peter’s Basilica was scheduled for the following day but as I alluded to regarding the best laid plans, we had to adjust our scheduled visit for an untimely closure to accommodate the thousands of priests and bishops celebrating the Jubilee with our beloved Pope Leo XIV. The sea of Religious was a beautiful and reaffirming vision of our future and made for an easily forgivable inconvenience.
So, what was the experience like? Well, it might be mistaken for the simple and unremarkable act of walking through an open doorway. For someone unprepared, distracted or disinterested, it is exactly like walking through an open door. If however, you prepared your heart through confession, anticipated and prayed, the experience is remarkable and even transformational.
First, there is the sheer enormity of the doors to each basilica. As with all the religious symbolism and architecture throughout Rome, the doors are ornate and tell stories of the life of Jesus Christ and the Catholic church. Art in all its forms—frescoes, mosaics, sculpture, bronze work and more was essential to bringing people of all languages, geographic and economic backgrounds into the church both literally and figuratively.
Secondly, while we had the luxury of passing quietly through the Holy Doors of St. Paul Outside the Walls slowly at our own pace and relatively alone, the other doors were more crowded and rushed. It would be easy to lose the sanctity of the moment if not for preparation.
Especially at St. Peter’s, the throng of people crashing through the doorway eager to get inside for a variety of reasons (escaping the blinding afternoon sun for a practical one) made preparation even more important. There was no time to fumble for words or look up the right incantation, you had to be ready to recite the prayer in your heart, be calm and unflustered by the push of people, unnerved by the volume of other pilgrims wondering aloud in awe at the sight of this grand and sacred place.
While our passage through the holy doors at St. Mary Major was highly anticipated, we visited the modest tomb of our beloved Papa Francisco with equal reverence and anticipation. What a beautiful resting place, simply set and unassuming in stark contrast to the elaborate tombs of so many popes before him. Our tour guide who had visited before was moved to tears on this occasion, caught up in an unpredictable moment of grief, an act of true love for a man she knew deeply and had met briefly once. I felt that fellowship. Being in the presence of people who understand our grief gives us permission to feel it.
Pope Francis officially proclaimed the Jubilee and perhaps it could only have been God’s plan that Pope Leo XIV was to see it through. The rigor of activities is overwhelming to even read about. But what a profound testament to the power of faith to see the crowds build in St. Peter’s Square, to wait hours in weather of all kinds and remain undeterred, singing and praying in every imaginable language under the banner of their church, youth group, league or school. I watched awestruck from Castel Sant’Angelo to see the crowds patiently wait to begin the long walk to wait again outside the doors. Preparation, anticipation and fellowship in the Catholic Church fuels the most remarkable acts of love and devotion. I witnessed it, and I feel strengthened and comforted knowing I am part of something much greater than myself.
In another 25 years we can anticipate another Jubilee. (I heard a rumor that there may be one even sooner, but I don’t know anything about the rules that dictate whether something like that is possible). I hope that I am in a position to make another pilgrimage but if I am not, I will still prepare and seek fellowship in the celebration. In some ways the most important part of our trip was everything leading up to it. The preparation, anticipation and fellowship of the Jubilee can be recreated in every home and parish.
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