We end and start the year with hope

When the late Pope Francis opened the Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica inside Vatican on Dec. 24, 2024, it heralded the Jubilee of Hope, a tradition celebrated every 25 years by the Catholic church.

- By DOROTHY DELGADO NOVICIO

Pilgrims thronged to the Eternal City to join in commemorative activities at St. Peter's and in Rome's three major basilicas. I count myself blessed to have participated in these events with my sisters in faith and to have visited other pilgrimage sites before heading to Rome.After that time of refreshment and renewal, I still feel overwhelmed by the ambiguities and distractions of our fast-changing world. Yet I am infinitely grateful to my Catholic faith. While it is a struggle to model from the life of great saints, their witness and life of virtue centered on faith, hope and charity serve as inspiration from where we can anchor the things we wish for ourselves and for humanity. They are fountains of hope - stories that are worth telling repeatedly.

In the Normandy region, northwestern side of France, about three hours away by train from Paris, is the quaint town of Alençon. Among the pilgrimage places in France, it is less popular compared to Lourdes and Lisieux.

In the quietude of Alençon sometime in the mid-19th century, the seeds of faith planted by a couple named Louis and Żelie Martin sprouted and bore fruit, eventually giving their family one of the most revered saints of the Catholic church in the person of St. Therese of the Child Jesus. As if one saint in the family is not enough, at the time of the canonization of Saints Louis and Zelie in 2015, Leonie, their little less known daughter, was declared "Servant of God," the first stage for the cause of sainthood.