Spain

Jubilee years in Spain, 2018 a year of grace

Omnes-March 15, 2018-Reading time: 3 minutes

After the lebaniego year and Caravaca, Seville, Valencia, Avila and Pamplona are some of the dioceses celebrating a jubilee this year. 

This decade has been a time of grace for the Church in Spain. Jubilees are spread all over the country. If in 2017, for example, the holy years in Santo Toribio de Liébana and Caravaca were closed, in 2018 others are celebrated in Covadonga or in Madrid on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the consecration of the Almudena Cathedral.

2,600 people attended the opening of the holy door in the first Teresian Jubilee YearThis is a special grace granted by Pope Francis that will be carried out every time the feast of the saint falls on a Sunday. This Jubilee Year is being celebrated in the diocese of Avila and in Alba de Tormes (diocese of Salamanca). At the opening Mass, Cardinal Blázquez defined the saint as "...".a spiritual authority, a mother who deserves to be heard, who feeds us with the bread of intelligence and gives us the water of wisdom to drink.".

Walk with determination is the title of the pastoral letter that serves as a guide for this year of grace, a title that is an invitation to be ready to walk the path as the saint did in her day, since she understood the Christian's life as a path of perfection.

Madrid is also celebrating the Jubilee Year of the Temple of saint Mary Magdalenein the Chamartín district, which is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its canonical erection. The parish has a very close look at the faithful and the poor. "The church is open all day long, from 8:00 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. We try to keep the presence of the priests as continuous as possible. We try to make the presence of the priests as continuous as possible."explains the parish priest, Francisco Javier Ardila. In addition to this anniversary, Madrid hosts other jubilee years such as that of the Oratory of the Caballero de Gracia on the occasion of the V centenary of his birth by Jacobo Gratij, or that of the Christ of Health due to the centenary of the parish.

In the Levant, 2018 is also a jubilee year. The Holy See has granted a holy year to the Valencian hamlet of El Palmar. The reason is the 75th anniversary of the image of the Cristo de la Salud (Christ of Health)which is venerated in the parish of Jesuset del Hort. The devotion began centuries ago, but acquired special importance in the nineteenth century on the occasion of the plague and cholera epidemics that ravaged Valencia. The parish priest, Gonzalo Albero, hopes that "this holy year is a time of grace and renewal for the whole parish and an opportunity to open the doors of the parish to the whole diocese so that different groups, movements... can gain the Jubilee grace and obtain the plenary indulgence.".

In Soria they also have a jubilee year on the occasion of the 75 years of the permanent exposition of the Blessed Sacrament in the monastery church of St. Dominicof the Poor Clares of Soria. As in the parish of St. Mary Magdalene, the church of St. Dominic of Soria is open all day long, from seven in the morning until nine in the evening. The community of nuns seeks to extend and promote the adoration and love of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.

Andalusia also has a Jubilee year in Seville, due to the 275th anniversary of the existence of the Sacramental Brotherhood of San Juan Bautista in the parish of San Juan de Aznalfarache. The Archbishop of Seville, Msgr. Asenjo, said, upon hearing the news of the granting of this grace, that "the Archbishop of Seville, Mons.will be for all a salvation event, a real step of the Lord with the brotherhood and each of its members to renew them, convert them, recreate them and rejuvenate and energize their Christian life.". The brotherhood has prepared a series of sessions in which various topics such as the work of the brotherhoods and confraternities at the service of the Church, the figure of Jesus of Nazareth...

And back to the north, Pamplona is celebrating the Holy Jubilee of San Fermín on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the consecration of the altar and chapel of the saint in the church of San Lorenzo. The diocese hopes that this year will be an exaltation of the figure of the martyr, in whose honor one of the most popular feasts in the world is celebrated.

Spain has the grace that this 2018 is a full-fledged jubilee year.

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