The year 2025 will be a year of challenges and blessings. Pope Francis calls us to be a “People of Hope” in this coming Jubilee Year, the 10^th Anniversary of Laudato Si reminds us of the challenge to renew the earth and the 800^th anniversary of St. Francis writing the Canticle of Creation beckons us to recognize our oneness with all Creation. The Season of Advent brings a needed message of hope for the present world in which we live. People on every continent are waiting again for someone to bring sanity to a world that seems to have gone wild with hatred, individuality and greed. Nations at war with each other and within themselves, disasters bringing devastation by fire and floods, nature crying out to be saved, all these things prey on our minds and form our intercessions in prayer as we await a time of peace and justice to reign.