Journeying with Hope: Visit of CAFOD's Jubilee Icon

Image: Mulugeta Araya/CAFOD

Source: Westminster Diocese

CAFOD's Jubilee Icon is visiting "Places of Hope" across the Diocese of Westminster this December. The Icon, commissioned to celebrate the Jubilee Year, was created by artist Mulugeta Araya in Ethiopia, for the Catholic Church in England and Wales.

To see a full list of the places where the Icon will be displayed, please see here.

The Icon will be finishing its tour of the Diocese in Westminster Cathedral, where it will be from Monday 22nd - Friday 26th December.

To accompany the Icon's visit, the Diocese have produced a Prayer and Reflection Resources Booklet, to help individuals, groups and parishes to pray with the Icon.

The Icon depicts Luke 4:16-21, where Jesus unrolls and reads the scroll of Isaiah: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set a liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour".

In the reflection booklet to accompany the Diocesan tour, Fr Patrick van der Vorst, Precentor of the Cathedral and Founder of Christian Art, reminds us that: "Christian art is more than decoration. It is a doorway into prayer, devotion, and divine encounter. Icons, especially, act as windows into the heavenly realm, drawing us beyond mere words into sacred presence. When we gaze at an icon, our eyes meet scriptural truths, and our pilgrim hearts are offered a path toward contemplation.

When Christians pray before this icon, we do more than just look. We watch Jesus, we listen to Him read, and we reflect on the words "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing" (Luke 4:21). The visual encounter becomes verbal encounter, communal encounter! As we meditate, we join the jubilee song of Christ for a world weighed down by injustice."

As this Jubilee Year draws to a close, Christians across the Diocese are invited to come and encounter the Icon. This Advent, may the Icon's visit remind us of God's presence in each other, enlivening our own calling to be tangible signs of hope to those who need it this Christmas.