Pope Leo XIV carries the Jubilee Cross as he walks to the altar before the start of a prayer vigil with young people gathered in Tor Vergata in Rome Aug. 2, 2025, during the Jubilee of Youth. CNS PHOTO/LOLA GOMEZ
Pilgrims of Hope: Trust as the Key
Editor’s note: In celebration of the Jubilee of Hope, The Western Kentucky Catholic has launched Pilgrims of Hope, a yearlong blog series inspired by Pope Francis’ Bull of Indiction of the Ordinary Jubilee of the Year 2025: “My thoughts turn to all those pilgrims of hope who will travel to Rome in order to experience the Holy Year and to all those others who, though unable to visit the City of the Apostles Peter and Paul, will celebrate it in their local Churches.” Blog reflections will be written by individuals from across the Diocese of Owensboro, sharing their unique perspectives on the virtue of hope in a world that so greatly needs it.
BY PHILOMENA HEMPEL
Hope and trust are, for me, intimately intertwined with each other. Without trust in my Creator, hope is empty, flat, and without buoyancy, easily shattered and rejected. Placing my trust in Him, however, changes everything: I can find joyful expectation in every aspect of my life, even the most mundane or difficult.
Growing up I had grand dreams especially when it came to my vocation and the spiritual life. I desired happiness and fulfillment, but thought and lived like it was all on my shoulders to achieve the happy ending my heart so desperately yearned for. I hoped after good things, but hadn’t yet learned to entrust those desires to the Lord in order that He lead me to the best things.
During my late teens and early twenties there were times that, were I to be asked about hope, I might have responded by saying it would be better to stop hoping because it just brings heartbreak, disappointment, and pain. During college I struggled with hope even more as I saw the people around me moving off into the lives they had dreamed about while I saw no such future forming for myself. By the grace of God I threw myself at the feet of Jesus over and over, and He began to show me that I needed to trust Him; without this, my hope would only be shattered again and again because I was basing it on my own abilities and on worldly matters which could not hold the weight of the great desires He had placed within me.
As I began to walk the way of trustful hope, I discovered what an adventure life is. In waiting. In desire. In suffering. In stillness. In silence. In adventure. In peace. In difficulty. Life was no longer a waiting game hoping for some distant dream to materialize but a current reality to be lived, every moment having hope and trust that the next moment would be provided for and would bring me closer to the One who had captured my heart.
Living hope in trust isn’t a one-and-done deal. As convenient as it would be to make a one-time act of great hope and live joyfully ever after, that’s not how this works. We are pilgrims on the journey – pilgrims of hope – and that means we will be climbing mountains some days, walking along beautiful scenery others, and trudging through deserts on yet other days. Every day is a day of surrender. Of trust. Of hope in my God who will not abandon me.
And that hope has been what has made my days not just something to continue through because I don’t have a choice, but a choice which I can make with great joy and excitement. In the end, true hope isn’t about just wanting nice things: it is about desiring after the greatest Good. And that is a hope which will never disappoint.
Philomena Hempel is the director of campus ministry for Murray State University’s Newman Center, which is located beside St. Leo Catholic Church, a Diocese of Owensboro pilgrimage site during the 2025 Jubilee of Hope. To learn more about the Newman Center, visit https://www.catholicracers.org/.
To learn more about the Diocese of Owensboro’s celebration of the Jubilee Year of Hope 2025 visit https://owensborodiocese.org/jubilee-year-pilgrims-of-hope/.
