A Jubilee of Hope stamp designed by Hunter Dickens is shown, featuring an anchor and angels holding palms. Dickens is a seminarian for the Diocese of Owensboro. COURTESY OF HUNTER DICKENS
Pilgrims of Hope: Leaving a Mark of Hope
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 HUNTER DICKENS
This summer I was fortunate to work at Gasper River Catholic Youth Camp, spending each week growing around the Jubilee theme as “Pilgrims of Hope.” It was a great source of inspiration to join the kids and other counselors in prayer, hunting for geodes by the river, and working together through obstacles whether on the ropes course or in coming to know Christ more fully.
Over the course of the 10 weeks, hundreds of kids came through camp, and I wanted to try to “leave a mark” with them like they did for me. Visually this became a rubber stamp I designed, meant for paper but commonly ending up on muddy hands, sweaty arms, and (against my request) even foreheads.
Starting across the middle of this symbol you’ll see the handshake taken from our diocesan coat of arms and our Kentucky state flag. In God we walk together with those around us on earth and those in heaven. This fraternal idea is stated by St. Augustine in Pope Leo’s motto, “In the One, we are one.”
My time with the campers filled me with hope for the future and I can honestly say I fell in love with the people of our diocese. Even long days in the Kentucky heat and humidity were almost easy spent with the kids and sharing in their youthful excitement. Each day God gives us countless of these reminders of hope if we are open to them.
“But these are not enough without the great hope, which must surpass everything else,” Pope Benedict XVI says in his encyclical on hope, “This great hope can only be God, who encompasses the whole of reality and who can bestow upon us what we, by ourselves, cannot attain.”
The stamp’s design centers on the anchor, the traditional Christian symbol of hope (Hebrews 6). We are called to be anchored in our hope in Christ, the unseen One who even through the storm we can hold fast to. Let us bring forth the fears, difficulties, and earthly things God is calling us to surrender to Him.
As is seen at the top of the anchor, we can unite any and every situation to the Cross of Christ in our hope for heaven. Christian hope is a theological virtue, received from God and not on our own strength (CCC 1817). This requires us to trust in His grace.
Our life is a pilgrimage in Christ, the Way (John 14). Living in hope means being truly convinced that God, our very being, fills every moment with meaning. You were made for Christ. God alone can satisfy your heart. Let us not settle for lesser things that fade. Hope for more, radically renewing our life in Him. As Pope Benedict XVI says, “The one who has hope lives differently.”
With eyes for heaven let us strive to join the angels who are guiding us and pointing us upward toward our heavenly home. Never forget that it is in prayer that we grow in hope. Live in Hope! Hope for Heaven! Together may we rejoice in hope, endure all trials, and remain faithful in prayer (Romans 12).
Hunter Dickens, whose home parish is St. Thomas More in Paducah, is a seminarian for the Diocese of Owensboro in his second discipleship year at Saint Meinrad Seminary.
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/.
