On our pilgrimage of hope through Jubilee 2025, September 15 marks a special Jubilee of Consolation. Throughout the year, we have commemorated many Jubilee Days designated by the Holy See to recognize and celebrate different groups of people and ministries – you can see the full calendar here.
The Vatican’s Jubilee of Consolation event is especially for “all those who are experiencing a time of pain and affliction, due to illness, bereavement, violence or abuse.” In support of more local participation in this Jubilee Day, we are sharing a playlist featuring “Songs of Grief and Consolation”. Appropriate for use in the liturgy or for personal reflection, songs include “On Eagle’s Wings,” “Be Not Afraid,” and a beautiful setting of “In Paradisum,” an antiphon used in Requiem Masses. These familiar titles can provide comfort as they direct attention to the source of our hope and the subject of this special Jubilee Day.
The word consolation is often used as a synonym for comfort – something which sooths pain or causes happiness. For Ignatian spirituality, the word has a particular meaning related to discernment in the spiritual life. In The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius, consolation is defined as “when some interior movement in the soul is caused, through which the soul comes to be inflamed with love of its Creator and Lord; and when it can in consequence love no created thing on the face of the earth in itself, but in the Creator of them all.” Expressing more than an emotion or feeling, for St. Ignatius, consolation is “every increase of hope, faith and charity, and all interior joy which calls and attracts to heavenly things and to the salvation of one’s soul, quieting it and giving it peace in its Creator and Lord.”
This 16th century definition of consolation may sound abstract to our 21st century ears, but it expresses something essential to our faith and to Jubilee 2025 as a whole. For St. Ignatius, the experience of consolation is a sign on the path communicating to spiritual pilgrims that they are traveling in the right direction. While they can be related, tangible comforts, personal successes or feelings of satisfaction shouldn’t be confused with spiritual consolation.
Think of the times that you experienced consolation as defined by St. Ignatius – that you felt called to salvation, attracted to heavenly things, or a quiet peace in God alone (rather than something like financial stability or a secure relationship). This focus on heavenly things can sometimes occur more during periods of suffering or tumult than when things are going well and our lives are comfortable.
So what is consolation? Consider when your friends have comforted you during times of suffering due to “illness, bereavement, violence or abuse.” It is common to provide meals, financial assistance or even a place to stay at these times. Practically caring for those in need is of course the first response to suffering. But consider how comforting it would be if our friends delivered food or sent a check without a kind word, a warm hug, or simply being with us.
It is loving presence that consoles. The Father did not just send worldly resources to the suffering; he sent his only Son. This is the true meaning of consolation and what it signifies: an encounter with Christ himself, God’s love incarnate.
So often we are like the crowd that followed Jesus to Capernaum after eating the loaves and fish which he multiplied. We want to be fed. We want to be safe, successful and comfortable. Jesus knows this. He tells us, “you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled. Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life” (John 6:26-27).
It is Jesus himself who is our consolation. As he told the crowd who had followed him: “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst” (John 6:35). All other comforts pale in comparison to the consolation of Christ, available to us always in the Eucharist and in his Body, the Church.
In a 2022 general audience providing catechesis on discernment, Pope Francis described consolation in this way:
“Consolation is that type of peace, but not one in which we remain sitting there enjoying it, no…. It gives you peace and draws you toward the Lord and sets you off on a journey to do things, to do good things. … Consolation spurs us forward in service to others, society, other people. Spiritual consolation cannot be ‘piloted’ — you cannot say ‘now may consolation come’ — no, it cannot be ‘piloted.’ It cannot be programmed at will. It is a gift of the Holy Spirit.”
We pray that all the suffering experience this gift of the Holy Spirit during the Jubilee of Consolation and be spurred on in loving service by an encounter with our living hope and ultimate consolation.