These articles summarize two jubilee celebrations by John Thomas Lane, SSS, Provincial: one for the Jubilee Year of Hope and the opening of our own Diocesan Shrine of Saint Ann to the public as a pilgrimage center for 2025 and the Diocese of Cleveland. The other is opening up the 125th-anniversary celebrations of the Blessed Sacrament Community (SSS) in the United States.
Bishop of Cleveland Chooses SSS Shrine of Saint Ann as a Pilgrimage Center for 2025
How did you begin the 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope? We are so blessed that Bishop Edward Malesic of the Diocese of Cleveland chose our own Saint Ann Shrine, now a diocesan shrine since 2023, to be a holy site for the Jubilee Year for “pilgrims of hope.” With this elevation, our original seminary chapel, consecrated the Oratory of the Blessed Sacrament, becomes a special devotional and prayer experiences in the church for this holy year. … We participated in a special diocesan liturgy to open the Jubilee Year for the eight countries of the Diocese of Cleveland and had a special ritual, procession, and Mass to open this Jubilee Year of Hope. To unite the holy pilgrimage sites, the twelve sites received a special holy cross to adorn the “holy site.” … On January 6, 2025, the 168th anniversary of the first exposition of the Blessed Sacrament by our holy founder, Saint Peter Julian Eymard, in Paris, the SSS opened the holy door and diocesan shrine to receive pilgrims for this year ahead.
Photos:
-During the Jubilee Year the statue of Saint Ann will return to the Oratory
-SSS Religious at the Shrine (left to right): Father Roger Bourgeois SSS (shrine chaplain), Brother Thomas Mella SSS (sacristan), Father Louis Demba Ndione SSS (parochial vicar), Father Juancho Ramos SSS (superior), and Father Norman Pelletier SSS
-Auxiliary Bishop Michael Woost and Bishop Edward Malesic after commissioning Mass at the Cathedral of Saint John the Evangelist to start the Jubilee Year in the Diocese of Cleveland and then returning the crosses to the pilgrimage sites
125th Anniversary Year Celebration Begins “at the Beginning”
To celebrate the special 125th anniversary of the SSS’s presence in the United States, the parish of our first foundation, Église Saint Jean Baptiste, kicked off the yearlong celebration on January 6, 2025. The day chosen to begin the commemoration is also on this very day Saint Peter Julian Eymard started the Congregation’s first exposition of the Blessed Sacrament on January 6, 1857. The pastor and our USA Province provincial treasurer, Father John Kamas SSS, framed the occasion as a chance for the Congregation of Notre Dame (CND) sisters and us to celebrate our 125-yearold collaboration in administering the parish of Saint Jean Baptiste. …From this “mother house,” the province of Saint Ann, the many foundations in the USA, Australia, the Philippines, Great Britain and Ireland, Vietnam, and Uganda took root. With the Shrine of Saint Ann at this parish, the devotion and well-being of the province easily placed under her patronage helped our order thrive!
Photo: CND Province Leader, Sister Maryanne Foley, Bishop Edmund Whalen and Father Lane