We have compiled a fairly extensive list of recommended books for the Jubilee Year 2025. While all the works share a common theme of hope, they present different perspectives on hope and human expectations.
The variety of texts included may seem striking: papal encyclicals appear alongside essays, simple biographies are presented alongside personal testimonies of Doctors of the Church, and theological treatises are listed alongside informational pamphlets.
We trust that visitors to our website will be able to select or recommend books based on their specific needs. Since new publications on these topics are likely to emerge throughout the year, we will continue updating this resource accordingly.
(Last updated: January 2025)
Spes non confundit
Pope Francis has officially convened the Ordinary Jubilee of Hope 2025 with the reading of the bull Spes non confundit in St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican. This...
Saved in Hope
Pope Benedict XVI's encyclical Spe Salvi, published in 2007, addresses Christian hope. It emphasizes that hope is not merely a human desire, but a theological virtue...
Catechesis on Hope
The book compiles a series of catecheses by Pope Francis on Christian hope. With simple yet profound language, the Holy Father guides us and points the way forward in...
Testimony of Hope
This book gathers the meditations of the spiritual retreat of the year 2000, preached by Cardinal Van Thuan and attended by Pope John Paul II and the Roman Curia. ...
Hope for Hard Times
Reflection on how Christians can find hope and strength during difficult times. Drawing from Scripture and personal experiences, Hahn emphasizes that true hope is...
On Hope
The content of this text is taken from the book The Fundamental Virtues, specifically the section dedicated to the theological virtue of hope, understood as trust in...
Faith, Hope, and Charity
The ancient pagans spoke of the myth of the "three Graces", but Christians know something much deeper and real: the three theological virtues: faith, hope, and...
Salt, not honey
This book on spirituality encourages readers to reconsider the potential of the Christian life, challenging the simplistic notion that being a Christian is merely...
To look on Christ: Exercises in Faith, Hope, and Love
This book is the collection of meditations preached in a spiritual retreat by then Cardinal Ratzinger, on the three theological virtues. Starting from an existential...
Man's Search for Meaning
Through the pages of this book runs the blood of the extermination camps, the foul smell of the barracks, the pustules, the blows, the hunger, the cold, the gangrene...
The diary of Happiness
The Diary of Happiness is a work difficult to classify, blending theological essay, autobiography, political analysis, notebook, and social literature. Its author,...
Chiara Corbella Petrillo: A Witness to Joy
Chiara is a young Italian woman who lives happily. Shortly after finishing college, she meets Enrico on a pilgrimage, and together they decide to start a family....
Bakhita
A historical novel inspired by the life of Saint Josephine Bakhita. When she was seven years old, she was abducted from her village in Darfur, and began to experience...
Rome Sweet Home. Our Journey to Catholicism
Scott and Kimberly Hahn, a well-known and popular Catholic couple, have been traveling and speaking about their conversion to Catholicism for the past several years....
The spirit of hope
Byung-Chul Han (Seoul, 1959) studied philosophy at the University of Freiburg, German literature and theology at the University of Munich. In 1994 he received his...
A People of Hope
The book, as its subtitle indicates, features conversations with Timothy Dolan, Cardinal, Archbishop of New York, President of the United States Conference of...
The Portal of the Mystery of Hope
Péguy brings a revolutionary perspective to Christianity by redefining tradition itself. As he puts it, “a revolution is a call from a less perfect tradition to a...
Songs of Life and Hope
One of the most important works by Rubén Darío. This collection of poems represents a mature phase in the life and work of the author, where he combines his...
The Rent Collector
The Rent Collector is the story of a young mother, Sang Ly, struggling to survive by picking through garbage in Cambodia’s largest municipal dump. Under...
The Lord of the Rings
The world created by Tolkien can already be considered among the classics of the 20th century. After celebrating his birthday, Bilbo disappears again. His nephew...
Great Expectations
Philip Pirrip ('Pip') is a small village boy being brought up by the blacksmith Joe Gargery. He is told to go and visit the house of Miss Havisham, whose mind had...
The Tartar Steppe
This novel, one of the masterpieces of Dino Buzzati and of 20th century Italian literature, tells the story of Giovanni Drogo. The protagonist is introduced to us as...
The road
The road relates the journey of a father and son in a world desolated by a nuclear holocaust. A world covered in ashes, in which most men have fallen into cannibalism...
The Song at the Scaffold
Gertrud von le Fort, a German Catholic writer and friend in the last years of Edith Stein’s life, recounts a historical event: the death of sixteen Carmelite nuns...