January 7, 2026

By Darcy Fargo
Editor

While the Jubilee Year of Hope has ended, we continue to cultivate hope, Bishop Terry R. LaValley told those gathered for Mass at St. Mary’s Cathedral on December 28 at 11 a.m., the closing Mass for the Jubilee Year of Hope in the Diocese of Ogdensburg.

“I’ve always had back problems,” Bishop LaValley said, opening his homily. “It was in sixth grade. I guess I complained enough that I can remember getting out of school. My mother took me to the doctor in Plattsburgh. His office was on Broad Street. I remember like it was yesterday. And I was on the table and the doctor said, ‘So, what happened? What’s going on?’ And I remember my mother was sitting next to the window, and I pointed over at her and I said, ‘It’s all her fault. She makes us kids go out and pick weeds in the garden and cultivating and that’s that bending over that screwed up my back.’ Well, don’t think I didn’t have to pick weeds and cultivate when I got home. But that idea of cultivating, I think, is a powerful image. And I was thinking of that when the Holy Father first proclaimed this Jubilee Year of Hope. Because you see, we’ve got to cultivate the virtue of hope. If we don’t cultivate, if we don’t weed the garden, it ends up a mess and there’s very little to show for by way of production and beauty. And if we don’t cultivate the virtues with which we’ve been given, if we don’t tend to be a person of hope, it’s not going to be very fruitful virtue for us.”

Bishop LaValley noted that Pope Francis, who proclaimed the Year of Hope, encouraged bishops to “pay attention to those who would perhaps have a short supply of hope in their lives. He said, ‘go to the prisons. Go to the nursing homes. Go to your parishes. Go to the hospitals.’”

“So, I got quite a few miles on my car this past year,” Bishop LaValley said. “And the message was to cultivate hope. And I told the folks, you know, I can’t see how we can be truly a hope filled people unless we pay attention to what happened – what happened on the cross. Jesus Christ was born among us. He lived, suffered, and died so that we can live forever. And you can’t top that when it comes to having a reason for hope. It’s a gift, but it’s a gift that we need to tend to. It’s a gift that we need to cultivate.”

Bishop LaValley suggested cultivating hope through gratitude.

“I would argue that the best way to cultivate the virtue of hope is to recognize the gifts in our lives and learn how to say, ‘thank you,’” he said. “In so many ways today, our world is lacking in that attitude of gratitude because we think whatever we have is ours and we earned it.”

Bishop LaValley said hope should also be cultivated through spending time with Jesus in the Eucharist and through prayer.

“Don’t just go because you have to on Sundays,” he said. “Try some weekday Masses as well. The word ‘Eucharist’ means ‘thanksgiving,’ and it’s there that we praise and give glory to our God, and we’re nourished with food for the journey – a journey that sometimes makes it hard for us to be people of hope. And so we pray… Prayer is not all about rules and regulations. It’s about a relationship.”

Bishop LaValley encouraged the diocese to share their hope with those around them.

“Something as simple as a smile can make all the difference to someone who is without hope in a day or several days,” he said. “We can smile because we know that the one born among us wants us to be happy with him forever in heaven. And so, we try to follow as best we can. And for the times in which we stumble and fall, we thank God we have others around us to support us and help us up and continue on this this journey.

Bishop LaValley said this year of hope filled him with the virtue as he became more aware of the work being done to bring Christ and His hope to others.

“I come away even more hope filled when I go to nursing homes and I see parish missioners there regularly with programs and with prayers and presence to those who might be lacking in hope in the nursing homes especially those who are lonely,” he said. “When I look at the outreach that takes place, social outreach in our parishes from one end to the other, north, south, east, and west, I’m hope filled because of so many folks that are taking the time to sacrifice in our outreach ministries. And certainly we can look at our own community here in Ogdensburg, the many ways this faith family reaches out to others. Whether it’s the Project Gabriel, whether it’s our Catholic Daughters, whether it’s the Legion of Mary, whether it’s the Knights of Columbus, organizations that are about being harbingers of hope for those who are hurting. And the list goes on, how our parishes, our families are so vibrant in their faith, because not only do they come into the sacred space to be nourished, but once they leave these sacred walls, they give evidence of what they’ve received in the life outside the church walls.”

And that work continues, even as the Year of Hope concludes.

“Yes, the formal Jubilee Year of Hope is concluded with this Mass here as it will be in all the dioceses throughout the world today, but let this be a launching pad, a launching pad for you and me to be especially conscious of that virtue,” Bishop LaValley said.