Next Thursday 20th of July, our parish prays for the 24 hours for Marriage & Family Life.
Proposed Theme: Grandparents – and Great Grandparents
To make this prayer continuous, many people in our parish have committed themselves to a specific hour of prayer in such a way that the whole day and night are covered.
Everyone is invited to join in this prayer, either by taking on an hour, or by including this intention in your own prayer during that day.
Information: There has been an annual Grandparents Pilgrimage to Knock for several years. You can check below if there is one this year.
Website: www.catholicgrandparentsassociation.org
Email: info@catholicgrandparentsassociation.com
Contact phone number: 00353-85-8704722
The Joy of Love: Pope Francis
We must reawaken the collective sense of gratitude, of appreciation, of hospitality, which makes the elderly feel like a living part of the community. Our elderly are men and women, fathers and mothers, who came before us on our own road, in our own house, in our daily battle for a worthy life. (191)
Very often it is grandparents who ensure that the most important values are passed down to their grandchildren, and many people can testify that they owe their initiation to the Christian life to their grandparents. Their words, their affection or simply their presence help children realise that history did not begin with them, that they are now part of an age-old pilgrimage and that they need to respect all that came before them. (192)
A family that fails to respect and cherish its grandparents, who are its living memory, is already in decline, whereas a family that remembers has a future. (193)
Some Thoughts:
- July 26th is the feast of Saints Joachim & Anne, the parents of Mary, and of course the grandparents of Jesus.
- We have no information about Joachim & Anne. The names we give them come from a tradition that goes back to the second century.
- In the system of extended family of the time these grandparents would have had a huge influence on Jesus as he grew up.
- They would have helped to teach him the skills of human living. And they would have been involved in his religious education, bringing him to a knowledge of the God of the Hebrew people.
- Grandparents today also fulfil a very important role in the upbringing of children and young people. In many places we no longer have a strong system of extended family. Because of this the grandparents have an even more important part to play in the healthy growth of children.
- They can be a very important source of support for the parents in their own relationship by enabling them to have time for each other.
- They can have direct personal contact with each child and young person by spoiling them now and again.
- They can be a great source of comfort for each child or young person especially when one of these children needs someone to confide in.
- And they can be a really good support for the parents in handing on the faith and the values of the faith, particularly when the parents may be struggling with practicing the faith themselves.
