In preparation for the upcoming World Day of Grandparents and the Elderly, the Dicastery for Laity, Family, and Life is making a video available in which grandparents and the elderly from all over the world recite the official prayer for the event with the Pope. This includes Bishop Laurent Noël who, at 101 years old, is the oldest bishop in the world.
The prayer, along with the Holy Father’s message and other pastoral resources, can be downloaded here.
In Rome, the Day will be celebrated with a Mass on Sunday, July 25 at 10 a.m. inside St. Peter’s Basilica. It will involve the participation of two thousand people of the Diocese and associations that carry out pastoral activities in favor of the elderly. Most of all these will include grandparents accompanied by their grandchildren, but, very importantly, there will also be several hundreds of elderly people who, for the first time, will be able to leave the homes in which they have been isolated for over a year, to participate. At the end of the celebration, the young people present in St. Peter’s will offer the grandparents and elderly who are present a flower with the Holy Father’s message: “I am with you always”.
The Day will be celebrated in dioceses and parishes all over the world as well, and the Dicastery is already receiving news of the many community initiatives.
The Dicastery invites everyone, especially younger people, to celebrate the World Day of Grandparents and the Elderly by visiting their own grandparents or the elderly who are alone in their community even over the next few days. The visit – which automatically implies gaining plenary indulgence – can be an opportunity for delivering the Holy Father’s message and reciting the prayer we are presenting today together.
PRAYER FOR THE FIRST WORLD DAY FOR GRANDPARENTS AND THE ELDERLY
I thank You, Lord,
for the comfort of Your presence: even in times of loneliness,
You are my hope and my confidence,
You have been my rock and my fortress since my youth!
I thank You for having given me a family and for having blessed me with a long life.
I thank You for moments of joy and difficulty,
for the dreams that have already come true in my life and for those that are still ahead of me.
I thank You for this time of renewed fruitfulness to which You call me.
Increase, O Lord, my faith,
make me a channel of your peace,
teach me to embrace those who suffer more than me, to never stop dreaming
and to tell of your wonders to new generations.
Protect and guide Pope Francis and the Church,
that the light of the Gospel might reach the ends of the earth. Send Your Spirit, O Lord, to renew the world,
that the storm of the pandemic might be calmed, the poor consoled and wars ended.
Sustain me in weakness
and help me to live life to the full in each moment that You give me,
in the certainty that you are with me every day, even until the end of the age.
Amen.
