Prayer for the first World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly

The Vatican has published the prayer for the first World Day of Grandparents and the Elderly which will take place on July 25 and which will be held every year on the fourth Sunday of July, near the feast of Saints Joaquin and Ana, the great -parents of Jesus.

In Rome, this day will be celebrated with a mass in Saint Peter’s Basilica, in which will participate “2,000 people from the diocese and associations which deal with the pastoral care of the elderly, mainly grandparents accompanied by their grandparents. children, but significantly, there will also be several hundred people who will leave the residential structures in which they live for the first time after more than a year of isolation ”, reported the Dicastery for the Laity, the Family and la Vie, organizer of the initiative. .

The Eucharist in the Vatican Basilica will take place at 10:00 am (local time) and will be presided over by the President of the Council for the New Evangelization, Bishop Rino Fisichella.

The Holy Father instituted this World Day to be celebrated each year on the fourth Sunday of July to revalorize those who are the first responsible for guiding the faith in homes, declared the auxiliary bishop delegated to the family pastoral of the diocese of Rome, Mons. Dario Gervasi.

For its part, the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life invited everyone, especially young people, to celebrate the World Day of Grandparents and the Elderly “by visiting their grandparents or elderly people alone in their community as well. plenary indulgence can be obtained and it is also “the occasion to deliver the message of the Holy Father and to recite the prayer together”

Prayer of the day

“I thank you, Lord, for the consolation of your presence: also in solitude, you are my hope, my confidence; Since my youth, you have been my rock and my fortress! Thank you for giving me a family and for the blessing of a long life.

Thank you for the moments of joy and difficulty, for the dreams realized and for those I still have before me.

Thank you for this time of renewed fertility to which you are calling me.

Increase my faith, Lord, make me an instrument of your peace; teach me to welcome those who suffer more than me, not to stop dreaming and to tell your wonders to new generations.

Protect and guide Pope Francis and the Church, so that the light of the Gospel reaches the ends of the earth.

Send your Spirit, Lord, to renew the world, so that the storm of the pandemic dies down, the poor are comforted, and all war ends.

Hold me in weakness, and allow me to fully live every moment that you give me, with the certainty that you are with me every day until the end of the world. Amen”.

Message from Pope Francis

The theme of the first World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly is: “I am with you every day”, is a phrase of Jesus recounted in the Gospel of Saint Matthew.

In the text, the Holy Father encourages the elderly to proclaim the Gospel to younger generations “whatever your age, whether you continue to work or not, whether you are alone or have a family, whether you have become Young’s grandmother or grandfather. or old, if you are still independent or need help, for there is no age at which you can withdraw from the task of proclaiming the Gospel, from the task of passing on traditions to your little ones -children. You have to get started and, above all, get out of yourself to undertake something new, ”he said.

Además, el Papa reconoció que actualmente “es un momento difícil” porque “la pandemia ha sido una tormenta inesperada y violenta, una dura prueba que ha golpeado la vida de todos, pero que a nosotros mayores nos ha reservado un trato especial, un trato harder”.

“Many of us have fallen ill, and many have left or watched the lives of their spouses or loved ones die. Many, isolated, have suffered from loneliness for a long time, ”admitted Pope Francis.

However, the Holy Father underlined the importance that it be held for the first time this year “after a long isolation and a still slow resumption of social life” and asked that “every grandfather, every old man, every grandmother, every elderly person – especially those who are no longer alone – receive the visit of an angel ”.

In this sense, the Pontiff recalled that “Jesus said to the Apostles: Go and make all peoples my disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to do all that I have. sent ‘and added that “these words are also addressed to us today and help us to understand better that our vocation is to keep the roots, to transmit the faith to the young and to take care of the little ones”.

“I ask the Lord, also thanks to his example, each of us to broaden our hearts and make them sensitive to the sufferings of the little ones, and able to intercede for them. May each of us learn to repeat to all, and especially to the youngest, these words of comfort that we have heard today addressed to us: “I am with you every day”. Go ahead and rest assured. May the Lord bless you, ”wrote the Pope.