SEPT. 9: HAPPY GRANDPARENTS’ DAY!
Our immense gratitude for all your love and sacrifice!
IT IS A SPECIAL DAY TO THANK GOD AND TO PRAY FOR AND SALUTE ALL THE GRANDPARENTS AND THE ELDERLY IN GENERAL WHO HAVE SELFLESSLY TRANSMITTED THE GIFT OF LIFE AND OF FAITH TO THE SUCCEEDING GENERATIONS WITH THEIR LOVE, AFFECTION, WISDOM AND LIFE EXPERIENCE.
THANKS TO THEIR SELF-GIVING, THE GIFT OF FAITH HAD BEEN HANDED DOWN FROM ONE GENERATION TO ANOTHER. IN MANY PLACES ALL OVER THE WORLD, THEY HAVE BEEN PROVIDING A CONTINUOUS AND INDISPENSABLE SUPPORT, IN SPITE OF THEIR ADVANCED AGE AND INCREASING PHYSICAL LIMITATIONS, TO PARENTS WHO ARE ABSENT DUE TO THE DEMANDS OF WORK AND MODERN LIFESTYLE. WITHOUT THEM, MANY CHILDREN WOULD BE DEPRIVED OF THE NEEDED LOVE, AFFECTION, COMPANY, AND EDUCATION.
Through the intercession of St. Joachim and St. Anne, let us ask God for all the grandparents and the elderly so that they keep on providing the indispensable love, support and affection to their grandchildren with their prayers, faith, wisdom and holiness.
“One of the most beautiful things in life, in the family, in our lives, is caressing a child and letting yourself be caressed by a grandfather or a grandmother.”(September 28, 2014)
“We pray for our grandfathers, our grandmothers, who so often play a heroic role in the transmission of the faith in times of persecution. When mom and dad weren’t home or when they had strange ideas, which the politics of the time taught them, it was the grandmothers who passed on the faith.”(Pope Francis, November 11, 2013)
Lord God Almighty, through the prayers of St. Joachim and St. Anne, parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the grandparents of Jesus, may all our grandparents receive earthly and heavenly happiness. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen.