Pope Francis invites us to celebrate the FIRST WORLD DAY FOR GRANDPARENTS AND THE ELDERLY ON 25 JULY. Our image of St Joachim and St Ann, the grandparents of Jesus introduce us to a focus on grandparents. Included here are a number of articles, ideas and suggestions for GRANDPARENTS that can also sometimes include the ELDERLY. There is much in common between these groups but not all grandparents are elderly and not all elderly are grandparents.
26 July is the feastday of St Joachim and St Ann and therefore MARFAM has commemorated July as our month for Grandparents offering a range of articles and posts on the subject on our website. Check out or search THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY, FAMILY MATTERS and HOME for a variety of posts or download those shown below.
Some are related to the WORLD DAY FOR GRANDPARENTS AND THE ELDERLY 2021 initiated by Pope Francis to be celebrated on Sunday 25 July. Some can be used at any time e.g. A MOVEMENT OF PRAYER OF GRANDPARENTS FOR GRANDCHILDREN.
BEATITUTUDES FOR GRANDPARENTS https://marfam.org.za/2021/06/12/beatitudes-for-grandparents/?
The GRANDPARENTS MATTER booklet can be downloaded as a pdf . it contains prayers and blessings and general articles.
If celebrating the WORLD DAY FOR GRANDPARENTS AND THE ELDERLY 2021 see also http://www.sacbc.org.za for the message and prayer of Pope Francis
For a Home Liturgy for families with young children see
A HOME LITURGY also containing the message and prayer of Pope Francis
For the SOUTHERN CROSS article on Intergenerational relationships see July issue of THE SOUTHERN CROSS. http://www.scross.co.za
The Johannesburg Archdiocesan family office facebook page contains helpful posts. https://www.facebook.com/mflojhb
TYPES OF GRANNIES. the bragbook granny. the show-off granny, the concerned granny, the disappointed granny, the working granny. the hopeful granny, the exploited granny, the lonely granny, the abandoned granny, the praying granny, the wish-to-be granny!!!!!!
A GRANDPARENT’S PRAYER
Heavenly Father, I worship you and give you praise for the great gift of life you have given to me. With gratitude, wonder and awe I acknowledge that through my life you granted life to my children. They in turn became the parents of my grandchildren and some of us are already blessed with greatgrandchildren in your wonderful chain of life. I pray in a special way for ……………………………………. And for their special needs. The world in which they live is different from my world. Sometimes we do not understand each other. We need your gifts of acceptance and forgiveness so that we can be at peace. We need your gifts of love and joy in our family and all families. I ask St Joachim and St Anne, the grandparents of Jesus, to pray with us as we offer these prayer in Jesus’s name. Amen
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