Grandparents Day-8th September 2024

The Catholic Grandparents Association (CGA) was founded by Catherine Wiley in 2001. Catherine’s interest in Grandparents – their unique and increasingly important position in family life – dates, unsurprisingly, from the time, when she and her husband, Stewart, became Grandparents themselves. The CGA first requested a World Day of Prayer for Grandparents in 2012 as part of an address at the 50th International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin. The CGA asked that grandparents would be celebrated by the Church in the same way that young people are at World Youth Days. On several occasions since then, the need for a Church-wide day for grandparents has been petitioned for and prayed for worldwide. 

It was at the 2017 National Grandparents Pilgrimage to Knock Shrine that the formal appeal to Pope Francis was launched and blessed by Archbishop Michael Neary, Archbishop of Tuam and Patron of the CGA. The announcement on 31 January 2021 of a new Church-wide celebration for Grandparents and the elderly came in answer to our prayerful requests to the Holy Father. For this new celebration to be marked so close to the Feast Day of Saints Joachim and Anne, the grandparents of Jesus, is a source of great joy for all of us in the Catholic Grandparents Association. Grandparents and the elderly are often overlooked but this new day in the Universal Church calendar is a momentous achievement for grandparents and the elderly and will reassure them that they are loved and that they are needed. 

For My Grandparents – for grandchildren 

God of love,
We thank you for our wonderful grandparents.
They bring such joy and happiness into our lives.
Thank you for all the special times that we have with them.
Please watch over them, protect them and care for them now.
May they know your goodness and love always.

A Child’s Prayer for Grandparents 

Dear God, please bless my grandparents.
Thank you for the life they gave my parents
and for the life, they give to me.

For the ways they helped me and made me strong, I give thanks.
For the ways, they love me no matter what, I rejoice.
For the ways, they have paved the road
that leads me here, I am grateful.

Let them grow in wisdom and joy in life.
Let them find peace and rest from their work.
Let them be healed of every sickness and pain.
And let them see with their own eyes your glory
and the love of their children and grandchildren.

Bless them always until they come to rest in you.

Look with Love 

Look with love on grandparents the world over.
Protect them!
They are a source of enrichment
for families and for all of society.
Support them!
As they grow older,
may they continue to be for their families
strong pillars of Gospel faith,
guardian of noble domestic ideals,
living treasuries of sound religious traditions.

Make them teachers of wisdom and courage,
that they may pass on to future generations the fruits
of their mature human and spiritual experience. 

Help families and society
to value the presence and roles of grandparents.

May they never be ignored or excluded,
but always encounter respect and love.
Help them to live serenely and to feel welcomed
in all the years of life which you give them.
Keep them constantly in your care,
accompany them on their earthly pilgrimage,
and by your prayers, grant that all families
may one day be reunited in our heavenly homeland,
where you await all humanity
for the great embrace of life without end. 

Our Grandparents 

We thank you for our grandparents who have played such an important role in our lives.
We remember with joy all of the time spent together doing simple things like fishing, doing a puzzle, baking cookies, taking a walk, reading a story and learning about the wonder of nature. 

Thank you for the privilege of hearing their stories of life in another time and place that inspired us to work hard, be patient, courageously endure hard times and to dare to follow our dreams. 

We are forever grateful for the wisdom and stability they provided when we felt our world was falling apart. 

What a great gift to us that they loved us just because we were their grandchild.
Thank you that they counted it joy to spend time listening as we told them about the big and little things going on in our lives. 

May we continuously feel their hugs and feel the warmth of their smiles so that we can better comprehend your constant and unchanging love for us. 

We ask your kind forgiveness for the times we failed to appreciate our grandparents, for the times we were too wrapped up in ourselves and our own activities to spend more time with them. 

Help us to become more like them as we age, learning how to accept with grace the limitations of aging bodies.  Give us their strong and supernatural grace to face the loss of our own aging friends and family the same way our grandparents have.  May we learn from them how to face the prospects of our own limited time on earth and our own deaths with the dignity, peace, and assurance of eternal life. 

And when our time comes to be grandparents ourselves, help us to follow in their loving footsteps.  

Pope Benedict XVI’s Prayer for Grandparents 

Lord Jesus,
you were born of the Virgin Mary,
the daughter of Saints Joachim and Anne.
Look with love on grandparents the world over.
Protect them! They are a source of enrichment
for families, for the Church and for all of society.
Support them!  As they grow older,
may they continue to be for their families
strong pillars of Gospel faith,
guardians of noble domestic ideals,
living treasuries of sound religious traditions.
Make them teachers of wisdom and courage,
that they may pass on to future generations the fruits
of their mature human and spiritual experience. 

Lord Jesus,
help families and society
to value the presence and role of grandparents.
May they never be ignored or excluded,
but always encounter respect and love.
Help them to live serenely and to feel welcomed
in all the years of life which you give them.
Mary, Mother of all the living,
keep grandparents constantly in your care,
accompany them on their earthly pilgrimage,
and by your prayers, grant that all families
may one day be reunited in our heavenly homeland,
where you await all humanity
for the great embrace of life without end.   

Amen! 

Mgr Quinn’s Prayer for Grandparents 

God of the Ages we praise and thank you. From generation to generation You have been our refuge and strength. You give your gifts of grace for every time, place and season as we strive within the family to walk in Your ways and remain close to one another and to you. We pray that our homes may be schools of Faith, where we come to know and to love You. Teach us the Sanctity of human love. Show us the value of family life and help us to respect all life. May the young find in the family strong support for their humanity so that they may grow in truth and love. May the elderly experience respect, support, love and care within the family circle. We give thanks for Grandparents and we pray for them. We give thanks for they connect us with our heritage and our roots through the mists of time. We give thanks for their Christian memory which inspires and enlightens us. We give thanks for the example of their faith, for the witness of their lives, for the constancy of their love, for the support of their prayers. 

Bless all Grandparents and keep them in Your care. Bless them with peace, health and healing. Reward them for their Faith and fidelity, for their work and goodness, for their love and thoughtfulness, for their gifts and prayers. Give them a long and happy life together. May old age come to them in the company of family and friends. And when life is over, unite them again, where parting will be no more, in the Kingdom of Your love. 

We ask this through Christ our Lord. 

Prayer to Saint Anne and Saint Joachim 

St. Anne and St. Joachim, you were especially favoured by God, on the threshold of the New Testament, to be the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God. You provided your daughter with a loving home, family and faithful teaching, and brought her up to be the worthy Mother of our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Your way of parenting was for her an example to bring forth the only-begotten Son of God, Jesus, treasuring all things in her heart.. Your faith laid the foundation of courage and strength that allowed Mary to stand by the Cross as her Son was crucified and to still believe. In communion with Mary and Joseph, intercede to your grandson, Jesus, for all parents, so that they may help their children to grow in strength and in knowledge and to discover the mission that God entrusts to them in the world and in the Church. 

Prayer to Saint Anne 

Good St. Anne, Mother of Mary, the Blessed one among women. Intercede for all our families so that, through the help of the Holy Spirit, we may grow together in peace and understanding and make our home hospitable to our visitors and guests. May we persevere, like you, in the love of Jesus and Mary and live pure and blameless lives in the sight of God. 

Grandmother of Jesus, our Saviour, you were honoured by our ancestors in your role of nurturing Him and bringing Him up to maturity. Intercede for all grandmothers so that they may nurture their grandchildren with love and wisdom, teaching them to find their way in life and to be right in word and in deed.

Prayer to Saint Joachim 

Gentle St. Joachim, Father of the Virgin Handmaid of the Lord, grandfather of Jesus, among your descendants you had the privilege to count the One whom your own ancestors longed to see, the long-expected Messiah. Intercede for all elders and grandfathers who worked hard on this land, defending its integrity, and who grew old in the service of the Almighty. May God grant them to benefit from their remaining strength, to share the wealth of their experience and wisdom and to enter his Kingdom at the end of their earthly time. 

Good St. Anne and St. Joachim, parents of Mary, the ‘favoured one’, accompany us in our faith journey on this land to the glory and praise of God, now and for ever and ever. 

Amen. 

A prayer for my grandparents (a prayer for grandchildren to say)  

Dear Father, We thank you for our wonderful grandparents. They bring such joy and happiness into our lives. Thank you for all the special times that we have with them. Please watch over them, protect them and care for them now. May they know your goodness and love always.

Amen.  

Prayer for grandparents (a prayer for grandparents to say asking for wisdom and God’s blessing 

Heavenly Father, It is such as blessing, such a joy to have grandchildren. We love them with such passion and know each moment spent with them is of great value. Help us to only add and give into their lives. To follow the leading of their parents, but also to sow unique special seeds of love and acceptance into their hearts. Holy Spirit lead us as we prayer for them. Help is be in tune with their worries and challenges. Bless our relationship with them, that we might display your love, and lead them into the grace and freedom of your kingdom.

Amen.  

Family Prayer Prayer for family protection (a prayer suitable for a parent to pray for the wellbeing of their children 

Lord be besides us, all every day Guiding and leading us gently always. Lord be above us, help us to see The hope of the future, of all we could be. Lord be beneath us, carry us when We’re too shattered or tired to really have strength. Lord be ahead of us, smoothing our paths Protecting and blessing the places we pass. Lord be behind us, healing our wounds, Forgiving our mistakes and making us new. Jesus, be within us, this family is yours Now and forever, you are our Lord.

A Grandparent’s Prayer 

Saint Ann, I am an anxious grandparent who worries and prays for my grandchildren. They are confronted with a life full of obstacles, dangers and difficult issues. They are not always aware of them. I beg you to take them under your maternal protection, because you took such good care of your Grandson, Jesus. 

Together with your husband, Saint Joachim, you taught your daughter, Mary, to observe the Commandments and to love God and neighbor. Now I entrust my grandchildren to you. 

How delighted you were when your Grandson Jesus was born! Out of that same love for Him, please extend your protection to my grandchildren. Some are still young while others have grown up and are facing life’s responsibilities. Bless them all. Help them discover the importance of prayer, the beauty of Christian values and love of the Lord! Keep them from danger, harm, temptations, and all obstacles to their true happiness! 

Good Saint Ann, please keep all grandparents and grandchildren in your loving, motherly care. 

Amen. 

 Prayer: Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life 

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. 

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