Author: Carolb56

Christians on Ageing – Faces of Hope in Later Life – Conference

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On Wednesday 24th September, 10:30am – 4:00pm, Christians on Ageing are hosting an online free conference ‘Faces of Hope in Later Life’, focusing on the positive horizons of later life as well as its challenges.

The keynote speaker will be Revd Michael Jackson, formerly Director of St John’s Winchester Charity and author of Still Love Left: Faith and Hope in Later Life.

In addition, the Conference will hear from:

John MacMillan, CEO of the Eric Liddell Community, Edinburgh, whose work with older people in the community embodies Eric Liddell’s values of compassion, inclusion and hope in all circumstances.

Olivia Luijnenburg, pursuing post-doctoral studies on dementia at Kings College London. She is a medical anthropologist with a special interest in residential care for older people, dementia care, spirituality and spiritual care.

The lunchtime interactive workshop will be led by Liv McLennan, co-founder and director of Sounds Better CIC. Liv has a particular interest in working with people with dementia and respiratory conditions. She is currently undertaking doctoral studies in intergenerational music within a care home setting at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

To book a place please click here.

Doorways of Hope – online reflections

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Doorways of Hope is a series of three hour long online reflections, hosted by Growing Old Grace-fully.

In the three reflections, Paula Shanks and Mgr. Donal Lucey explore the invitation to be ‘Pilgrims of Hope’, the theme of the 2025 Jubilee Year of the Catholic Church.

In the three reflections, they explore and offer ways of noticing the nature & presence of hope, what it means to live this hope & how we can share hope with others in our ordinary, daily lives. You can access the three sessions here, the videos on our YouTube channel and a one page summary for each one, produced by Paula. Just click on the image or heading.

Doorways of Hope Part 1: Glimpses of Hope

Paula Shanks & Mgr. Donal Lucey explore the the theme of ‘Springtime’ to explore how we can awaken to the invitation to be renewed in hope. A hope rooted in God who chooses to be with us in how things are, where we are.

Doorways of Hope Part 2: Living in Hope

Paula Shanks and Mgr. Donal Lucey explore how living in the flow of life offers invitations to a deeper sense of hope.

 

Doorways of Hope Part 3: Holding Hope

Paula Shanks and Mgr. Donal Lucey explore how to notice spaces where hope is held out for us in everyday life and the ways in which we do this for others.

We thank Paula and Fr. Donal for leading this powerful series of reflections.

Video and summary sheet from Holding Hope

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On Thursday 17th July 2025, we held the third in the Doorways of Hope series of online reflections, Holding Hope, led by Paula Shanks and Mgr. Donal Lucey & Paula Shanks, as part of the Pilgrims of Hope Jubilee year.

Holding Hope explores how to notice spaces where hope is held out for us in everyday life and the ways in which we do this for others.

You can watch the whole session on YouTube here.

There is a one page summary produced by Paula here.

Pilgrims of Hope: Journeying as Older People – event

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Growing Old Grace-fully is hosting a half day event offering a chance to reflect on our own journey into later life, as Pilgrims of Hope. This reflects the theme of the Catholic Church’s 2025 Jubilee Year, the theme of which is Pilgrims of Hope.

Our aim in gathering together in person is to continue to explore the reflections and conversations so beautifully expressed by Paula Shanks and Mgr Donal Lucey in the “Doorways of Hope” online series. Video recordings of the Doorways of Hope events can be viewed here.

The event will reflect on our own life’s journey, whatever age we are, and explore finding the God of where we are now in our own life.

It will also include suggestions for practical ways of finding and nurturing hope; for example, through meditations on gospel passages, poems and art and also through ways of practising gratitude.

The event will end with a shared lunch over which we can continue the conversations from the day.

If you would like to attend, please book a place on EventBrite here.

From the Jubilee Prayer

May the grace of the Jubilee reawaken in us, Pilgrims of Hope, a yearning for the treasures of heaven.

May that same grace spread the joy and peace of our Redeemer throughout the earth.

To you our God, eternally blessed, be glory and praise for ever.

Amen

Taken from The Jubilee Prayer, Pope Francis

World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly – Sunday 27th July 2025

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The World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly will be celebrated for the fifth time in 2025. The date this year is Sunday 27th July.

This special day takes place on the Sunday closest to the Feast of Saints Joachim and Anne, Grandparents of Jesus. This year their Feast is Saturday 26th July, making this a whole weekend double celebration of later life and older people!

Pope Francis established the Catholic Church’s World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly which took place for the first time on Sunday 25 July 2021.

The theme chosen by Pope Francis for this year’s celebration is:

“Blessed are those who have not lost hope” (cf. Sir 14:2)

Pope Leo’s message for the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly 2025, reminds us that hope is a source of joy, no matter what age.

Here you can read the full message from the Holy Father.

Here are prayers and links from the Bishop’s Conference of England and Wales to help you celebrate the day.

If you are a grandparent and are able to attend Mass, you could invite your grandchildren to attend with you.

The Catholic Grandparents Association has been at the forefront in campaigning for a greater recognition of Grandparents for their role and vocation in passing on their faith to the next generation. They have also produced resources that you might wish to use.

Holding Hope – online reflection

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The third and final of the Doorways of Hope series of online reflections is Holding Hope, on Thursday 17th July, 7:00pm to 8:00pm.

Paula Shanks and Monsignor Donal Lucey will invite you to notice spaces where hope is held out for us in everyday life and the ways in which we do this for others.

This is part of the invitation to be ‘Pilgrims of Hope’ – the theme of the Jubilee Year 2025 – looking at ways of noticing the nature and presence of hope, what it means to live this hope and how we can share hope with others in our ordinary, daily lives. 

Please do join us for Holding Hope on Thursday 17th July, just email growing.old.gracefully@dioceseofleeds.org.uk.

Day for Life 2025

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This Sunday, 15th June, is the annual Day for Life of the Catholic Church.

Day for Life is the day in the Church’s year dedicated to raising awareness about the meaning and value of human life at every stage and in every condition.

The Church teaches that life is to be nurtured from conception to natural death. In England and Wales, Day for Life is celebrated on the third Sunday of June each year.

The theme is Hope does not Disappoint: Finding meaning in Suffering. It is inspired by Romans 5:5-6. St Paul invites us to see that Christian hope is not just naïve optimism but, rather, an unshakeable trust in the power and presence of God who is with us always. This hope can endure the darkness of human suffering and even see beyond it.

As an older people’s charity, for Growing Old Grace-fully, Day for Life is an opportunity to reflect on and celebrate the value of older people and of the gift (and especially this year, the challenges and sometimes the suffering) of later life.

You can download a Day for Life parish poster here.

There is a Bishops’ message and a downloadable prayer book here.

Day for Life Fund

We are very grateful as a charity to have received funding from the Day for Life fund which has been crucial in enabling is to do our work.

The Day for Life Fund provides financial assistance each year to organisations working to support the Church’s mission to protect human life from conception to natural death. Each year, the money donated by the faithful on the Day for Life is dispersed to these organisations to assist them in undertaking specific projects relating to life issues. These can range from educational workshops to advocacy campaigns, practical support services to commissioning research.

We encourage people to donate to the Day for Life fund to support its work. You can donate to it here.

Video and summary sheet from Living in Hope online reflection

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On Wednesday 14th May 2025, we held the second in the Doorways of Hope series of online reflections, Living in Hope, led by Paula Shanks and Mgr. Donal Lucey & Paula Shanks, as part of the Pilgrims of Hope Jubilee year.

Living in Hope explores how living in the flow of life offers invitations to a deeper sense of hope..

You can watch the whole session on YouTube here.

There is a one page summary produced by Paula here.

Jubilee of Families, Children, Grandparents and the Elderly – prayer for older people

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This weekend is Jubilee of Families, Children, Grandparents and the Elderly, part of the ‘Pilgrims of Hope’ Jubilee Year 2025 in the Catholic Church. 

This is the weekend of the Jubilee Year to celebrate and pray for older people (including grandparents) as well as families and children.

This Jubilee event is a celebration of the family – including older people – and a time to prayer that so our world today can become a family-friendly world.

As part of this Pope Francis, the Pope who announced this Jubilee, spoke of older people as the “firm foundation” of the future and that we must be not afraid of becoming old and we should instead see the value in later life and greater age.

He said: “Because to say “old” does not mean “to be discarded”, as a degraded culture of waste sometimes leads us to think. Saying “old” instead means saying experience, wisdom, knowledge, discernment, thoughtfulness, listening, slowness…Values of which we are in great need!”You can download the service/prayer booklet for the Jubilee here

There is a link to resources and prayers about this Jubilee produced by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops here. 

Here is a suggested prayer for older people this weekend which you might to say.

Prayer for all older people for Jubilee Year 2025

Heavenly Father,
source of all life and wisdom,
we thank You for the gift of later life and older age
and for all older people, 
as the Pilgrims of Hope who have walked longest
on this beautiful planet you have given us.

Bless all older people all over this troubled world,
the long lives lived and the many lives touched
the families, friends, the memories
the faith handed down,
and we pray for the strength with which to bear life’s burdens and challenges.

May the long standing witness of older people remind us of this Jubilee Pilgrimage, 
and inspire other people’s own journeys of hope.
Grant all older people peace,
companionship and enduring hope. 

May all people, communities and societies cherish, respect and value older people and later life and may we all walk together – Pilgrims of Hope of all ages – toward the light of Your Kingdom, united in love, guided by hope.

Through Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Growing Old Grace-fully

30th May 2025

‘Dilexit Nos’ by Pope Francis

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A summary and reflection by Rev. Dr. Joe Cortis

‘Dilexit Nos’ (He Loved us) is Pope Francis’ fourth and last Encyclical issued on the 24th. October 2024. It traces the tradition and relevance of thinking ‘on the human and divine love of the heart of Jesus Christ’, inviting us to renew authentic devotion as not to forget the tenderness of the faith, the joy of putting ourselves at the service and the fervour of the mission.

Opened with a brief introduction and divided into five chapters, the encyclical on devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus brings together the precious reflections of previous magisterial texts and a long history that goes back to the Sacred Scriptures, to re-propose today, to the whole Church, this devotion which is full of spiritual beauty.

Here are some of the most significant parts of the Encyclical:

  1. Mere appearances, dishonesty and deception harm and pervert the heart. Despite our every attempt to appear as something we are not, our heart is the ultimate judge, not of what we show or hide from others, but of who we truly are. It is the basis for any sound life projects; nothing worthwhile can be undertaken apart from the heart. False appearances and untruths ultimately leave us empty-handed.  
  2. If we devalue the heart, we also devalue what it means to speak from the heart, to act with the heart, to cultivate and heal the heart. If we fail to appreciate the specificity of the heart, we miss the messages that the mind alone cannot communicate; we miss out on the richness of our encounters with others; we miss out on poetry. We also loose track of history and our own past, since our real personal history is built with the heart. At the end of our lives, only this will count.
  3. The heart of Christ is ‘ecstasy’, openness, gift and encounter. In that heart we learn to relate to one another in wholeness and happy ways, and to build up in this world  God’s Kingdom of love and justice. Our hearts, united with the heart of Christ, are capable of working this social miracle.
  4. Before the heart of Jesus, living and present, our mind enlightened by the Spirit, grows in the understanding of his words and our will is moved to put them intro practice. May he pour out the treasures of his light and love, so that our world, which presses forward despite wars, socio-economic disparities and uses of technology that threaten our humanity, may regain the most important and necessary thing of all: its heart.
  5. If we find it hard to trust others because we have been hurt by lies, injuries and disappointments, the Lord whispers in our ear: ‘Take Heart son’ (Mt 9:22). ‘Take heart daughter’  (Mt 9:22). He encourages us to overcome our fear and to realize that, with him at our side, we have nothing to loose.
  6. Whenever we feel that everyone ignores us, that no one cares what becomes of us, that we are of no importance to anyone, he remains concerned for us.
  7. I also encourage everyone to consider whether there might be greater reasonableness, truth and wisdom in certain demonstrations of love that seek to console the Lord than in the cold, distant, calculated and nominal acts of love that are at times practised by those who claim to possess a more reflective sophisticated and mature faith.
  8. Christ asks you never to be ashamed to others, with all due discretion and respect about your friendship with him. He asks that you dare to tell others how good and beautiful it is that you found him.
  9. In a world where everything is bought and sold, people’s sense of their own worth appears increasingly to depend on what they can accumulate with the power of money. We are constantly being pushed to keep buying, consuming and distracting ourselves, held captive to a demeaning system that prevents us from looking beyond our immediate and petty needs. The love of Christ has no place in this perverse mechanism, yet only that love can set us free from a mad pursuit that no longer has room for a gratuitous love. Christ’s love can give a heart to our world and revive love wherever we think that the ability to love has been definitively lost.
  10. The wounded side of Christ continues to pour forth that stream, which is never exhausted, never passes away, but offers itself time and time again to all those who wish to love as he did. For his love alone can bring about a new humanity.

Rev. Dr. Joseph D Cortis