You are invited to our next online reflection, Finding Newness in Old Age, which is on Tuesday 23rd June, 7-8pm
A challenge to us all as to see growing older as a positive experience, the reflection will focus on how we can transition through the different stages of growing older, from being healthy and active to a slower pace and a time of more dependence and vulnerability. How do we adapt and maintain a sense of purpose?
It will be a combination of reflection, sharing thoughts with others and prayers.
Growing Old Grace-fully are hosting an online session and reflection as part of our Carers Project, being led by Michelle Anderson. This is on Wednesday 15th July at 2pm.
“You are Precious in my Eyes“, we will consider how carers may often feel ignored or invisible, but can be reassured in the knowledge that they are always seen by God and are precious to him.
This online session will include practical information, time to share experiences along with prayer and reflection.
Whilst this is mainly aimed at unpaid carers, it is open to all. Anyone who wishes to attend just needs to email Michelle at carersproject@growingoldgracefully.org.uk & she will send you the Zoom link to join.
All carers and the person or people they are caring for are invited to join us for a special Mass to celebrate the wonderful and important work of unpaid carers across the Diocese of Leeds.
It is on Saturday 11th July at 12pm (12 noon) at Leeds Cathedral, Great George Street, Leeds LS2 8BE.
This Mass is a great opportunity for us to pray for unpaid carers, acknowledging how invaluable they are, and how vital their role is within society. This special Mass is part of our Carers Project, being led by Michelle Anderson.
A sandwich lunch will be served in Cathedral Hall after Mass.
For more information, email Michelle at carersproject@growingoldgracefully.org.uk. It would be helpful if you can let us know you are attending, so we have an idea of numbers for the sandwich lunch, but all are welcome.
Every First Wednesday of the month at 2pm – starting 3rd June 2026
Growing Old Grace-fully is starting a monthly online support group for unpaid carers, which will meet on the first Wednesday of every month at 2pm. This is part of our Carers Project, being led by Michelle Anderson.
The first session will be on Wednesday 3rd June at 2pm.
All unpaid carers are invited to come and join the session for an opportunity to make new friends, chat and share with each other, including space and time to pray.
Sometimes leaving the person you care for may not be possible which is why we are offering these online sessions; to bring support and the opportunity to pray and have time for your faith in your own home or wherever you are caring.
Growing Old Grace-fully is delighted to announce the launch of a new Carers Project, which will be a key focus of our work.
The main aim of the project is to recognise and value the role of unpaid carers and offer emotional and spiritual support to them within the Catholic Diocese of Leeds.
Unpaid carers can often face isolation at a time when they may have difficult decisions to make and a range of emotions that caring for a loved one can bring.
The project aims to help reduce the isolation, giving carers the opportunity to engage with other Christian carers and support each other through their faith.
So many people, including many older people, have caring responsibilities of some sort, for spouses, friends and adult children with special needs. Caring is something hugely important to society and a real vocation, whether chosen or not.
The project will be coordinated and led by Michelle Anderson and we are delighted Michelle is joining the Growing Old Grace-fully team.
Michelle Anderson, Carers Project Coordinator
Michelle introduces herself as follows:
“I live within the Diocese of Leeds and am a parishioner of the Parish of St Mary and St Patrick in Batley and Birstall. I am the Parish Administrator and also a Foundation Governor of St Mary’s Catholic Primary Academy. I take an active part in parish life and enjoy meeting new people. Since leaving education I have been involved in support and care in a variety of roles.
“Working with older people, and advocating for vulnerable people and those in need of support, has always been something that has been close to my heart. Making a difference and helping to make improvements in people’s lives, no matter how small, is something I have always been passionate about”.
Would you like to be involved in the project?
There will be a number of ways to be involved in the project. These will include:
Regular online meetings where carers will have the opportunity to chat and share with each other, including space and time to pray.
Days of reflection for carers
Online talks where carers will be able to share their reflections and look at how faith helps.
If you would like to get involved with the project or you feel the project could be of benefit to you or someone you know please get in touch, either through your parish priest or by visiting our website growingoldgracefully.org.uk.
Dr Frances Norton, Pastoral Worker for Older People at Mary Mother of God Parish in Bradford has done her first report, which gives an excellent account of the amazing work she has been doing.
The Pastoral Worker for Older People is a project proposed and commissioned by Growing Old Grace-fully and funded by The Ladies of the Grail.
Dr Frances Norton, Pastoral Worker for Older People, Mary Mother of God Parish, Bradford
Frances describes how she has been a regular visitor to older people of Mary Mother of God parish in Bradford, to offer older people spiritual opportunities, giving space to develop a fuller faith and prayer life.
She has organised trips: To Our Lady of the Crag, Knaresborough, Our Lady of Doncaster (at St Peter-in-Chains), Our Lady of Manchester (at St. Mary’s, ‘the Hidden Gem’) and also organised also one-off events funded through local council bids, such as the icon painting and brambling for the Feast of the Assumption; and afternoon tea and memory box crafts.
This is a great start to this very positive and special project. We thank The Ladies of the Grail for the funding, Monsignor Paul Grogan and the parish for taking on and overseeing the project and role – and of course to Frances for delivering the work!
To read Frances report, click on the button below.
The Growing Old Grace-fully Annual Review 2025 gives an account of our activities in 2025.
Carol Burns, Growing Old Grace-fully Chair of Trustees gives an overview in her Chair’s Report.
There is also a first report from the Dr. Frances Norton, Pastoral Worker for Older People at Mary Mother of God Parish, Bradford, which is very exciting – and gives a good sense of the amazing work she is doing there in this role. This is a project proposed and commissioned by Growing Old Grace-fully and funded by The Ladies of the Grail. Frances has also done the first of her own reports here, which is well worth a read and shows the difference she and this project is making in the parish and area.
On page 2, there are details of Growing Old Grace-fully’s two main overall activities – dementia awareness and training (online and in-parish); and our programme of spiritual events, online and in-person, which in 2025 were centred around the theme of being Pilgrims of Hope, as part of the 2025 Jubilee Year of the Catholic Church.
As ever, we thank our funders who enable our work to happen – and who support and engage with us.
Growing Old Grace-fully produces a handy calendar of key dates in 2026 related to older people and later life. This can help parishes and other communities plan specific events around Feasts in the Church calendar or national events related to later life and older people.
Our mission is to enhance the spiritual, emotional and physical wellbeing of older people across the Catholic Diocese of Leeds through raising awareness, inspiring and supporting responsive action in parishes. Part of this is to encourage parishes to have events and specific services for older people. Events and services celebrating later life and the contribution older people make to parish, community and society. Plus events and services related to the challenges of later life – such as healing Masses, services to remember loved ones and to deal with grief, bereavement, dementia and loneliness.
In the Calendar you will find relevant Catholic Feast Days and other Church occassions, most notably World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly in July, as well as national and international events and weeks related to older people and later life.
Do consider marking some of these in your parish – as well as using them as an opportunity for reflection and prayer.
You can download the calendar here by clicking on the button below:
Growing Old Grace-fully is looking for an energetic self-starter to work on a freelance basis assisting the development of a new project supporting spiritual and emotional needs of unpaid Carers in the Catholic Diocese of Leeds.
The appointee will build upon the work of the Growing Old Gracefully project which has been celebrating older people for over 15 years.
The project involves providing online support to reduce isolation and work in parishes.
The successful appointee will be an excellent organiser with outstanding communication skills, a good understanding of the needs of older people and sympathy with the ethos of the Catholic Church as well as commitment to ecumenical partnerships.
The project has funding for a part-time role, working 12 hours per week (or monthly equivalent) at £20 per hour plus travel expense.
We have funding initially for a one-year contract.
The closing date is January 16th 2026
Interviews will be held on Thursday January 28th 2026
As we enter this holy season of Advent, we reflect as people who have travelled many years and gathered much wisdom along the way. This Advent is in the Catholic Church’s Jubilee Year, with us invited as Pilgrims of Hope to remain anchored in the hope of Jesus Christ and to do so especially in this season of hopeful waiting.
Later life brings its own blessings—time for reflection, deeper gratitude, and often a clearer sense of what truly matters—but it can also bring worries. Many of us look at the troubling state of our world, the divisions between people, and the growing cost-of-living pressures and often feel a heaviness that is hard to shake. Questions about the future surface more easily now – our own and the future of our loved ones and our world – and our prayers may reflect these fears and troubles as we turn anxiously to God for help.
Yet Advent invites us to lift our eyes. It reminds us that God draws near not in times of ease, but precisely in times of uncertainty. Into a troubled world, into an occupied land, into a humble stable, Jesus Christ was born. His coming—then and now—brings light that no darkness can overcome.
As we journey through these precious weeks, towards the end of the Jubilee Year of Hope, may we find comfort in the promise of Emmanuel, “God with us.” May the hope of Christ’s birth renew our courage, steady our hearts, and assure us that even in later life—and perhaps especially then—God is still at work, guiding us toward peace, joy, and a love that endures.
God of Hope
God of hope, we cling to you, for you renew the face of the earth.
Through the gift of your Son, our Lord Jesus, we follow you on the path of dawn.
Enlightened by your love and wisdom, help us to lead each other and all creatures back to your open arms. Amen.
Rachel McCarthy/CAFOD
Advent Prayer by Henri Nouwen
Lord Jesus, Master of both the light and the darkness, send your Holy Spirit upon our preparations for Christmas. We who have so much to do seek quiet spaces to hear your voice each day.We who are anxious over many things look forward to your coming among us. We who are blessed in so many ways long for the complete joy of your kingdom. We whose hearts are heavy seek the joy of your presence. We are your people, walking in darkness, yet seeking the light. To you we say, “Come Lord Jesus!”
Amen
The Jubilee Prayer
Father in heaven, may the faith you have given us in your son, Jesus Christ, our brother, and the flame of charity enkindled in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, reawaken in us the blessed hope for the coming of your Kingdom.
May your grace transform us into tireless cultivators of the seeds of the Gospel. May those seeds transform from within both humanity and the whole cosmos in the sure expectation of a new heaven and a new earth, when, with the powers of Evil vanquished, your glory will shine eternally.
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.
