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