Tag: Growing Old Gracefully

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

Living in Hope – online reflection

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The second of the Doorways of Hope series of 3 online reflections is Living in Hope, on Wednesday 14th March, 7:00pm to 8:00pm.

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

This is part of the invitation to be ‘Pilgrims of Hope’, 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 Living in Hope on Tuesday 18th March, just email growing.old.gracefully@dioceseofleeds.org.uk.

Easter Prayers 2025

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Resurrection light

Risen Christ, when darkness overwhelms us
may your dawn beckon.

When fear paralyses us 
may your touch release us.

When grief torments us 
may your peace enfold us.

When memories haunt us 
may your presence heal us.

When justice fails us 
may your anger ignite us.

When apathy stagnates us 
may your challenge renew us.

When courage leaves us 
may your spirit inspire us.

When despair grips us 
may your hope restore us. 

And when death threatens us 
may your resurrection light lead us.

Amen.

Annabel Shilson-Thomas/CAFOD

Risen Jesus

We thank you for your greeting,
‘Peace be with you’.
The shalom of God, deep lasting peace,
Peace that brings inner calm;
that keeps a person steady in the storm;
that faces the persecutor without fear
and proclaims the good news with courage and joy.
This is the peace that reconciles
sister to brother, black to white,
rich and poor, young and old;
but not peace that is quiet
in the face of oppression and justice
This is peace with God,
the peace that passes understanding.

John Johansen- Berg (based in John 20.19-29 Philippians 4-7)

Triumphant Jesus

“They took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices.”

John 19.40

You raised Lazarus from dead, saying
“Unbind him, let him go free.”
You too were bound and laid to rest
in a cold tomb, freshened by myrrh and aloes.
Unbind us so that we may also go free.

In sorrow we left you as the dead Jesus
and in wonder you returned to us as the Risen Christ.
Untied from the strips of linen,
you offered us a new-found freedom.
Raise us from the coldness of the tomb in which we are trapped.

With this freedom we are empowered to make choices
about our lifestyle and attitudes,
But our human frailty prevents us from being courageous
by taking those first vital steps.
Release us from the self-imposed exile of our prejudices.

Amen.

Tony Singleton/CAFOD

Eastertide Reflection: Hope by Pippa Bonner

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This is Pope Francis’ Jubilee Year of Hope. We are encouraged to be Pilgrims of Hope amidst the traumatic global events of war, climate change, political swings and poverty and injustice that currently confront us. 

Currently we are all concerned about the war in Ukraine, in the Middle East and elsewhere. We do not know the eventual outcome, but I believe we must have hope and pray.

Hope, we know, is more than optimism and being positive, important as those states of mind are, and easier for some than others.  Hope comes from deep faith that ultimately “All will be well”, as Julian of Norwich believed and shared from her mystical experiences. 

Recently I was with a 90 year old woman who was deeply asleep. She awoke and immediately said with a smile, “All will be well.”  She is bed bound and, to the onlooker, now apparently leads a very restricted, limited life. What an amazing proclamation to have made when she awoke! I experienced this as an example of mature, graced hope and a great reminder to me and others. We must never underestimate older people..!

Easter is the pinnacle of hope for Christians, who believe that Jesus was resurrected from death following his crucifixion.

We are redeemed and part of God’s eternal plan. After the terrible pain and anguish of Holy Week, Christ, has risen from the dead and is full of transformed life. He appears a number of times to his followers before Pentecost fifty days later when they receive the Holy Spirit and are given the gifts and strength to carry on Jesus’ work of spreading the Word and transforming peoples’ lives. We are encouraged in 2025 to carry on His work, using our Spirit-given gifts and experience to live and share the Word, with each other, now and every day. This can be in small, quiet ways as well as more publicly. We can pray for each other.

When I was asked to write a Reflection for Easter and Pentecost time it was January. This time frame is not unusual. I immediately agreed to write it. Usually I write something quite quickly.  But not this time. Why? 

I have realised now the delay was to do with me and life events. I was going through a challenging time. I was recovering from planned surgery that I had waited for a long time and also coping with a recent house move. I knew these were the reasons for my writing something: but also why I had to sit with the changes in my life and ‘the now’ of January before thinking ahead to the opening up and hope of the Easter Message.

This was the reason for my delay…the liturgical journey after Jesus’ birth in Christmastide is to travel with him through his daily life of teachings, signs and miracles, and then Lent, through his wilderness experience, his experience of rejection, suffering and crucifixion towards Resurrection. Although I make this liturgical journey every year, this time it has been different.

I have had to learn to walk again. I have felt pain and had the temporary experience of not driving, and needing to rely more on others’ help and kindness.  I have had to let go of the family home with three sets of stairs and the stress of selling it These are experiences shared by many older people. I have had the support of family and friends and my situation is temporary, but it has not been easy. However, I also constantly feel grateful I do not live in the rubble of Gaza or Mariupol, or as a refugee on a long journey from war, drought or persecution.

I realise that the Pope’s Jubilee Year of Hope is here at the right time for me – and I suggest for all of us – as it emphasises the importance of hope and kindness. Pope Francis talked on a Radio 4 Today Programme, Thought for the Day, at the beginning of the Jubilee Year of Hope in December 2024.  Several times he emphasised the importance of hope with kindness. He said  “I hope that during this Jubilee we can practise kindness as a form of love to connect with others.” I think in our daily lives, trying to live as Pilgrims of Hope kindness can be part of the Jubilee “glue” in our family, parish and community that particularly older people can offer. It can be contagious and can “stick”!

Life is full of hope and challenge, ups and downs. Over the years my morning prayer has morphed into offering everything that happens during daily life that is good and bad, the hopeless and hopeful:

“Today I offer You the good and the bad, the happy and the sad, the boring and the mad”. 

It encompasses everything. It seems to me that God makes use of our negative experiences and challenges as well as the positives and blessings we are given.

There is hope…May we all at Eastertide work together with hope and kindness and offer our Gifts to each other at Pentecost as we try to be Pilgrims of Hope and Kindness.

Pippa Bonner

Easter 2025

Video and summary sheet of Glimpses of Hope online reflection

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On Tuesday 18th March 2025, we held the first in the Doorways of Hope series of online reflections led by Paula Shanks and Mgr. Donal Lucey & Paula Shanks, as part of the Pilgrims of Hope Jubilee year.

The reflection explores 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.

You can watch the whole session on YouTube here.

There is a one page summary produced by Paula here.

Glimpses of Hope – online event

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The first of the Doorways of Hope series of online events is is Glimpses of Hope, on Tuesday 18th March, 2:30pm to 3:30pm,

Paula Shanks and Monseigneur Donal Lucey &will 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.  

Over the course of the three hour long talks and reflections, Paula and Mgr. Lucey will explore the invitation to be ‘Pilgrims of Hope’ and will offer 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 Glimpses of Hope on Tuesday 18th March, just email growing.old.gracefully@dioceseofleeds.org.uk.

It’s All Right by Sister Kate Holmstrom

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It’s All Right is written by Sister Kate Holmstrom, a Holy Child Sister, resident at a care home in Harrogate.

Sister Kate has contributed a number of items to Growing Old Grace-fully.

It’s All Right

Thanks, Lord, my heartfelt thanks, and great relief
To hear you say: “But it’s All Right, you know!”
All right –you’re growing old. Forgetful, muddled, dim
(Embarrassing, frustrating though it is),
All right to need, and take, more time, more space, perhaps,
To admit: “I don’t cope well. I can’t keep up”.
You went there first, our good and sorrowful Lord.
You touched the depth, in dark Gethsemane,
Were crowned with pain and meek humility,
Carried the cross, the sharp sin of the world
So no-one, now, need think herself bereft.
You give to us, you give to me, your freedom:
Permission to be helpless, tired and weak.
You would not have us envious of others
When they are brave or bright or persevering.
You rock us in your reassuring arms,
Accepting us the way you made us: small,
And loving us that way. For you to grow in us,
We must be empty, leaving space for you.
And then you’ll say: “That’s right! What you thought wrong,
Amiss and lacking, is my chance. All right!”

                                                               Katharine Holmstrom