Holy Week, the holiest week of the year, invites us all to reflect on the ultimate sacrifice made for all of us. As we journey through these days – recalling Jesus Christ’s fear, suffering, anguish and death and then the glory of Easter – we are gently reminded that every stage of life carries its own meaning and grace.
In later life, the challenges of ageing – whether physical ailments, aches and pains, loneliness, loss or the weight of memories – can trouble us and lead us to doubt, anxiety and sadness. Yet Holy Week speaks directly into these experiences. It reminds us that suffering is not without purpose, that quiet endurance has dignity, and that even in moments of loss, there is the promise of new life.
We have compiled some prayers for Holy Week below, prayers to help us reflect through this week.
Through reflection and prayer, may this Holy Week become a time of peace, connection, and renewed hope.
Growing Old Grace-fully, Holy Week 2026
A Holy Week prayer for older people
God our Father,
As we walk through Holy Week, we remember Jesus on the road to Calvary— weighed down, yet faithful, wounded, yet still moving forward.
So too in our own lives, as the years gather and our strength changes, we carry burdens we did not once know— aches in body, losses in heart, and the quiet letting go of what was.
Teach us, like Christ, to walk this path with courage and trust, to accept each step with grace, and to know we are never alone.
And as Easter dawned with light and new life, remind us that growing older is not only loss, but also transformation— a journey toward deeper peace, renewed hope, and the promise of resurrection within us.
Amen.
Growing Old Grace-fully
Prayer for Holy Week
Lord Jesus,
This Holy Week we follow you on your sorrowful and glorious journey, your journey to the Cross and Resurrection.
Today we ask that we may walk with you, give us grace to see the deep love you show us.
As you were welcomed with joy and acclaim to the Holy City, your betrayal by the crowds soon overwhelmed their cries of Hosanna.
On the Cross, you made yourself servant taking the sins of the world upon yourself.
May our lives reflect your desire to serve God our Father first; that we may serve you in our brothers and sisters.
When we face suffering and disappointment, may we know your love.
When we are feeling lost, may we know that you are with us.
When we are worried, may your Cross be a sign of hope and strength.
May this Holy Week be for us a time of renewal in faith and love.
Jesus my Lord, let me strengthen my courage by taking on the courage of all those people who have been “centurions” for me.
Many have faced disasters and hard times with great constancy. The upper hand of evil never turned them against you. They kept going.
Let me be like them, Lord. No matter what the cross, let me never stop declaring you to be “truly the Son of God, the source of my hope, the reason why I will never quit on life.
Growing Old Grace-fully is hosting an online Stations of the Cross on Tuesday 24th March 7pm – 8pm. These special Stations of the Cross have been written by Fr Eamonn Hegarty and Michelle Anderson specifically with carers in mind. Fr Eamonn is Parish Priest of St. Mary of the Angels, Batley and St. Patrick’s, Birstall and Michelle is Co-ordinator of the Growing Old Grace-fully Carers Project.
The invitation to carers through the Stations
Through the Stations of the Cross, we discover that Jesus walks this road with us. These Stations invite carers to see their own lives reflected in Christ’s journey – not as something to be explained away, spiritualised too quickly, or endured in silence, but as a place where God is already present and at work. While the event is part of the Carers Project it is open to all.
Join us on Tuesday 24th March as we approach Holy Week and prepare for the Holy Season of Easter.
The last time I wrote a Lent Reflection for Growing Old Grace-fully we were in the throes of the Covid global pandemic. Now we see war and struggles around the world in Ukraine, Gaza, the West Bank and Israel, the Sudan, Nigeria, and so many countries globally. Each is unique in its context but the suffering, injury and loss of life have universal similarities in the way people are hurting, deeply worried, struggling for meaning and wondering how to continue. Climate change, conflict, and poverty are combining to drive people from their homes. Nationalism and racism seem to be increasing. Love and compassion are evident, but hard line rhetoric is threatening community dialogue and discouraging diverse communities from working out daily life issues together.
It need not be like this…
Perhaps this Lenten Season is a time to reflect on how we each travel with Jesus on his Way to Jerusalem to Calvary, and the hope of His Resurrection. Reflecting too closely on how governments and political leaders are responding may be too painful at times. Instant news means we know almost immediately what is happening. We now have to factor in possible fake news and the toxic culture that exists in parts of the Internet. BUT, as adults, we also need to discern, pray and act in a way that leads to God and Resurrection.
As Micah wrote “And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” (6:8) ( New International Version )
Desert Experience
Jesus went into the desert at the start of his ministry. It was a time of isolation, hardship and temptation. A time to reflect and prepare for ministry. Perhaps our Lent journey leads us into a desert: a place alone to concentrate on God and abstain from comfort and distraction.
The Desert Mothers and Fathers lived during the 3rd to the 5th centuries in Egypt and the Middle East. They lived “a white martyrdom” where they left their communities, led a solitary ascetic life of poverty and self denial, whereas “a red martyrdom” meant losing their lives for God. Monasticism developed from these “white martyrs” as hermits tended to attract disciples and subsequently communities.
I go to North Wales to a Retreat Centre most years where a number of us learn about the local Celtic Saints. Amongst these, Saints Beuno, Seiriol, Winifred and Melangell lived a “white martyrdom” as hermits: a radical life of poverty, solitude and prayer, until followers sought them out and baptismal communities grew around them. There are many stories of saints continuing to seek solitude and escape at times from community life. It is believed that after finding St Seiriol’s Island (Puffin Island) and Anglesey too crowded, St Seiriol would set off at low tide to Penmaenmawr on the North Wales coastline opposite, up towards the area of Noddfa, the Retreat Centre where I stay! I am constantly aware of “Holy ground” when I am there. On Lindisfarne, St Cuthbert would do the same, spending time alone on a tiny island off the Northumbrian Coast and finally one of the Farne Islands.
How do we manage or even value time alone?
Some of the Celtic Saints talked about the desert experience of being at the top of a mountain, or by the sea or on the sea: remote places where they could live and pray or wander.
Might we think about those places in that way too?
Some saints like the 5th century Irish St Brendan was a sea explorer searching for the Promised Land. St Samson, another 5th century Saint, sailed between Ireland, Wales, Cornwall and Brittany, the route of other Celtic Saints. He founded monasteries but also for him the sailing on the desert Sea was a pilgrimage of self discovery, prayer and Redemption in itself. For some Celtic Seafarers the journey was more important than the destination… until the Final Destination with God. Seeking God….
Prayer
Why have I spent time this year on the Celtic Saints for Lent? Because their whole life tried to be a prayer. There were prayers for times of day, for meals, for different tasks, for protection, for everything. For the Celts as for many others, the veil between life and death was thin. Lent would be a time to think about Jesus’ life and death. Perhaps one way to respond to the challenges of our world – and to remind ourselves not to despair and that there is ‘nothing new under the sun’ and ALWAYS HOPE IN GOD, is to study and pray with some of the Celtic Saints and reflect on our own life and death and rising with the Resurrected Lord at Easter.
Pilgrimage and Healing
St Winifred (Gwenfrewi in Welsh) was a 7th century Celtic Saint. Her (Winifred’s) Well for Baptism and Healing is at Holywell in North Wales and later became a great centre of pilgrimage in the Middle Ages. She was a niece of St Beuno. She was raped by a Welsh Prince, survived despite rumours of her death, protected and nursed by St Beuno and subsequently she withdrew to Gwytherin south of Conwy. She lived as a hermit and a community grew around her. She became an Abbess. She was known as a wounded healer. An ancient church at Gwytherin, with a Bronze Age burial mound next to it and surrounded by ancient yew trees thousands of years old, became an early pilgrimage site in the 7th-8th century. Her body was supposed to have been transferred in the 12th Century to Shrewsbury Abbey but many believe she is still buried at Gwytherin. Pilgrims continue to visit the peaceful old church for prayer. During Lent as a saint, a survivor of violence, a wounded healer, Winifred might be someone to pray with for solace and healing.
Prayer and Nature
Melangell is the site of the Cell of St Melanga. She was a 7th century Irish Princess escaping an arranged marriage. She landed in Wales and walked to a valley in Powys where she protected a hare from a Prince out hunting. She is known as the patron saint of hares. She was given land in the valley where she lived as a hermit, later as Abbess of a nunnery that developed there at Pennant Melangell. It remains a pilgrimage site where people come to the ancient yew trees thousands of years old and the old church that was built in the 12th century. Perhaps during Lent we too can imagine ourselves in the beautiful deep valley seeking solace and strength in the Church, praying with St Melanga and sitting among the yew trees, as so many have done before.
Focus
So, Lent may be about being abstemious, alone or with companions, where we focus on God, without too much distraction on a pilgrimage journey towards Easter. We might be seeking solace, healing from violence or a time to appreciate the beauty and strength of nature. We might be at a crossroads in our lives. As older people we might feel tired and overwhelmed by world events. The Celtic Saints (and there are many others of course) may be guides during this time.
Good works
Lent may also be about good works: working with a good cause, or giving money to charity. There are many opportunities for this. If we are housebound or short of money, prayer is, as always, invaluable. Prayer for others is always needed.
I travelled in a taxi recently. I learned on the journey the driver came from Sudan. He is now an engineer living in a North of England city with his wife and family. So why does he also drive a taxi? Because he sends the taxi money back to the senior class of a school in Sudan to buy extras for the pupils and their families, to persuade the pupils to stay at school for another year. He told me extra education also increases the likelihood of boys treating girls better in the future….
Vigils
Lent may be about keeping Vigil. On Maundy Thursday some of us may keep Vigil with Christ at Gethsemane. For me the image of Mary the mother of Jesus keeping Vigil with the other women and St John at the foot of the cross at Calvary is especially powerful. They risked death, attack and must have experienced horror and sadness at the torture and death of their beloved Jesus. Vigils can focus on issues of today: for example: in big cities or small towns about the situation in Gaza, the West Bank and Israel; the silent monthly Vigils outside the Home Office about Asylum Seekers; and the Women in Black who regularly silently stand vigil in Leeds and elsewhere to remember the children and adults who are suffering and have died in the Middle East as a result of war. Silent, peaceful Vigil can be a Lenten Practice, a Witness, where we pray for peace and justice, for asylum seekers and for victims of war, sometimes at the risk of hostility from others. If we cannot be physically present we can pray for a variety of issues. My housebound 96 year old mother put a light in her window on Holocaust Memorial Day this year. The response was an anti-semitic remark from a neighbour. It can take courage to do what we believe in. It can also connect us to other human beings and give us a sense of community and solidarity.
Celtic spirituality in Lent
This is multi faceted and encompasses a creative dynamic of stillness and journey. In Lent do we make a spiritual journey or consolidate our search in one place? Do we spend time alone like a hermit or do we seek community? Do we stay with the Known or do we venture into the Unknown? These are not either/ or alternatives, they can be both / and alternatives. As Older People who are housebound we might not believe we have a choice, but spiritually, in our prayer life we can wander and seek.
The Seeking of God in the desert, the mountain top, valley, among trees or on the sea.
Perhaps this Lent we can concentrate on the spiritual journey, the Seeking of God. Abraham set out for the Promised Land through the desert without knowing where he was going. Or we can stand on the hill top of Mount Tabor the place of Transfiguration, or on the Mount of Olives, a place of confronting crucifixion, or on a hill in Galilee where we hear the Beatitudes. Or we might seek God by or on the sea, perhaps on the Sea of Galilee with its calm and its storms. We can place ourselves anywhere.
The following (apparently anonymous) prayer is said at Leeds A Call to Action Meetings. It seems appropriate as a conclusion to this Celtic Spiritual Reflection.
Seeking is Seeing
Seeking God is as good as seeing God.
Who, but a saint,
Would know so clearly
That the journey is the reality.
The steps are sight.
The effort is reward.
The seeing is the searching.
The dream is the reality?
Seeking God is seeing God.
Have a fruitful Lenten time of seeking and seeing!
Pippa Bonner, February 2026
Thanks to North Wales, Lindisfarne and the Celtic Saints; Gratitude to Julie Hopkins who has taught me a lot about Celtic spirituality whilst sharing the hospitality of the Sisters at Noddfa Retreat Centre in Penmaenmawr. Many thanks to the Sisters and Staff too.
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.
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..
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.
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.
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.
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!”
On Tuesday 22nd October, we held the 5th Growing Old Grace-fully online session of 2024, Spiritually Accompanying People with Dementia led by Rev. Dr. Joseph Cortis, co-author of Journeying Together: accompanying people living with dementia. Deacon Joe has a background in adult and mental health nursing which includes a long period as an educational manager, academic and senior lecturer at the University of Leeds. He is a Trustee of Growing Old Grace-fully and a Deacon of the Diocese of Leeds.
The session explored ways to provide spiritual support to individuals living with dementia as well as our own spiritual journey with them as a loved one. It includes prayers and reflections, as well as ideas as to accompany and support someone living with dementia from a spiritual perspective.
It was a very powerful session and we thank Deacon Joe for leading it.
