July 25: First World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly

Published : 21 July 2021

On July 25, 2021 the Church celebrates the first World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly.
An opportunity to rejoice with our sisters, especially those who enlighten us on our way through the wisdom of the years.
At the end of the page, some downloadable pastoral tools to properly celebrate the Day in our communities.
Do not miss this opportunity!

«As individuals and as Churches, we can do a lot for the elderly. That is why we want the celebration of the first World Day of Grandparents and Older People to be experienced as a moment of celebration involving all generations. It is not a matter simply of happiness, but of joy born from the knowledge that the Lord is close to the lives of the elderly as well as the young, for God is with us always.

There are many pastoral tools that can give concrete expression to our pastoral concern for older people.

This World Day that we are celebrating today can help us to understand that all of us, young and old, grandparents and grandchildren, whether or not we belong to the same family, are “one body and one Spirit, as you were also
called to the one hope of your call”. This awareness comforts us and shapes us as a people as we gather around the altar on which the Lord multiplies the bread of life and the Word of our salvation. The elderly − like the young − are important. Without them the body of the Church lacks something. That is why it is necessary for them to have their rightful place within each of our communities. It is crucial that we share in the lives of older people in the same way that the Lord, in giving us his Body and Blood, has made us sharers in his own».

Card. Kevin Farrell
Prefect of Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life


Prayer for the First World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly

I thank You, Lord,
for the comfort of Your presence:
even in times of loneliness,
You are my hope and my confidence,
You have been my rock and my fortress since my youth!

I thank You for having given me a family
and for having blessed me with a long life.
I thank You for moments of joy and difficulty,
for the dreams that have already come true in my life and for
those that are still ahead of me.
I thank You for this time of renewed fruitfulness to which You
call me.

Increase, O Lord, my faith,
make me a channel of your peace,
teach me to embrace those who suffer more than me,
to never stop dreaming
and to tell of your wonders to new generations.

Protect and guide Pope Francis and the Church,
that the light of the Gospel might reach the ends of the earth.
Send Your Spirit, O Lord, to renew the world,
that the storm of the pandemic might be calmed,
the poor consoled and wars ended.

Sustain me in weakness
and help me to live life to the full
in each moment that You give me,
in the certainty that you are with me every day,
even until the end of the age.
Amen.


Pope Francis’ message for the First World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly

Pastoral tools for the animation of the Day
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