By Hannah Brockhaus
There is no “retirement” from spreading the faith, Pope Francis said in a message to grandparents on Tuesday, adding that the prayers of the elderly are needed by the Church and the world.
“Think about it: what is our vocation today, at our age? To preserve our roots, to pass on the faith to the young and to care for the little ones. Never forget this,” the 84-year-old pope said.
He said that it does not matter how old one is, whether one works or not, and whether one has a family or is alone.
“Because there is no retirement age from the work of proclaiming the Gospel and handing down traditions to your grandchildren. You just need to set out and undertake something new,” he commented.
In his message ahead of the first World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly, Pope Francis referred to his own advanced age, and quoted his predecessor, Pope emeritus Benedict XVI, whom he called “a saintly elderly person who continues to pray and work for the Church.”
“‘The prayer of the elderly can protect the world, helping it perhaps more effectively than the frenetic activity of many others.’ [Benedict] spoke those words in 2012, towards the end of his pontificate,” Francis said. “There is something beautiful here. Your prayer is a very precious resource: a deep breath that the Church and the world urgently need.”
“I was called to become the Bishop of Rome when I had reached, so to speak, retirement age and thought I would not be doing anything new,” he noted. “The Lord is always -- always -- close to us. He is close to us with new possibilities, new ideas, new consolations, but always close to us. You know that the Lord is eternal; he never, ever goes into retirement.”
In January, Pope Francis established the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly, to take place annually on the fourth Sunday of July, close to the feast of the grandparents of Jesus, Sts. Anne and Joachim.
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