“You are the privileged members of the family who can share your wisdom with your grandchildren, without feeling the need to preach at them because, in the long run, you know that the front line of responsibility for them does not lie with you but with your children, their parents”. So said the bishop of Killala, preaching at the special Mass on Sunday to the grandparents and grandchildren who made a special pilgrimage to the Knock Shrine in Co. Mayo.
This is the second year of this special pilgrimage to Knock.
The National Grandparents Pilgrimage was established by Grandmother Catherine Wiley in 2007 – a grandmother of ten. That pilgrimage was attended by almost 6,000 people from all over Ireland.
The aim of the National Grandparents Pilgrimage is to celebrate the important role that grandparents play in the lives of their grandchildren. Last year an appeal for grandparents was launched and grandchildren from all over Ireland responded by writing thousands of prayers for grandparents. These were included in yesterday’s ceremony.
Bishop Fleming began: “From all parts of the country we come together on this Sunday afternoon to thank God for the gift of life to our grandparents and the gift of their lives to all of us. On this day we ask God, in the words of our Holy Father, ‘look with love on grandparents the world over, to protect and support them’”.
Bishop Fleming touched on vocations, one of the themes of the pilgrimage: “Each month in the Year of Vocations, we focus on a different theme of vocation, the vocation to marriage, to the single life, to priesthood etc. Today, our focus is on your vocation as grandparents and our vocation as grandchildren.
“We recognize you as the deeply loved and irreplaceable members of our families. We rely on your love and the support of your prayers for us. We welcome and appreciate the time you spend with us and we hope that, in some way, our lives will repay something of the great investment of love which you have made in us”.
“In particular, we pray that your prayers will help us find our Christian vocation in the Church which you love”.
“Through spending time with your grandchildren, therefore, you are stimulating their young imaginations and you are also creating memories of you which will endure through their entire lifetime.
“In particular, these memories of your silent witness to prayer and to faith in God will stay with them, even if they drift from the faith and from the Church at times in their lives.”
Fr Liam Lawton was guest singer and he performed special song that he had written for grandparents. The pilgrimage's keynote address was given by Mr David Quinn, Director of the Iona Institute.
Choral Singing was performed by Cill Aodáin Choral Society, Mayo School of Music Youth Choir and Our Lady’s Choir, Castlebar.
The special prayer written by Pope Benedict XVI especially for this pilgrimage was read at the ceremony by Catherine Wiley.
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(Source: CIN)