Mgr Quinn’s Prayer for Grandparents

Composed by the late Msgr. Joseph Quinn, former PP Knock, to coincide with the First National Grandparents’ Pilgrimage on Saturday, 22nd September 2007, at Our Lady’s Shrine, Knock, Co. Mayo.

God of the Ages we praise and thank you. From generation to generation You have been our refuge and strength. You give your gifts of grace for every time, place and season as we strive within the family to walk in Your ways and remain close to one another and to you. We pray that our homes may be schools of Faith, where we come to know and to love You. Teach us the Sanctity of human love. Show us the value of family life and help us to respect all life. May the young find in the family strong support for their humanity so that they may grow in truth and love. May the elderly experience respect, support, love and care within the family circle. We give thanks for Grandparents and we pray for them. We give thanks for they connect us with our heritage and our roots through the mists of time. We give thanks for their Christian memory which inspires and enlightens us. We give thanks for the example of their faith, for the witness of their lives, for the constancy of their love, for the support of their prayers.

Bless all Grandparents and keep them in Your care.Bless them with peace, health and healing. Reward them for their Faith and fidelity, for their work and goodness, for their love and thoughtfulness, for their gifts and prayers. Give them a long and happy life together. May old age come to them in the company of family and friends. And when life is over, unite them again, where parting will be no more, in the Kingdom of Your love.

We ask this through Christ our Lord.

Divider

St Joachim and St Anne

Prayer to Saint Anne and Saint Joachim

St. Anne and St. Joachim,you were especially favoured by God,on the threshold of the New Testament,to be the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God. You provided your daughter with a loving home, family and faithful teaching, and brought her up to be the worthy Mother of our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Your way of parenting was for her an example to bring forth the only-begotten Son of God, Jesus, treasuring all things in her heart. (cf. Lk.2.19,51). Your faith laid the foundation of courage and strength that allowed Mary to stand by the Cross as her Son was crucified and to still believe (cf. Jn. 19.25-27).In communion with Mary and Joseph, intercede to your grandson, Jesus, for all parents, so that they may help their children to grow in strength and in knowledge and to discover the mission that God entrusts to them in the world and in the Church.

Divider

St Anne

Prayer to Saint Anne

Good St. Anne, Mother of Mary, the Blessed one among women. (cf. Luke 1.42). Intercede for all our families so that, through the help of the Holy Spirit, we may grow together in peace and understanding and make our home hospitable to our visitors and guests. May we persevere, like you, in the love of Jesus and Mary and live pure and blameless lives in the sight of God.

Grandmother of Jesus, our Saviour, you were honoured by our ancestors in your role of nurturing Him and bringing Him up to maturity. Intercede for all grandmothers so that they may nurture their grandchildren with love and wisdom, teaching them to find their way in life and to be right in word and in deed.

Divider

St Joachim

Prayer to Saint Joachim

Gentle St. Joachim, Father of the Virgin Handmaid of the Lord, (cf. Luke 1.38), grandfather of Jesus, among your descendants you had the privilege to count the One whom your own ancestors longed to see, the long-expected Messiah. Intercede for all elders and grandfathers who worked hard on this land, defending its integrity, and who grew old in the service of the Almighty. May God grant them to benefit from their remaining strength, to share the wealth of their experience and wisdom and to enter his Kingdom at the end of their earthly time.

Good St. Anne and St. Joachim, parents of Mary, the ‘favoured one’, (Luke 1.28), accompany us in our faith journey on this land to the glory and praise of God, now and for ever and ever.

Amen.