Highlights from the April 2026 Grandparents Faith Café – with Cardinal Wilfrid Napier
Featuring Keynote Speaker Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier — Archbishop Emeritus of Durban, South Africa
Tuesday, 14 April 2026 · Online via Zoom
On Tuesday, 14 April 2026, Grandparents from across the globe gathered online for the April Grandparents Faith Café, hosted by the Catholic Grandparents Association. The session took place in the Easter season, just days after Divine Mercy Sunday, and the theme could not have been more fitting: Grieving and Resurrection from Mary’s Point of View.
Our keynote speaker was Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier, Archbishop Emeritus of Durban, South Africa — a man who has become, in the words of CGA Founder Catherine Wiley, “a foundation stone for our Catholic Grandparents Association.” Fr. Noel Wynn, Marist Father and former Director of the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, joined in the discussion.
Cardinal Napier offered the closing blessing.
“Unless we put the grieving and the resurrection together properly, we can miss out on a very rich spiritual life.”
An Easter Reflection — Catherine Wiley
Catherine opened with a reflection rooted in the Easter season, sharing an experience from Divine Mercy Sunday at her local church in Florida. After Mass, the priest, elderly, a grandfather himself, a late vocation, invited anyone who wished to go to confession to remain behind, and he would hear them. “People came forward, just quietly, humbly, simply,” she said. “What a beautiful way to bring back the sacrament of reconciliation on this day of all days.”
She reflected on the suffering in the world, including the images of Grandparents holding the hands of their grandchildren in war zones, carrying what little they have left. “Humanity can seem so fragile sometimes. But prayer is not weak. Prayer is powerful, perhaps the greatest force we have. And Grandparents, your prayers matter.”
And yet, she said, there is genuine hope. On that same Easter Sunday morning, 28 people came to be received into the Catholic Church at her local parish, more than she had seen in over 30 years. The same is being reported from all over the world, with a notable spike in the 18 to 25 age group. “A quiet but powerful renewal,” she called it.
She then spoke of Mary — not just as the Mother of God, but as a mother. “I wonder who was with her at the birth of Jesus. I wonder what the hidden years in Nazareth were like. I wonder what happened the night before the Last Supper. And then to look up and see her Son on the cross: the heartbreak, the anguish, the love, and yet the surrender. Mary was no stranger to grief. And yet she remained faithful, trusting, believing. And then the resurrection: a mother’s sorrow transformed into joy beyond all telling.”
The Address — Cardinal Wilfrid Napier
Mary in the Gospels
Cardinal Napier opened by noting that Mary is mentioned or reported to have spoken only 18 to 20 times in the entire Gospels. What is most important, he said, is what she says. Her very first words, in answer to the angel Gabriel: ‘How can this be?’ Trying to understand God’s will. And then, when she had understood: ‘Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.’ First, genuine questioning. Then, complete surrender.
Then the Magnificat: ‘My soul magnifies the Lord.’ And when Jesus remained behind in the temple: ‘Son, why have you done this?’ The most human of cries. And yet, each time, scripture tells us that ‘his mother kept all these things in her heart.’
Her last recorded words, spoken at the wedding feast of Cana, are perhaps her most important: ‘Do whatever He tells you.’ Cardinal Napier called these the starting point for all of us in responding to the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Whatever He tells you: that is our compass.
“Do whatever He tells you. — Mary, at the Wedding Feast of Cana”
Grieving and Resurrection as One Continuum
The Passion and the Resurrection are not separate events, Cardinal Napier explained, but one continuum. When we accompany Jesus in His Passion, the experience of the resurrection must come. It is the coming together of both, the grief and the glory, that brings us to a new vision of life.
He drew attention to the scene at the empty tomb, where the risen Lord revealed Himself to Mary Magdalene, and said to her: ‘Do not cling to me. I must first return to my Father.’ “These words could lead us in meditation for a very long time,” he said. “Already, even here, we are being lifted up from a purely earthly life to a life that has heaven as part of its reality.”
An Application for Grandparents
Cardinal Napier turned the reflection directly to the lives of Grandparents. One of the most real ways in which Grandparents pass on the faith, he said, is precisely through their grief: grieving over children who have lost their faith, or who have quietly stopped practicing.
“For some, this is a real agony: you know you haven’t put a foot wrong, and yet they have drifted. For others, the grieving comes from your own confession: I know I was wrong to turn away from the Church.” He offered the Parable of the Prodigal Son as the best starting point for persevering in prayer for the return of your sons and daughters.
“Easter is the clearest and most reassuring sign of God’s unfailing love. It is when we have recognized that the grieving was a necessary step towards the real goal which Jesus had in mind for us, that the fullest meaning of the resurrection becomes clear.”
“There wouldn’t have been a resurrection if Jesus hadn’t had the crucifixion. Unless we put them together properly, we can miss out on a very rich spiritual life.”
Reflections from the Floor
Mary at Cana — The Strings She Pulled
Catherine asked a question that prompted a beautiful exchange: at the wedding feast of Cana, did Mary give Jesus the courage, the permission to begin His public ministry? Did her simple statement, ‘They have no wine,’ open the door?
Cardinal Napier responded warmly: “Mary had that womanly instinct of knowing when someone would be most receptive to a call for help. And the way she put it was simply a statement of fact, placed before Him with trust. She knew that once Jesus knew a person’s need, He would do something about it. He’s actually readjusting His life because of His mother’s appeal. Like any mother, Mary knew the strings to pull. And that is our comfort as Catholics: she has been pulling the strings for us for a very long time.”
Simple Words, Deep Roots — Geraldine D., Australia
Geraldine shared a memory of calling her son James in an emergency. A man was having a heart attack, and she simply said: ‘James, I need you.’ He ran, performed CPR, and the man survived. “I think about how many other times I may have said something simple like that to our boys without realizing what it planted in them,” she said. “Those small, unhurried words may be the very ones that still carry weight when faith and practice have gone a little skewed.”
Mary at the Foot of the Cross — Fr. Noel Wynn, England
Fr. Noel offered a reflection that the group found deeply moving. “At the foot of the cross, as Mary was losing her Son, Jesus said to her: Woman, behold your son; and to John: behold your mother. Mary’s role as mother did not end at the crucifixion. From that moment, she became mother of the whole Church, the mother of all of us. She continues, in a very real way, to be a mother.”
Cardinal Napier added: “That really brings out the connection between us and Jesus. He has given Mary to us as our mother. He is clearly defining our relationship as brothers and sisters to him. That is part of what the resurrection means.”
Mary’s Temple Formation — Jane S., USA
Jane offered a reflection that drew admiration from around the call: “Mary had been in the temple studying her faith for years before the Annunciation. She knew about God’s miracles. She knew about angels, and about the strong women and men of the Old Testament. So when Gabriel came to her, it wasn’t entirely without context. That would explain why her answer was so firm: Be it done to me according to your word.”
The Magnificat — Noreen B., Ireland
Noreen reflected on Mary’s great song of praise. “It contains praise, gratitude, and the humanity of God. It celebrates that God lifts up the lowly and gives strength and courage. None of us is perfect. We all need help in so many ways. When the choir sings the Magnificat in church, I think: from the very beginning, Mary was hoping that her Son was the Savior of us all.”
Mary Keeps All Things in Her Heart — Deacon Tom O’Shea, USA
Deacon Tom shared a reflection on Luke 2:51: ‘His mother kept all these things in her heart.’ “She wasn’t reacting, she wasn’t complaining; she was pondering. And I think the less specificity we have about Mary’s life in many ways makes her more appealing, because we can see ourselves in her. She’s like that wise mother who knows that her love has such gravitas that she doesn’t need to force anything. She just states the need. And love does the rest.”
A Prayer for Every Step — Betty M., Ireland
Betty closed the discussion with a prayer shared with her by Bishop Denis Nulty, which she says every single day: every time she goes out, every time she faces the stairs:
Take my hand, O Blessed Mother,
hold me gently lest I fall.
I am nervous when I’m walking,
and to thee I humbly call.
Guide me over every crossing,
watch me while I’m on the stairs,
help me with my undertakings,
lessen many of my cares.
And when darkness falls around me,
and I fear to be alone,
take my hand, O Blessed Mother,
once again, and lead me home.
A Blessing to Close
Cardinal Napier closed with a prayer for peace, for all those suffering in the Middle East and throughout the world. He prayed for wisdom for leaders, understanding for social scientists, compassion for caregivers, and healing for all who suffer physically, psychologically, and emotionally. He ended with the prayer that has become a quiet anthem of trust in difficult times:
Jesus, I trust in you.
Jesus, I trust in you.
Jesus, I trust in you.
Catherine closed with a Hail Mary, prayed together by the whole global gathering. It was, as she said, “a gift to Our Lady: this wonderful Faith Café that came out of a desire to help the needy and the isolated and the sick, to bring them together, to talk to each other, to support each other. There is no greater way of doing it than this.”
“Mary walks with us through everything — through love, through suffering, through hope — and she always leads us to Her Son.”
Join Us Next Month
The next Grandparents Faith Café takes place on Tuesday, 12th of May 2026
featuring John Michael Talbot — musician, author, and founder of the Brothers and Sisters of Charity.
Free and open to all. Register at www.catholicgrandparentsassociation.org
‘Do whatever He tells you.’ — John 2:5