Let Us Pray! – To be souls filled with God Renounce all things Be attentive to God Lovers of the Cross Docility to the Holy Spirit – So that all things may be renewed Prayer – To be true servants of God Fidelity in the little things – May the designs of God be fulfilled Faith in the action of Providence Prayer and Penance Adoration of Jesus Host – To live in intimacy with God The reading of the Gospel – May God’s Kingdom come! Prayer – To hasten the hour of salvation for the Church and the world Invitation to fight – May God find these generous souls Be true – With grace and truth Patience – Graciously! Do violence to ourselves – To attain holiness The summit of Adoration No one can serve two masters The anguish of God What is most pleasing to God Aging is a Grace Secret of Happiness – The Beatitudes The true essence of the Holy Church of Jesus Christ ADVENT Prepare the Way of the Lord ADVENT Prepare the Coming of Jesus ADVENT Awaken Thy Power, O Lord, and come! CHRISTMAS Beside the manger CHRISTMAS He came unto His own and His own received Him not… EASTER Jesus, Light of the World Purgatory, an instrument of Divine Mercy A page from the Gospel – Jesus lost and found in the Temple The Feast of the Visitation and of the Magnificat The Assumption of the Virgin Mary The Secret of the Rosary Mary, Mother of God and our Mother Glorious Saint Joseph, our Model Saint Michael the Archangel, Champion of Humility

Aging is a grace

by Father Mathurin of the Mother of God In our era, when youth, beauty, strength and performance are wildly exalted, whereas at all costs aging is disguised, hidden and even very often openly scorned, daring to say that old age or illness is a grace, a kindness of God, will surely give rise to great astonishment at the very least, and in certain cases total disbelief and even outrage. Yet nothing could be truer. And nothing is taught so rarely! According to the plan of God, people who are suffering and growing old occupy a place of choice in the Body of the Church. Why “a place of choice?” Because elderly people are, or at least ought to be, the great support of the Church through their intense life of prayer, their great spiritual vitality and their patient daily sacrifices. In society, good elderly people are an inspiration and an encouragement for younger folks — first of all, once again, because of their spirit of prayer, their wisdom and their sense of true values, the example of their serenity and the hundred hidden “little virtues” that the ailments and inconveniences of gradual aging have taught them to practice. In the Church and society in general, elderly people fulfill the role of “lightning rods”; they can obtain all sorts of grace and protection for humanity, provided, of course, that they truly accept their role. Old age is not a scourge; it is a blessing of God to prepare souls for their eternity. It is not without reason that the Church includes the following invocation in the Litany of the Saints: “From sudden and unprovided death, protect us, O Lord.” It is a good thing to ask to attain old age if such is the Will of God. Premature deaths do exist, even among the Saints, but they are not the norm. When we hear of the death of a young person, we say spontaneously, “He was only twenty years old... She was only forty.” It is not a standard thing. Even very young children die. But in the twenty-first century, in countries that are not at war, people in general live much older than they used to. Longevity among humans has greatly increased in recent years. This is an immense mercy of God, but who uses it as a mercy of God? Normally, as people grow older, they detach themselves from the earth and its vain pleasures. With age come ailments and illnesses; people wilt a little, sometimes a lot. The “structure” deteriorates little by little. It is a design of God to detach us from the earth and draw us nearer to Him. For that matter, it is the purpose of our entire life, whether we be young or old, to live as much as possible in union with Christ and to walk in His footsteps. The little Catechism tells us, “God created us to know Him, to love Him and to serve Him in this world in order to be happy with Him throughout eternity.” Who thinks about that today? Who talks about it and practices it? Unfortunately, most elderly people are now more occupied with entertaining and amusing themselves than when they were young. God, Infinite Love, is all too often very far from their preoccupations.

The spirit of the World

We regularly hear people of a certain age say: “Time goes by so quickly! Only yesterday we were twenty! And now we are sixty, seventy, eighty years old. We were tied down all our life by work and family obligations, but now we want to take maximum advantage of the time we have left to have fun, travel and entertain ourselves! We’ve done our time, and now we can certainly indulge ourselves a little.” There is permanent entertainment every day from morning till night. Besides, it is so easy with modern technology: music, television, the internet – gadgets of all sorts. There is plenty to entertain us full-time, twenty-four hours a day. Unfortunately, most elderly people adopt that program, often prompted by their family and friends who strongly encourage them to do so. They want to forget their sufferings, their illnesses. They want to profit from what remains of their life, but they do not profit from it the right way. In any case, all these diversions do not make them happy. Their souls are empty because God does not have His rightful place in them. Entertaining themselves is all that counts. And after they have lived their last years in dissipation, they will die in the same manner. How sad it is to think that the great majority of elderly people – who already have one foot in eternity, so to speak – live this way, thinking only of entertaining themselves and forgetting their coming death! I am not casting stones at anyone, for who has taught them, or who is helping them now to think that the time of old age is a time of purification, of drawing near to God in view of heaven to come? Yes, God destines all of us to heaven, but contrary to what is preached by the false prophets of today, you do not get into heaven without the “wedding garment” mentioned in the Gospel.

The plan of God

Understand me well, we can never be kind enough toward our elderly people, our seniors. It is very important to give them comfort and joy with all kinds of little attentions and kindnesses, looking after their needs. We ought to apply ourselves to relieve their sufferings as much as possible and go out of our way to lighten their burden. But by wanting too much to entertain them with films and games of all sorts we are really not doing them any favors – especially in the case of priests and religious who have a special vocation of total consecration to God. But even for people of the world, we are not helping them by diverting them too much, having them watch or listen to worldly things. In an atmosphere of tranquil joy, those who care for the sick and the elderly should seek to lead souls to God with discretion and respect, and try to give them time for prayer and recollection. It is very important, and not only for them: it is a work of the Church. Younger people, those who are in full activity, need the help of old people’s prayers. They must absolutely receive that support! They need grace. Even people who have led a very good life should be reminded that “golden agers” or “senior citizens,” as they are called today, are living a time of mercy. Necessarily, life is not always perfect. We do not always employ our capacities wisely when we are young. In His mercy, God allows us to purify ourselves of all that with old age. Yes, throughout our life we have purified ourselves, we have asked for God’s forgiveness, but God is giving us yet another occasion to do something for Him – truly for Him alone, in prayer and immolation, with all our attention focused on Him. Most humans, even the best of them, are distracted from God very often during their lifetime. Sometimes they have had big “distractions” that lasted a long time. And in His infinite goodness, God conceived a plan to give His children the chance to repair, to compensate: it is the time of old age. This point of Christian teaching is not developed well or often enough. I suffer over it, because God suffers over it. He gives us this advantage of growing old, and instead of thanking Him and using this time to draw ever nearer to Him, people want to be entertained. And often they complain, “Oh, it’s not funny, I don’t have the same capacity, I hurt here, I hurt there...” whereas old age is a great blessing, a time to dedicate ourselves more fully to God, to prayer, reparation and intercession. Growing old is not a chastisement, it is a blessing.

Set the divine tone for others

My brothers and sisters, this Christian attitude with regard to aging is virtually unknown today, because it is seldom if ever taught. It is up to us to do so. But first we must convince ourselves of it and practice it; if we do not, we will not be able to convey it to the world. Suppose I say to a nun: “Sister, I am entrusting these people to you. Lead them to the understanding that their old age is a real mercy of God.” You should be able to inculcate it in them. Even the younger ones; with the elders it should be normal. I should not even have to tell them that we must inculcate this great truth in them. It is n ot a matter of going and stupidly sermonizing elderly people. No, if you truly love God and are really concerned about the good of those entrusted to you, you will be able to make them understand this truth, with geniality and even a little humor, even if you are still young yourself. “Look, God is showing me the same mercy as He has shown you! I’m starting to turn gray; you see, I am even getting some wrinkles.” And then, nicely, we can help them understand that old age is not a chastisement but a blessing and a mercy. Everyone says, “It’s not funny, God is harsh!” No, He is not harsh! He takes every means to lead us to Himself, including old age, illness and infirmity. These constitute part of His mercies. They are not chastisements. We must be convinced of this. We must live it ourselves. When we are young, full of energy and life, even despite our ideal of sanctity, without realizing it very much, we let ourselves get absorbed by our occupations, by material things, by the earth. Our duty of state itself absorbs and distracts us. We do it for God, but even so, we are a little distracted because there is so much activity. We do not realize it, but there is a lot of the human element in what we do, a lot. When we get sick, grow old, become less capable physically, we can think about God more, we can prepare ourselves more for eternity. It is a blessing. Dear brothers and sisters in our various missions, we must communicate these truths to people. It is part of the instruction we must give them. We must set the divine tone. Many elderly people frequent our chapels. We have to remind them not to waste their time when they leave the chapel. As I was saying above, today it is so easy to divert old folks! We must not let ourselves fall into that trap. We can entertain them endlessly with films, the internet, etc., yet they are not any happier for it! Their souls are empty. The souls of our old folks here are not empty. Among those who pray the most, what a light, what a flame they reflect! They pray. These elderly people are treasures. Permit me to repeat it: when physical energy decreases, when physical capacity decreases, it is a mercy of God. He permits it so we can concentrate on the essential and prepare for what is the most important thing in the end: our eternity, God Himself. We say eternity, but eternity is God. The purpose of our life on earth is union to God, in order to prepare for heaven. The happiness of eternity is union to God, but already on earth we must always strive toward that union. It is the purpose of life and we fall short of it, we forget it so much! We are so easily distracted! And illness and old age are there to increase and perfect this union to God. They exist solely for that purpose. I would like everyone to believe it and to live it.