{"id":24821,"date":"2009-07-27T10:15:41","date_gmt":"2009-07-27T14:15:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2009\/07\/benedict-reminds-us-to-honor-g\/"},"modified":"2009-07-27T10:15:41","modified_gmt":"2009-07-27T14:15:41","slug":"benedict-reminds-us-to-honor-g","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2009\/07\/benedict-reminds-us-to-honor-g\/","title":{"rendered":"Benedict reminds us to honor grandparents, & the elderly"},"content":{"rendered":"

I don’t think “grandparents day” in the Hallmark manner has hit the pope yet, but<\/span> he did tell his listeners that grandparents are a central part of the family. The feast of Saints Joachim and Anne is the Church’s way of honoring grandparents seeing in Saints Joachim and Anne great models of what grandparents are to be for children and family systems. Pope Benedict’s remarks came within a reflection of the Sunday gospel where we heard Saint John’s narrative of the Multiplication of the loaves and fish. He asks THAT rather important question which we ask ourselves in front of Christ:<\/i> who am I?<\/span><\/p>\n


<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n
The Pontiff spoke about yesterday’s Gospel in which
\nSaint John narrates the multiplication of the loaves and fishes and in doing so
\nintroduces the notion of priestly mediation and the sacrament of the Eucharist.
\nHe said “It is as if the Eucharist were anticipated in the great sign of
\nthe bread of life. In this Year for Priests, … we members of the clergy may
\nsee ourselves reflected in this text of John’s, identifying ourselves with the
\nApostles when they say: where are we going to find bread for these people to
\neat? And when we read of that anonymous boy with his five barley loaves and two
\nfish, we too are moved to exclaim<\/span>: But what are they among so many people? In
\nother words, who am I? How can I with my limitations help Jesus in His mission?
\nAnd it is the Lord Who provides the answer: By putting in his ‘saintly and
\nvenerable’ hands the little they are, priests become instruments of salvation
\nfor many people, for everyone!”<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n
Considering the place of the family in
\nour society, the Pope mentioned Saints Joachim and Anne, parents of the Blessed
\nVirgin Mary and, hence, grandparents of Jesus, whose feast day was yesterday (see the blog entry below).
\nSince yesterday was Sunday, the Church didn’t observe the liturgical memorial
\nof these two rather important saints because Sunday ordinarily trumps the feast of saints. Careful observers of Benedict’s work will notice that he comes back to a constant theme with the vital importance his places on education in Church’s pastoral care program. Benedict XVI invited us “to pray for grandparents who, in families, are the depositories
\nand often witnesses of the fundamental values of life.”<\/b> The educational
\nrole of grandparents is always important<\/span>, and it becomes even more important
\nwhen, for various reasons, parents are unable to ensure an adequate presence
\nalongside their children as they are growing”, the Pope added, entrusting
\nall the grandparents of the world to the protection of Saints Joachim and Anna. He also mentioned “all elderly
\npeople, especially those who are alone or experiencing moments of difficulty.”<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I don’t think “grandparents day” in the Hallmark manner has hit the pope yet, but he did tell his listeners that grandparents are a central part of the family. The feast of Saints Joachim and Anne is the Church’s way of honoring grandparents seeing in Saints Joachim and Anne great models of what grandparents are … Continue reading Benedict reminds us to honor grandparents, & the elderly<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[2150,32081],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24821"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24821\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}