When Annie, grandmother and great-grandmother very involved in her French parish confides to LAI

We,   "seniors"  , I prefer this term to that of  "great elders",  we had the joy of living the Vatican II  Council.

As pope, Saint  John XXIII, said, the Church has opened its windows and doors to the world. We have shared in our respective languages the beautiful texts of the Eucharistic prayer. The lay people have taken their place in the transmission of faith, in the catechism, in the preparation for the sacraments. Great progress!  

Today, even if some wish to see the  doors closed again, Pope Francis invites us to no longer just "do" in our churches, but also to go out on the forecourts, to go and meet our brothers where they live, with their concerns, to help them give meaning to their lives, in this increasingly materialistic, individualistic and selfish world.

As we seriously lack priests, the Church is happy to count on the elders to perform indispensable services:    the catechism, the preparation of parents for the baptism of their child,  the visit to the sick, the funeral, the preparation for marriages, not to mention pastoral committees for the functioning of our parishes.

For my part in the parish, after many years of catechism, I accompany families who ask for baptism for their child: is it not crucial to see with them why give their child this gift of the "treasure of faith"? Entering the family of Christians, what joy, but what a responsibility for the parents, godparents and for the entire Christian community!

The priest of my parish has entrusted me today with a new mission: to accompany a group of 7 adult catechumens who, after a two-year path, will be baptized at Easter 2020. I find them courageous and persevering, it'sa joy for me to find them every month and to see their maturity evolve in faith.

Their initial motivations are often very material or practical (to marry theChurch). Then their answers deepen...   To the question "What does faith mean to you?   they respond:    strength, courage, perseverance, trust, audacity, prayer, love. They add that  discovering  Jesus' message changes their lives and requires efforts they had not thought of.

I also accompany grieving families: here too we have a beautiful message to convey.  Faced with the death of a loved one,  people are in a state of grace and are happy to revisit the life of the deceased: we have to value, in the latter, all acts of sharing and friendship, services rendered, gestures of affection.

When we say that what we are going to celebrate is a big thank you to God for all these acts of love experienced, people  make a discovery that gives another meaning to their mourning and hopefully,  for their future lives.

Our generation is set to disappear, work takes so long for the new generations, the transmission is not done very much.  Let us pray the Holy Spirit that the doors of our churches will not close forever.