THE SPIRITUALITY OF THE ELDERLY

When we asked the Ascending Life Groups in Spain, the collective response was that the elderly in the groups, because of the pandemic, are afraid and cautiously do not participate in group meetings. It is in these encounters that they find friendship, accompaniment and spirituality that relieve them of loneliness, and they miss them.

The situation of the groups in the residences is dramatic, the elderly are often excluded and abandoned, many are confined to their rooms, without space to live, contemplating the end of their lives in solitude. Many of them died without a hand to accompany them at the crucial moment of their passage to the Father's house.

Older adults have a secondary priority for accessing health services and are often treated only with palliative care. Our society, with unbalanced population growth, where interest and speed prevail, pays no attention to wisdom and has no memory. The memory of grandparents is not a value and we lose the references that give meaning to our lives.

In this bleak picture, there is hope thanks to people who do not follow this path and who take a break to meditate and find the meaning of life.

The first are those elders who, reaping the fruits of memory, look at the steps they still have to take. They pray and their prayer is heard, they trust in God's mercy, and they get forgiveness, relieved of the feeling of guilt, they find peace. During my visits to the residences, I found elders like these, people who became simple, they taught me to understand life and gave me peace.

The second are volunteers who devote their time to the care of the people in need, including members of the Ascending Life groups. They give the old man the affection he needs, the company of a friend who knows how to share, who keeps listening attentively and knows how to learn from him, already freed from all that is incidental. This accompanying friend helps to deepen the hope and enriches the lonely life of the old man.

I must point out that there are people who are in both groups, who live in residences and who have had the energy to create Life Ascending groups in their own residences, where they meditate every week on the Gospels and share the difficulties of life, alleuging loneliness. These groups remain active when access to residences is limited to us.

At the conferences on the elder's apostolate in Rome and on the secular apostolate of Madrid held in early 2020, the Church urges the layman to collaborate in the mission of the apostolate. The Madrid Congress calls on the layman to actively participate in an " out-of-the-way church" in search of the people in need. At the end of the Congress of Rome, the Pope specifically called for the creation of Dicasteries for the apostolate of the elderly in all dioceses.

Considering the exhortations of the two congresses, Vida Ascendente in Spain, following their recommendations, promotes this meeting with the people in need by focusing on the oldest person. To do this, it promotes the use of the means of communication that allow us to remain united when its use is possible (Website, WhatsApp Messages, telematics meetings such as Zoom, or Teams Viewer). The site is used for the dissemination of training days and virtual pilgrimages that break the loneliness of the senior in his confinement through    easy access via mobile phone, which the    elders learned    to use. I must thank here the extremely active work of our National Adviser, Father Ignacio Figueroa.

Finally, an out-of-the-way church, in search of the people in need, demands that apostolate movements collaborate. The best example is the participation of many Life Ascending members in Caritas volunteering and pastoral care for their parishes.

Thank you to all of you for your dedication and generosity. When the pandemic passes, which will happen, a noticeably big reconstruction work awaits us. The spirituality that people of faith nourish themselves with and the need for us to see, to listen to each other and to   accompany each   other, make possible the work  of  reconstruction;   we only have to give ourselves body and soul to encourage, to motivate us to resume the  activity of Ascending Life.

Spirituality is in everyone's soul.

Jaime Tamarit, Vida Ascendente España