My Faith as a Senior Citizen

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They shall bear fruit even in old age,

always vigorous and sturdy

As they proclaim "The Lord is just; our rock in whom there is no wrong."

____________________Psalm 92:15-16___________

The wealth of age

I am grateful to God because he has given me fullness of life. Thanks to science and to technological research, the number of senior citizens is increasing. We are participants and spectators of the events of history. The most difficult and complex situations are passed. How many memories! I hold on to both the beautiful and the not so beautiful ones. But all of them have been important.

Closer to our Destiny, God

Now we are closer to the final goal of God.

We have more time to contemplate Him, to pray to Him, to dialogue with Him and to know Him better. Now we can dedicate to Him the time which perhaps we had not been able to give to Him before, when we were in the fullness of the energies of life and were busy with so many things to do.

It is not a return to God out of resignation or opportunism. The Bible reminds us. "The crown of old men is wide experience, their glory, the fear of the Lord." (Sir 25:8).

The experiences we have had lead us to Him.

My interests are to read, to meditate, and to reflect in order to speak about Him.

And I sense that close to me is:

A God rich in mercy

A God who loves life

A God slow to anger and great in love.

The fullness of hope.

Our situations are varied in life today whether on a personal, family or social level. We have more time to meet and to be together. It is true that it is not always easy. There can be moments of loneliness and of discouragement, but it is possible to find companionship.

Moreover, as grandparents at home we are in the position of giving to the

younger generations the sense of home and of educating them in the importance of the little things in home life.

For our grandchildren, we are able to tell stories about our life, describing experiences that help them to behave respectfully toward us. To the little ones, we can recount episodes from the life of Jesus or fairly tales that teach.

For everyone we can take part in the experience of patiently rebuilding, of having the wisdom to begin again from the beginning when dreams and plans are shattered and one is confronted with the realities of daily life.

The faith of the elderly.

At our age, we can also add a faith that is solid and rich. Then our journey in life can be completed with an attitude of gratitude and of faithful waiting. We might live lives more or less obscure and weak in Christian practice: then a new moment happens bringing new light and religious experience. Then we can add days to our lives, with deep wounds of soul and body. The itinerary of faith then should be directed to living out these situations, with a disposition of prayer, of pardon, of interior peace.

But we should not forget the attitude of hope and of faith which comes from the certainty of a loving and final encounter with God.