Grandparents: sowing the seeds of a eucharistic faith

Today is the World Day for Grandparents and the elderly.  Realistically, being a senior and a grandparent often go together! One of the great blessings of being a grandparent is the freedom to welcome the little children as Jesus did and then return them to their parents!

According to a number of sources including this one, Mikhail Gorbachev, the former Soviet leader, was baptised due to the influence and encouragement of his grandmother in the decade of the Stalinist terror of the 1930s. The Christian faith survived in Russia and other parts of the USSR thanks in no small part to the witness of countless believers, among them many of the babushki – the grandmothers of Russia.  When many churches were closed and public religious practices made difficult if not impossible, family networks kept the faith alive.  Many grandparents encouraged baptisms of their grandchildren and prayed with them.  Their involvement in the lives of their grandchildren helped preserve memories, customs and the rudiments of a living faith.

Today, Ireland in common with most European countries is a post-Catholic and post-Christian country. Schools are nominally religious even if probably a majority of people maintain some weak association with religious faith – it might be attendance at an annual family cemetery mass or mass on Christmas day at most.  Most children, it seems to me, reach adulthood with an extremely limited and sometimes compromised knowledge of religion. Still, some families are actively engaged in living their faith.

Grandparents have an important role. In harmony with the parents of their grandchildren they can impart the seeds of faith. This can be done in a number of ways including, in the first place, practicing a genuine, deep love for their grandchildren. Children are not complicated: they know and sense real love when they experience it and this can leave a mark for life. It interests me to notice that, very often, it is the adult grandchildren that show the greatest outward grief at the funeral of a grandparent. This is the soil in which faith can be nurtured.

However, there are specific practices and gestures that can help. These may include the short prayer at night while putting the child to bed.  Or, they may include a short visit to the Blessed Sacrament while out for a walk.  Such occasions provide the opportunity to speak in a very direct and simple-to-follow way about Jesus being there in the Tabernacle caring for us and listening to our prayers.

I have heard that primary school children are now introduced to the practice of mindfulness in ways that benefit their mental health and well-being. Would it be an idea for Catholic schools, parents or even grandparents to introduce the children to a little time of quiet and prayerful mindfulness, also, in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament?

Of course, Christian grandparents must respect the role of parents as the primary educators of their children. Even a simple example of prayer, kindness and faithful witness, lovingly offered when opportunities arise, can have a lasting effect.

After all, the bubashka who helped her grandchild in the 1930s might have been responsible for more than she could ever have realised in the bigger story of the world 50 years later. Who knows?