“It is an opportunity that life offers us to finish growing, to mature… to be born!
We must complete our first birth by building, opening paths, overcoming difficulties, and shaping our destiny.
We are always in genesis… human life is not structured to end with death, but to be transfigured through death.”
— Leonardo Boff
Old age is a gift from God.
By granting old age, God the Father gives us time to deepen our knowledge of Him, our intimacy with Him, to enter ever more deeply into His heart and abandon ourselves to Him.
It is the time to prepare to entrust our spirit definitively into His hands, with the trust of children.
But it is also a time of renewed fruitfulness.
“In old age they will still bear fruit,” says the psalmist (Ps 91:15).
From the barren womb of Sarah and the centenarian body of Abraham was born the Chosen People.
From Elizabeth and the elderly Zechariah was born John the Baptist.
Even when weak, the elderly person can become an instrument in the history of salvation and can still contribute to the good of the community through humble service and prayer.
The consecrated woman
The consecrated woman, even in old age, does not cease to be consecrated for the world—
to love the world, to intercede, to pray for the world.
Like Abraham interceding for the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen 18:16–33);
Moses, who supports Israel with prayer as they fight Amalek (Ex 17:8–16);
the Canaanite woman who intercedes with Jesus for her daughter (Mt 15:21–28);
the persistent widow before the unjust judge (Lk 18:1–8);
or the Church of Jerusalem interceding for Peter (Acts 12:5, 12).
To pray with the heart: “Father, May your Kingdom come.”
The advice of Mother Marie Eugénie:
“You ask me how to grow old in holiness?
By committing ourselves tirelessly to turning our gaze toward God…
Keep your mind occupied with the truths of faith—that is, with the mysteries of Jesus, His words, His sufferings.
Keep your heart lifted up to heaven, which is your homeland and where you must already live, in hope, the peace of the children of God; striving to be good, like Him—always good, in everything.
Finally, since physical old age is the time of illness and weariness, bear them with the patience, gentleness, and simplicity of the Divine Lamb.
Then what the Apostle Paul says will happen to you:
‘Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.’
This makes old age holy, leading to a holy death and, finally, to blessed eternity.”
Prayer of a religious growing old
Dearest Lord,
teach me to grow old with grace.
Help me understand that my community does not wrong me when it gradually takes away responsibilities, when it no longer seems to seek my opinions.
Free me from pride in all the wisdom I have learned.
Free me from the illusion of being indispensable.
Help me, in this gradual detachment from earthly things, to grasp the meaning of the law of time.
Teach me, in the turnover of work and workers, to discern the surprising expression of the constant renewal of life under the impulse of Your providence.
And I ask You, Lord, allow me still to be useful—to contribute to the world with my optimism, to add my prayers to the joyful fervor and courage of those who now take their turn at the helm.
May my way of life now become a humble and peaceful contact with a changing world, without shedding tears for the past, making my human suffering a gift of reparation for all my brothers and sisters.
May my leaving the field of action be simple and natural, like a radiant sunset full of love.
Lord, forgive me if only now, in my quietness, I am beginning to know how much You love me, how much You have helped me.
And now, finally, I have a clear understanding of the joyful destiny You have prepared for me, guiding my steps from the very first day of my life.
Lord, teach me to grow old… just like this.
Sr Egle Sepulcri
Quadraro Community – Rome
Province of Europe
