Pope Benedict XVI's prayer for Catholic Grandparents

Justin Haggerty | The Daily Knight

DEO GRATIAS! TE DEUM LADAUMUS! It has been a tremendous blessing to welcome my youngest daughter, Cecilia Clare, into the world. As I gazed into the deep eyes of this "Lily of Heaven," I contemplated the abundant graces that have been bestowed on the grandparents of my children. I am fully aware of the graces that my children have merited for my wife and I; those graces must also have been profoundly applied to our parents.*

I was reminded of Pope Benedict XVI's prayer for grandparents, 2008, requesting the intercession of Saints Joachim and Anne, the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary and grandparents of our Lord Jesus Christ:

Lord Jesus, you were born of the Virgin Mary, the daughter of Saints Joachim and Anne. Look with love on grandparents the world over. Protect them! They are a source of enrichment for families, for the Church and for all of society. Support them! As they grow older, may they continue to be for their families strong pillars of Gospel faith, guardians of noble domestic ideals, living treasuries of sound religious traditions. Make them teachers of wisdom and courage, that they may pass on to future generations the fruits of their mature human and spiritual experience.

Lord Jesus, help families and society to value the presence and role of grandparents. May they never be ignored or excluded, but always encounter respect and love. Help them to live serenely and to feel welcomed in all the years of life which you give them. Mary, Mother of all the living, keep grandparents constantly in your care, accompany them on their earthly pilgrimage, and by your prayers, grant that all families may one day be reunited in our heavenly homeland, where you await all humanity for the great embrace of life without end. Amen!