By Matters India reporter
Panaji, July 29, 2019: A parish in Goa on July 28 organized special programs to honor grandparents.
“One of the best schools is at the knees of grandparents. We learn our traditions, values and culture from them,” Father Walter De Sa, pastor of Our Lady of Immaculate Conception Parish in Panaji, the state capital, told the gathering of around 30 grandparents and more than hundred grandchildren.
The program included a solemn Mass and cultural programs and it was organized by the parish’s catechists and catechism students.
Father De Sa said grandparents “are very dear and precious to the little children. Whatever parents cannot do grandparents do for you. So, the parents are very grateful to their parents, and the little ones are very happy too to play with grandparents.”
He noted that children had turned up in large numbers for the program as “they are happy to celebrate this day.”
One of the children said his grandmother taught him Portuguese language “She would hold my hand and make me write in the book with a pencil,” he added.
Another child, Angelica Pereira, said her grandmother fed her when she was small. “She also taught me prayers in Konkani.”
Ten-year-old Nathan Couto said his grandmother bought him clothes and gave medicines when he was sick. “She also prepared special food for me.”
Nicol Noronha said her grandmother taught her to be honest whatever the situation. “She told me that I may get zero in the exams, but should never copy.”
Turning to the grandparents, Father Walter Da Sa commended them for being the first teachers of faith to the young. “You have so much wisdom. You bring up the children in a Christian way,” he said and urged them to continue their “precious mission in the family.”
He said the parish organized the program since the day marked the feast of the grandparents of Jesus. “May you all be blessed abundantly and may your families become like the Holy Family.”
Bertha Rocha, a grandmother, said they thoroughly enjoyed the cultural items and games organized by the children for them. “The program was well organized and we must congratulate our catechists for training the children so well. We were pampered with a gift for each.”
Rocha also said being a grandmother is “a wonderful and beautiful gift of God.” She said she has loved her children and felt nice “when they come to me to ask for any guidance or when they want to be loved and fussed over.”
According grand-parenting is also facing challenges in modern times.
“It was so good to teach them or tell them stories and how things were in the olden days. Life was simple and happy then. But now with TV, internet and the mobile, children are so busy and at times we miss to get their attention. At times we feel grandparents have become outdated. But we always love them and long to hear them talk or tell about their life, which is so stressful at times, and we feel sorry for them.”