The Homestretch: Making the Best Use of Our Retirement Years
Stephen Gabriel
Scepter
October 2024
128 pages
ISBN: 1594175314
The onset of retirement – for many of us a huge change in life – can lead one to expect more time for golf or other hobbies, more travel, pursuing interests parked until now or just simply making more time for family, including grandchildren. Above and beyond all these, Stephen Gilbert states clearly in the Preface that the book “will challenge you to spend your retirement, the final lap of your life, growing closer to God and serving your neighbor.”
From the start he makes it clear that while not decrying the activities more often associated with those who wish to be active in retirement, he references Pope St John Paul urging us to see our older years in their proper perspective – that is as an important segment of our path to eternity. While it is incumbent on people of all ages to live in the state of grace and be prepared for death – which can happen to anyone at any moment – it is especially true that those who are retired are, on the basis of probability, nearer to their dies natalis than those in their twenties or thirties.
His first chapter is entitled “Our Interior Life.” He starts from the premise that in our active working life and with family responsibilities, there mightn’t have been much time left for prayer, but that now there is far more freedom to spend time improving our relationship with God. He gives plenty of advice on how to do just that, offering a useful programme or plan of life that can include Mass, Prayer, the Holy Rosary and an Examination of Conscience. His second chapter is on apostolate – the central message being that we’re not meant to keep what we’ve learned about God to ourselves, that it has to influence our relationship with our friends.
Gilbert goes on to develop the theme of family – especially grandchildren. He has eight adult children and thirty-eight grandchildren so he should know a bit about that. Many grandparents play an important role in the formation of their grandchildren – for some this can involve a huge commitment of time, while for others because their children’s family live a long distance away contact will be less frequent. The author having thirty-eight grandchildren and, like most grandads, wanting to be one who is fun to be with, but at the same time being concerned for their growth in virtue and ultimately for the salvation of their souls, he started writing letters to them. They were aimed at those who were about thirteen years old and not surprisingly they ended up as a book of sixteen letters. The letters covered such topics as God, the Church, their sexuality, friendship, hardships, work, and so on. In his case it helped that all his children are more or less on the same page as him with regard to their faith. He signed each of the books of letters and gave them to each grandchild personally – for the younger ones the copies will be kept by their parents until they are of an age to read and appreciate them. He answers his own question as to how they will receive them with the old proverb: “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make them drink”. It must, and will be a wonderful experience for a thirteen year old to read something specially written for him or her by a loving grandad.
In Chapter Four the author explores the benefits of travel, including pilgrimages that could be made with one’s grandchildren – he lists various places in the America, but we in Europe could equally name excellent venues nearer home. He also deals with the benefits of reading, whether of a spiritual or secular nature – while he says he has still many of the classics to read, he lets us know that he has finished War and Peace. I’m impressed! And if that wasn’t enough, he goes on to extol the virtues of volunteering.
As we get older, suffering can play a greater part in our lives. Gabriel has words of great wisdom on among other features: joy in suffering, false suffering and the mystery of suffering, and he quotes St Josemaría Escrivá and the “Prayer of the Elderly” by Pope St John Paul.
A thoroughly inspiring read for anyone facing into retirement, or for those already at that point of their lives.
About the Author: Pat Hanratty
Pat Hanratty taught Science/Chemistry in Tallaght Community School from its inception in 1972 until he retired in 2010. He was the school’s first Transition Year Co-ordinator and for four years he had the role of Home School Community Liaison Officer.