Helping our parents

To succour comes from a Latin word meaning to run to the help of.  So this Commandment teaches us to be quick to help our parents.  One way of doing this is, instead of making extra work for your parents in the home, to make less work.  Many of you probably already try and help, but maybe you could do a little more.  For example, you can help in the garden and you can help with the cooking.  You can help by laying the table for meals and clearing away afterwards, and by washing up and making your bed.  Another thing you should all remember to do, and that is to clear up after yourself when you have had things out.  Put the things away yourself, instead of leaving your mother or father to go round, when they are probably tired out, picking up a book here, a toy there and a coat somewhere else. 

But of course you still have a duty to your parents after you have left home.  You should, as I am sure you will, always keep in touch with your parents by writing or emailing, by phoning and by coming home to see them.  And when they are old, if they are then no longer able to look after themselves we should see they are properly cared for.

Praying for our parents

And, of course, we should pray for our parents every day all through our life, both while we are still at home and after we have left home.

And when the time comes for them to leave this world, we should pray for the repose of their souls, knowing that they are alive in that other world and need our prayers just as much then as now.  And we should also make sure that at the Requiem Eucharist on All Souls’ Day, they are remembered.  Many churches invite people to write the names of their relatives on a list so that they can be remembered and their names read out at the Eucharist.  And if you live near, you should see that their graves are kept neat and tidy.