The precious gift of old age : how to make the golden years the best of your life
(Book)

Originally published: Reflections on growing old. Garden City, N.Y. : Doubleday, 1963.

"Let me express briefly the idea from which this little book was written. It states a personal view, born of experience and faith. I believe that old age is a gift, a very precious gift, not a calamity. Since it is a gift, I thank God for it daily. Age robs us and enriches us. It robs us of life, as we know life and love it; to a certain extent it diminishes us. It separates us from loved ones and much human living and makes us dependent upon others. Yet it offers great and subtle compensations: many insights, often much peace, and certain fruits of wisdom. It brings new contributions, new hopes, fulfillments, and perspectives, especially for the thoughtful. Old age does mean a diminishment and always ends in that utter diminishment, which is death. Yet through diminishment, age brings us a new life: a life that flows directly from the source of all life and youth-the Eternal. This new life, the life of the resurrection, is nourished within us here and now in the struggles of this world. It is nourished in us by the operation of the Holy Spirit: a continual life-building that becomes more intense as we advance in years and in diminishment. The increase of this life is the fulfillment of God's promises: it is God's Amen. His Amen, His steadfast love for us, in the language of the Bible, is the basis of our hope. I can reject this divine operation by bitterness, cowardice, and complaint. Or I can accept it by thanksgiving: by faith, hope, and love. Growth through diminishment is not some arbitrary formula. Rather, it is in accord with an archetype that runs through all nature, through the evolution of physical life, and through the evolution of man's cultural life as well. It is in accord with what inspired history tells us of God's ways of dealing with the human race, and it is proclaimed by the Savior of mankind a law of the Kingdom. This new life takes the form of love: of a dynamic, tangible force in human affairs. A reward of old age is to give to me ever new and varied opportunities for the experience of this new life of love for God and man. The acceptance of these new opportunities, as they present themselves to me each day, is an Amen of joy. It is also an Amen of atonement, of reparation, for my own sins and for those of others, in union with the divine sacrifice offered by the Son of God. The immense dynamic force of love-so easily forgotten, or else misrepresented or caricatured in our times-is the force of love's dimensions, seen in the variety and richness of their application to each individual and to society. Love, therefore, means responsibility: of society toward the aged, and of the aged toward one another and toward society. Love also demands courage: the courage to walk bravely in cooperation with the Holy Spirit, the courage to make the complete and final offering of our lives. The five parts of these considerations, Growth through diminishment, Our Steadfast Hope, The Power of Love, Society's Responsibility, and Courage in Old Age, explain these ideas in more detail in the rest of the book"--,Provided by publisher.