Saint Anne and Saint Joachim , Parents of Mary
Feast Day: July 26
Patronage of: Anne – of Canada, women in childbirth, Christian mothers, Joachim – of fathers

Patrons for Grandparents

Joachim and Anne were the parents of Mary and the grandparents of Jesus.

The name “Hannah” means grace. In Galilee, where she lived, Mary’s mother was probably called “Hannah” even though we know her as Saint Anne. So, if you are named “Hannah” or “Anne” you are named after the mother of Our Blessed Mother.

It was in the womb of Saint Anne that Mary was immaculately conceived. From the first instant of her life, she was in a state of grace and free from all stain of Original Sin. It was her parents, Anne and Joachim that raised her to be faithful to God’s word and remain free of sin.

Tradition has it that the couple offered their little daughter to God in the Temple. As a young girl, she spent time in service to the Temple. working and learning with other girls. But it was problbly her parents who taught her to read, and certainly Joachim and Anne who taught her to love and follow God’s word and to know and understand the Scriptures.

Anne is the patron of Christian mothers, and Joachim the patron of fathers. They were given the great honour and responsibility of raising Mary to be the Mother of God, and can help mothers and fathers today to raise their children to love and follow God too.

PRAYER TO ST JOACHIM AND ST ANNE

Great and glorious patriarch, St Joachim, and good St Anne, what joy is mine when I consider that you were chosen among all God?s holy ones to assist in the fulfillment of the mysteries of God, and to enrich our earth with the great Mother of God, Mary most holy. By this singular privilege, you have become most powerful with both the Mother and her Son, so as to be able to obtain for us the graces that are needful to us.

With great confidence I have recourse to your mighty protection, and I commend to you all my needs, both spiritual and temporal, and those of my family. Especially do I entrust to your keeping the particular favour that I desire and look for from your intercession.

And since you were a perfect pattern of the interior life, obtain for me the grace to pray earnestly, and never to set m heart on the passing goods of this life. Give me a lively and enduring love for Jesus and Mary. Obtain for me also a sincere devotion and obedience to Holy church and the sovereign pontiff who rules over her, in order that I may live an die in faith and hope and perfect charity. Let me ever invoke the holy Names of Jesus and Mary. And may I thus be saved. Amen.

LITANY IN HONOR OF SAINT ANNE:

Lord, have mercy
Christ, have mercy
Lord, have mercy.
Christ, hear us.
Christ, graciously hear us.

God, the Father of heaven, have mercy on us.
God, the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy on us.
God, the Holy Spirit, have mercy on us.
Holy Trinity, one God, have mercy on us.

St Anne, pray for us.
Offspring of the royal race of David, *
Daughter of the Patriarchs,
Faithful spouse of St Joachim
Mother of Mary, the Virgin Mother of God,
Gentle mother of the Queen of heaven,
Grandmother of Our Saviour,
Beloved of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph,
Instrument of the Holy Spirit,
Richly endowed with God?s grace,
Example of piety and patience in suffering,
Mirror of obedience,
Ideal of pure womanhood,
Protectress of virgins,
Model of Christian mothers,
Protectress of the married,
Guardian of children,
Support of Christian family life,
Help of the Church,
Mother of mercy,
Mother of confidence,
Friend of the poor,
Example of widows,
Health of the sick,
Cure of those who suffer from disease,
Mother of the infirm,
Light of the blind,
Speech of those who cannot speak,
Hearing of the deaf,
Consolation of the afflicted,
Comforter of the oppressed,
Joy of the Angels and Saints,
Refuge of sinners,
Harbour of salvation,
Patroness of a happy death,
Help of all who have recourse to you,
(* Pray for us is repeated after each invocation)

Lamb of God, You take away the sins of the world; spare us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, You take away the sins of the world; graciously hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, You take away the sins of the world; have mercy on us.

V. Pray for us, good St Anne,
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let us pray. Almighty and eternal God, You were pleased to choose St Anne to be the mother of the Mother of Your loving Son. Grant, we pray, that we who confidently honour her may through her prayers attain to everlasting life. We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

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November 21st: The Presentation of Mary in the Temple

Ven. Mary of Agreda “The Mystical City of God’ (abridged) on HER PRESENTATION IN THE TEMPLE

The three years’ time decreed by the Lord having been completed, Joachim and Anne set out from Nazareth, accompanied by a few of their kindred and bringing with them the true living Ark of the covenant, the most holy Mary, borne on the arms of her mother in order to be deposited in the holy temple of Jerusalem. The beautiful child, by her fervent and loving aspirations, hastened after the ointments of her Beloved, seeking in the temple Him, whom she bore in her heart.

This humble procession was scarcely noticed by earthly creatures, but it was invisibly accompanied by the angelic spirits, who, in order to celebrate this event, had hastened from heaven in greater numbers than ordinary as her bodyguard, and were singing in heavenly strains the glory and praise of the Most High. The Princess of heaven heard and saw them as she hastened her beautiful steps along in the sight of the highest and true Solomon. Thus they pursued their journey from Nazareth to the holy city of Jerusalem, and also the parents of the holy child Mary felt in their hearts great joy and consolation of spirit.

They arrived at the holy temple, and the blessed Anne on entering took her daughter and mistress by the hand, accompanied and assisted by Saint Joachim. All three offered a devout and fervent prayer to the Lord; the parents offering to God their daughter, and the most holy child, in profound humility, adoration and worship, offering up herself. She alone perceived that the Most High received and accepted her, and, amid divine splendor which filled the temple, she heard a voice saying to her: “Come, my beloved, my spouse, come to my temple, where I wish to hear thy voice of praise and worship.”

Having offered their prayers, they rose and betook themselves to the priest. The parents consigned their child into his hands and he gave them his blessing. Together conducted her to the portion of the temple build­ing where many young girls lived to be brought up in retirement and in virtuous habits, until old enough to assume the state of matrimony, It was a place of retirement especially selected for the first-born daughters of the royal tribe of Juda and the sacerdotal tribe of Levi.
Fifteen stairs led up to the entrance of these apartments. Other priests came down these stairs in order to welcome the blessed child Mary. The one that had received them, being according to the law one of a minor order, placed her on the first step. Mary, with his permission, turned and kneeling down before Joachim and Anne, asked their blessing and kissed their hands, recommending herself to their prayers before God. The holy parents in tenderest tears gave her their blessing; whereupon she ascended the fifteen stairs without any assistance. She hastened upward with incomparable fervor and joy, neither turning back, nor shedding tears, nor showing any childish regret at parting from her parents.  To see her, in so tender an age, so full of strange majesty and firmness of mind, excited the admiration of all those present.

The priests received her among the rest of the maidens, and Saint Simeon consigned her to the teachers, one of whom was the prophetess Anna. This holy matron had been prepared by the Lord by especial grace and enlightenment, so that she joyfully took charge of this Child of Joachim and Anne. She considered the charge a special favor and of divine Providence and merited by her holiness and virtue to have her as a disciple, who was to be the Mother of God and Mistress of all the creatures.

Sorrowfully her parents Joachim and Anne retraced their journey to Nazareth, now poor as deprived of the rich treasure of their house. But the Most High consoled and comforted them in their affliction. The holy priest Simeon, although he did not at this time know of the mystery enshrined in the child Mary, obtained great light as to her sanctity and her special selection by the Lord; also the other priests looked upon her with great reverence and esteem. In ascending the stairs the child brought to fulfillment, that, which Jacob saw happening in sleep; for here too were angels ascending and descending: the ones accompanying, the others meeting their Queen as she hastened up; whereas at the top God was waiting in order to welcome her as His daughter and spouse. She also felt by the effects of the overflowing love, that this truly was the house of God and the portal of heaven.

Mary’s presentation was celebrated in Jerusalem in the sixth century. A church was built there in honor of this mystery. The Eastern Church was more interested in the feast, but it does appear in the West in the 11th century. Although the feast at times disappeared from the calendar, in the 16th century it became a feast of the universal Church.

As with Mary’s birth, we read of Mary’s presentation in the temple only in apocryphal literature. In what is recognized as an unhistorical account, the Protoevangelium of James tells us that Anna and Joachim offered Mary to God in the Temple when she was three years old. This was to carry out a promise made to God when Anna was still childless.

Though it cannot be proven historically, Mary’s presentation has an important theological purpose. It continues the impact of the feasts of the Immaculate Conception and of the birth of Mary. It emphasizes that the holiness conferred on Mary from the beginning of her life on earth continued through her early childhood and beyond.

Comment:

It is sometimes difficult for modern Westerners to appreciate a feast like this. The Eastern Church, however, was quite open to this feast and even somewhat insistent about celebrating it. Even though the feast has no basis in history, it stresses an important truth about Mary: From the beginning of her life, she was dedicated to God. She herself became a greater temple than any made by hands. God came to dwell in her in a marvelous manner and sanctified her for her unique role in God’s saving work. At the same time, the magnificence of Mary redounds upon her children. They, too, are temples of God and sanctified in order that they might enjoy and share in God’s saving work.

THE PRESENTATION OF MARY:  Commemorated November 21

It stands to reason that Almighty God’s selection of the Virgin Mary to be the Mother of God was not a random selection.

In his wisdom, God selected not from the nobility but from the humble, thoroughly devout, daughter of equally devout parents whose names were Joachim and Anna. Tradition has it that Anna, childless for many years, reached a point in her life when just short of despair she prayed in earnest that God grant her a child with a promise that should her wish be fulfilled she would pledge the child to his holy Temple. It did not matter to Anna that the child granted her by God was a girl and, faithful to her word, she presented her daughter, given the name of Mary, to the holy Temple at the age of three, on the 21st of November.

She remained in the house of God for twelve years, emerging at the age of fifteen with a purity and wholesomeness found in no other creature of God. By the time she had been released to her parents, the saintly Mary was not only a flawless maiden but in her twelve years had acquired the lore and religion of the deepest scholars, something usually denied a female child of those days.

So much has been written of the Lord’s mother that the concern here is for a glimpse into her life as a human being. The Virgin Mary is looked upon by Orthodoxy as “Panagia,” which translates into the all-encompassing saint. Greek Orthodox Christians need but one name and that name is “Panagia,” carrying the full impact on the Christian faith as no other name can regardless of the language. The beginnings of Christianity were not the scattered remnants that somehow merged into a smattering, of ideologies. By divine intent the great religion of Christ stemmed from a tight circle which spread itself out as the greatest of human experiences.
To begin with, the high priest entrusted with the care of Mary was Zacharias, who in turn was the father of St. John the Baptist, referred to as the prefiguration of the Messiah and the man who was to baptise Jesus Christ…

Our Lady’s parents, Sts. Anne & Joachim, presented her in the temple when she was a small child. From her earliest years Mary led a life of prayer. She said “yes” to God’s will. “We wish to love the Lord Jesus with the heart of the Immaculate, receiving Him and thanking Him with her acts; thus, even if we should neither feel nor understand it, in fact we will honor the Lord Jesus with her heart, with her acts; or to speak more exactly, it will be she who through us loves and praises Jesus. We are but her instruments”

(St. Maximilian Kolbe).

The Presentation of Mary in the Temple

To understand what she was like then,
you have to imagine yourself in a place
in which columns affect you;
where you can retrace stairs
where arches full of danger
bridge the chasm of a space
that remained within you,
because it had been made, towering,
of such pieces that you can no longer
remove them from yourself lest you demolished yourself.
If you have reached that state, if everything within you
is stone, wall, ramp, view, curve, then try
to remove the big curtain in front of you
with both hands:
it sparkles of very noble things
and surpasses your breath and touch.
Up, down, palace built upon palace,
Railings stream wider from within railings,
and surface above surface on such edges
that vertigo, as you can see, grasps you.
Clouds of incense diffuse what is close,
but still the most distant aims right
inside of you with its straight rays –
and now, when the glow from clear bowls
of flame plays on slowly approaching robes:
how can you bear it?

She, however, came and raised her eyes
to view all this.
(A child, a little girl among women)
Then she ascended silently, filled with confidence,
towards the spoiled luxury which made way for her:
For that is how much everything that men built had
already been exceeded by the praise within her heart;
by the desire to give herself to the signs within her:
The parents wanted to lift her up,
the looming figure with the bejeweled chest
seemed to receive her:
But she passed through everyone,
small as she ways, slipped from every hand
into her destiny, which, higher than the hall,
was ready, and heavier than the temple.

Composed by Rainer Maria Rilke (translated by Gerald Augustinus)

Ave Maria Meditations

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A Lesson from Blessed Teresa of Calcutta on Abortion

“America needs no words from me to see how your decision in Roe v. Wade has deformed a great nation. The so-called right to abortion has pitted mothers against their children and women against men. It has sown violence and discord at the heart of the most intimate human relationships. It has aggravated the derogation of the father’s role in an increasingly fatherless society. It has portrayed the greatest of gifts — a child — as a competitor, an intrusion, and an inconvenience. It has nominally accorded mothers unfettered dominion over the independent lives of their physically dependent sons and daughters”

“And, in granting this unconscionable power, it has exposed many women to unjust and selfish demands from their husbands or other sexual partners. Human rights are not a privilege conferred by government. They are every human being’s entitlement by virtue of his humanity. The right to life does not depend, and must not be declared to be contingent, on the pleasure of anyone else, not even a parent or a sovereign.”

(Mother Theresa — “Notable and Quotable,” Wall Street Journal, 2/25/94, p. A14)

“But I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child – a direct killing of the innocent child – murder by the mother herself. And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?

How do we persuade a woman not to have an abortion? As always, we must persuade her with love, and we remind ourselves that love means to be willing to give until it hurts. Jesus gave even his life to love us. So the mother who is thinking of abortion, should be helped to love – that is, to give until it hurts her plans, or her free time, to respect the life of her child. The father of that child, whoever he is, must also give until it hurts.

By abortion, the mother does not learn to love, but kills even her own child to solve her problems. And by abortion, the father is told that he does not have to take any responsibility at all for the child he has brought into the world. That father is likely to put other women into the same trouble. So abortion just leads to more abortion. Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching the people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want. That is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion. ”

“Please don’t kill the child. I want the child. Please give me the child. I am willing to accept any child who would be aborted, and to give that child to a married couple who will love the child, and be loved by the child. From our children’s home in Calcutta alone, we have saved over 3,000 children from abortions. These children have brought such love and joy to their adopting parents, and have grown up so full of love and joy!”

February 1997 – National Prayer Breakfast in Washington attended by the President and the First Lady. “What is taking place in America,” she said, “is a war against the child. And if we accept that the mother can kill her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another.”

“Any country that accepts abortion, is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what it wants.”

“It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.”

Mother Teresa with a Rosary in her hand was unafraid to stand before the United Nations or the President of the United States or any personage in the world and deliver the message of the dignity of life.  May we follow her example as best we can in our own lives. Ave Maria!

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Homily #110726 ( 08min) Play – On this memorial of Saints Joachim and Anne, the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Fr. Bonaventure exhorts us to imitate the humility of the parents of the Immaculate Conception and Mother of God, and to ask that they intercede to help us follow the true Christian understanding of the family.
Ave Maria!
Mass: Joachim and Anne – Mem – Form: OF
Readings:
1st: exo 33:7-11, 34:5-9, 28
R: psa 103:6-7, 8-9, 10-11, 12-13
Gsp: mat 13:35-43

Audio (MP3)

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Fr. Ignatius on the life of St. Louis, King of France and how the seeds of holiness were sown by his parents and he tried his best pass this along to his children. This took the form of desiring to die rather than commit one mortal sin.

Ave Maria!

Mass: St. Louis – Mem

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Fr. Patrick Hyde, O.P. at the beginning of Advent on how Mary and also all parents shows us how our prayer life should be with Christ. We should always engage the Lord. This involves the practice of silence and solitude with the Lord just as parents would with their child, just as Mary did with Jesus. When we spend time with the Lord this is the essence of freedom, adding beauty to our life. This homily closes out his talks at the 2017 Advent Day of Reflection at the Mother of the Redeemer Retreat Center in Bloomington, IN

For more talks from the day of reflection:
https://tinyurl.com/FrPatrickAirmaria
or https://tinyurl.com/FrPatrickYTube

Fr. Patrick Hyde is Associate Pastor and Campus Minister at St. Paul’s Catholic Center at the Bloomington Campus of Indiana University: http://www.hoosiercatholic.org/

The day of reflection took place at the Mother of the Redeemer Retreat Center in Bloomington, IN: http://www.maryschildren.com/

Ave Maria!

Mass: Saturday 34th Week of Ordinary Time – Wkdy
Readings: 
1st: dan 7:15-27
Resp: dan 3:82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87 0
Gsp: luk 21:34-36

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What made St. John Bosco’s ministry so effective was his ability to be a true father to the young men to whom he ministered.

Ave Maria!

Mass: St. John Bosco – Mem

Readings: Wednesday 4thWeek of Ordinary Time
1st: 2 Sam 24:2, 9-17
Resp: Ps 32:1-2, 5, 6, 7
Gsp: Mk 6:1-6

More on the Readings: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/013118.cfm

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By the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate http://marymediatrix.com

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Part III – Life in Christ – #2196 – 2213
Fr. Mahan starts the second tablet of the Ten Commandments, Love of Neighbor. He begins with the 4th Commandment Honor your Mother and Father (Ex 20:12)

NAB Ex 20:12 http://www.usccb.org/bible/exodus/20

CCC Part III – Life in Christ – #2196 http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/p3s2c2.htm
– I. The Family in God’s Plan
– II. The Family and Society

Ave Maria!

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“Tour of the Catechism of the Catholic Church” is given by Fr. Daniel J. Mahan, S.T.L., pastor of St. John the Apostle Catholic Church in Bloomington, Indiana, and St. Jude the Apostle in Spencer. He will cover the entire Catechism in about 80 videos, giving an outline of the content along with clear easy to follow explanations. It will be based on the 2nd Edition of the Catechism.

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Part III – Life in Christ – #2214 – 2233

Fr. Mahan continues his discussion of the 4th Commandment and the Duties of Family Members (Ex 20:12)

NAB Ex 20:12 http://www.usccb.org/bible/exodus/20

CCC Part III – Life in Christ – #2214 http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/p3s2c2a4.htm#III
– III. The Duties of Family Members
– – The duties of children
– – The duties of parents
– IV. The Family and the Kingdom

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By the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate http://marymediatrix.com

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Ave Maria!
“Tour of the Catechism of the Catholic Church” is given by Fr. Daniel J. Mahan, S.T.L., pastor of St. John the Apostle Catholic Church in Bloomington, Indiana, and St. Jude the Apostle in Spencer. He will cover the entire Catechism in about 80 videos, giving an outline of the content along with clear easy to follow explanations. It will be based on the 2nd Edition of the Catechism.

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