Today is the feast day of these two extraordinary Grandparents. Can you imagine what it must have been like for this couple? Tradition tells us they waited many years for the arrival of their daughter Mary. Feeling punished by God for their barreness, rejected by the society around them, because of the stigma childlessness carried with it and entering into old age without children to take care of them. For all their wealth life was tough. But God did what only God does, He sent an angel to this couple to assure them they would have a child. In time Mary was born.
Now what we know about this couple may not all be true, but the one thing for sure is that Mary had parents who were given an exceptional daughter. It is from them that she learnt her faith and the scriptures. It was through their influence that Mary was able to give her "fiat" when an angel of God appeared to her. Had she heard the stories from her parents of how an angel had delivered them the good news that they were going to have a child? and now was history repeating itself.
How Joachim and Anne must have struggled when Mary dropped the bombshell that she was with child. For so much of their lives they had been judged as unworthy by their neighbours because God had not blessed them with a child, and now here again their family was going to be judged by those around them who would look down upon their beloved daughter for her unplanned pregnancy. Could her story be true? It seemed incredible that God would choose them to be the grandparents of His son. So many thoughts must have gone through their heads, and then there was Mary's tale about an angel, it must have struck a chord, if God had done it once He could surely do it again!
The one thing for sure is we will never know this side of eternity. But that Jesus had grandparents is true and I am sure they delighted in His presence and did the things that grandparents do, they just happened to be the grandparents of the greatest man that ever lived, what an awesome privilege to be able to influence the son of God.
So on this day as we celebrate this wonderful couple let us remember and pray for our own Grandparents and thank them for the love they have passed down to us and to invoke the help of these two great saints as we continue their legacy in handing on the faith of their Grandson to our own children.
It's good to have Saints who can intercede for us, here is a prayer to ask St. Anne to intercede for us
(Glorious St. Anne, filled with compassion for those who invoke you and with love for those who suffer, heavily laden with the weight of my troubles, I cast myself at your feet and humbly beg of you to take the present affair which I recommend to you under your special protection.
Vouchsafe to recommend it to your daughter, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and lay it before the throne of Jesus, so that He may bring it to a happy issue.
Cease not to intercede for me until my request is granted.(Here ask for favour you wish to obtain.)
Above all, obtain for me the grace of one day beholding my God face to face, and with You and Mary and all the saints, praising and blessing Him through all eternity. Amen.
Good St. Anne, mother of her who is our life, our sweetness and our hope, pray to her for us and obtain our request. (Three times).
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