Virtuous models for the family

If ever we could find the example of marriage, parenthood, educators of the faith, and love all in one couple, surely it's in the holy lives of St. Anne and St. Joachim, Our Lady's parents.  Their feast day is today, and they are models for the modern day family and what we should strive for in living holy lives for ourselves, eachother, our children and Our Lord. 

Husband and Wife:  Both Anne and Joachim lived lives of chastity and virtue, and had purity of love for eachother.

Parents

(Above, the angel of the Lord announcing to St. Joachim and St. Anne that they shall bear a child, and call her Mary) 

"At an advanced age, after having suffered unspeakable humiliation because of her sterility, St. Anne miraculously conceived Our Lady. . . . The couple had been unjustly scorned because St. Anne was sterile. In the Old Covenant it was considered shameful to be sterile, because all Jews hoped for the honor to be in the ancestral line of the Messiah. Supposedly a childless couple would be excluded from that blessing, and chastised by God. The people did not realize that St. Joachim and St. Anne were the ones who were blessed as being chosen to be in the line of the Messiah, even though St. Anne was sterile.

"It is necessary to emphasize this point. The great plans of God demand that an immense effort be realized. They depend on a long wait, a time that seems wasted. Sometimes we walk in a direction that seems to be the opposite of the plan of God.


"Then, at the end of the road, Divine Providence acts. God asks an act of confidence from the person whom He wants to honor by making him part of His plan. He asks him to hope against all hope, to trust against all appearances of reality. The person has to pass through the trial of appearing to be abandoned by God. Afterwards, God confirms his choice and executes His plans with that person. This apparent abandonment and the appearance of being put aside by God is His way to manifest His affection.


"In the life of St. Anne this point touches us and is a model for us. Many of the expectations of our vocation put by Our Lady in our souls may not be met for a long time. At times we may even have the impression that they will never be realized. The longer the delay, the more splendidly the promise will be fulfilled. Let us ask St. Anne to help us accept and understand this, and give us the needed strength to follow this road."

St. Anne and St. Joachim together and individually prayed the Lord would bless them with a child.  In fact, as they were apart from eachother one day, and they each were praying separately, an angel of the Lord approached each of them at the same time in different places to announce their parenthood.  The picture we often see of them embracing is a snap shot in time -- they had each raced to find the other to tell of the miraculous message of the angel.  As they embraced, each discovered the other had been told the same message.

Motherhood

"With the birth of Mary the aged Anne began a new life : she watched her every movement with reverent tenderness, and felt herself hourly sanctified by the presence of her immaculate child.

"But she had vowed her daughter to God, to God Mary had consecrated herself again, and to Him Anne gave her back. Mary was three years old when Anne and Joachim led her up the Temple steps, saw her pass by herself into the inner sanctuary, and then saw her no more. Thus was Anne left childless in her lone old age, and deprived of her purest earthly joy just when she needed it most. She humbly adored the Divine Will, and began again to watch and pray, till God called her to unending rest with the Father and the Spouse of Mary in the home of Mary's Child."

Educators of the Faith

"It was their teaching that led Mary to respond to God's request with faith, 'Let it be done to me as you will.' It was their example of parenting that Mary must have followed as she brought up her own son, Jesus. It was their faith that laid the foundation of courage and strength that allowed her to stand by the cross as her son was crucified and still believe."

Grandparents

Although some depictions of St. Anne and St.Joachim show them in the presence of Jesus, different accounts suggest that St. Joachim died at the age of 80 shortly after they consecrated Mary to the divine service in the temple at Jerusalem, and Mary consecrated herself to the Almighty; and that St. Anne died at the age of 70 a few years after St. Joachim.  Another source states that St. Joachim died when Mary was 12 years old, and that St. Anne died soon thereafter.  But we do know that the grandparents, St. Joachim and St. Anne, reside now in Heaven with their child, Mary and St. Joseph, and their grandson, the Savior of the World.

Novena Prayer to St. Anne

Glorious St. Anne, Filled with compassion for those who invoke thee, 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 thee to take the present affair which I recommend to you under thy special protection... (State your intention here.)


Vouchsafe to recommend it to your daughter, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and to lay it before the throne of Jesus so He may bring it to a happy issue. Cease not to intercede for me until my request is granted.  Above all, obtain for me the grace of one day meeting my God face to face, and with thee and Mary and all the saints, praising and blessing Him to all eternity.

Good St. Anne, mother of her who is our Light, our Sweetness, and our Hope, pray to her for us and obtain our request.  Amen

Prayer to St. Joachim is HERE.  Read more about St. Joachim and St.Anne HERE, and, from the Passionist Nuns HERE.  My folders are HERE (scroll down in that post) and HERE. 

 I used Vee's coloring pages of St.Anne and St. Joachim for my folder, and Charlotte at Waltzing Matilda also has a beautiful coloring page HERE.

St. Anne and St. Joachim, pray for us !