Sts. Joachim and Ann

Tomorrow is the feast of St. Joachim and St.Anne. They were the parents of Mary. In my opinion this should be GrandParents Day, Instead of  Sept. 7^th.  There isn’t much known about them. In the Gnostic Gospel of James we here about the annunciation of the birth of Mary to her mother Ann. The story parallels the Old Testament account of the birth of the prophet Samuel. Another legendary story tells of a time when Mary was young, and she was being pursued by a number of suitors all wanting her hand in marriage. She asked her parents for advice ( something modern day parents would wish their children would do)  Joachim told Mary to tell all of her young gentlemen to place their staffs in the temple, and then ask for a sign from God. She did as her father told her and the staffs of her suitors sat in the temple over night.  The next morning one of the staffs blossomed and lilies were growing from the end. The staff belonged to Joseph. That is the reason why in art Joseph sometimes appears with a staff with lilies growing out of the end.

The devotion to St. Annis important to people of French Canadian ancestry. The Shrine of St. Ann De Beaupre in Quebec Canada is one of the first pilgrimage sites in North America.  The Nine days before the celebration of the feast, is celebrated in our Diocese at St. Ann Church in Crest Hill, and in St. Anne Illinois in the southern part of our own diocese.  Some feel that you pray to St. Ann to miraculously be guided in a woman’s choice of a husband.  In the southern end of our diocese, the unofficial prayer is, “Good St. Ann, give me a man.”  However the official pilgrims prayer is much more appropriate and beautiful.

A Pilgrim’s Prayer

Saint Anne, I have come to honour you and to call upon you in this blessed Shrine of Beaupré. Here, pilgrims have often felt some of the fruits of your goodness, power, and intercession.

Like every true pilgrim, I also have favours to ask of you. I know that you will be
as good to me as you have been, in the past, to thousands of others who have come to implore you in this Shrine.

Saint Anne, you know the grace of which I stand most in need at the present moment, the special favour for which I have undertaken this pilgrimage. Hear my prayer.

I entrust to your care, all of my material and spiritual needs. I commend my family, my country, the Church, and the whole world to you.

Keep me faithful to Christ and His Church and one day, escort me into the Father’s Eternal Home.

Amen.

St. Ann