The Feast of Our Lord’s grandparents, Saints Joachim and Anne, is ordinarily celebrated July 26 but, this year, it was superseded by yesterday’s Sunday liturgy. However, it would be a great pity to miss an opportunity to highlight these beloved saints who are depicted in a traditional Byzantine icon, pictured below, recently gifted to Saint Mary Cathedral in Lansing by the nearby Saint Joseph Melkite parish. So, here’s a very worthwhile reflection on Joachim and Anne by Emma Rose Fisher, pictured above, who is Family & Life Ministries Coordinator for the Diocese of Lansing. Emma Rose writes:
While often revered in Eastern Christianity, the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary are sometimes forgotten by Western Christians. Early Christian tradition teaches us that Joachim and Anna, or Anne, are the maternal grandparents of Jesus, and that they suffered with infertility for many years into their old age. In the two of them, we see examples of patience, forbearance, and trust in the Lord. According to the 2nd century Protoevangelium of James, when Saint Joachim was denied entry to the temple for the “shame” of his childlessness, he and Saint Anna cried out to God, and their prayers were answered with the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady. Joachim and Anna intimately know the pain of longing for a child, the pain of ostracization, and the pain of hope, and we regard them as patrons on the path of infertility.
We give abundant thanks for the gift of Our Lady’s life and conception, made possible through the cooperation of her parents, but I am particularly moved today by this couple’s deep faith and trust in God: in Joachim’s darkest moment, he retreated to the mountains and poured out his heart. Hearing of her husband’s grief, Anna offered her own heartrending prayers to heaven. They did not know how God would choose to answer their prayers, and yet, they prayed. I am certain they prayed many times for a child throughout their marriage and decades of childlessness, and still, they continued to trust God with the deepest sufferings of their hearts.
Their feast day on Sunday was a wonderful opportunity to pray for all couples carrying the crosses of childlessness, infertility, loss, and chronic illness, that they might draw closer to Jesus through the intercession of Saints Joachim and Anna. We pray especially for couples who will never conceive or bear children, couples who are struggling to pray, and couples experiencing discord in their marriage due to infertility, that the Lord would hold them close and make them fruitful according to His plan. I invite you to ask for their intercession, so that they might help you to know their daughter, Our Mother, and know their grandson, Our Lord, even more deeply. Thank you, Jesus, for these models of holy marriage.
Saints Joachim and Anna, pray for us!
