Saints Joachim and St. Anne - July 26th

 

Everybody loves their grandparents. Today, we celebrate the feast of the grandparents of Jesus, saints Joachim and Anne. Mary was the mother of Jesus and Joseph is the foster-father of Jesus. Since Mary is the Mother of Jesus, then the parents of Mary are the grandparents of Jesus. The name of Mary’s mother is Anne and Mary’s father is Joachim. Joachim and Anne are the grandparents of Jesus.

According to tradition, Saint Anne was born in Bethlehem, and she married Joachim who was from Nazareth. Both of them are descendants of David. Together with her husband, Anne raised Mary to be the perfect woman of virtue and entrusted her to the temple as a child. The same tradition tells of Joachim was a wealthy livestock owner.

Joachim and Anne were unable to have children and because they began to get old, many thought it would be impossible for them to have children. In those days if married couples were unable to have children people believed that the couple was not blessed by God.

One day, because Joachim and Anne were not able to have children, when Joachim went to the temple to offer a sacrifice to God, the priests refused his offering. Joachim was hurt because his sacrifice was not accepted, but he remembered that Abraham and Sarah did not have their son Isaac until they were old, so Joachim decided to go into the desert to fast and pray for forty days. And while her husband was in the desert, Anne also began to pray that God would help them to have a child.

While in the desert, an angel appeared to Joachim and told him that he and his wife would give birth to a girl, and that she would be blessed by God. When Joachim returned home, he went to meet his wife at the "Golden Gate" of Jerusalem.

We can see how the couple persevered in prayer and how they believed God would answer them and give them a child. How blessed they were to be able to have a child and their child was no ordinary child.

At the moment, the Virgin Mary was conceived in the womb of her mother Anne, God granted Mary freedom from original sin. All of us come into the world with sin on our soul, but not the Virgin Mary. God prevented Her from having original sin and so the Virgin Mary never needed baptism.

Later after Mary and Joseph were married, the Virgin Mary gave birth to Jesus in Bethlehem. The grandparents of Jesus, must have held the baby Jesus in their arms and would have kissed him, like all grandparents kiss their grandchildren. Jesus would have loved and honored his grandparents and so we should love and honor our grandparents as well.

Today, let us pray to Joachim and Anne, and ask them to pray for our grandparents and help them to be holy, virtuous and loving just as the grandparents of Jesus were holy, loving and virtuous.

And if our grandparents have died, we pray they may enjoy their time in heaven with the grandparents of Jesus, saints Joachim and Anne.