Jul 5
La Mano Poderosa de Dios o Las Cinco Personas.
The Powerful Hand of God or The Five Persons.
Mexican retablos.
They depict a young Christ with His family; The Virgin Mary, St. Joseph, St. Anne and St. Joachim.
seen from United States
seen from Sweden
seen from Slovakia
seen from Russia
seen from Türkiye
seen from Malaysia
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Australia
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Kenya
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from Malaysia
seen from Germany
La Mano Poderosa de Dios o Las Cinco Personas.
The Powerful Hand of God or The Five Persons.
Mexican retablos.
They depict a young Christ with His family; The Virgin Mary, St. Joseph, St. Anne and St. Joachim.
Hail, Infant Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou forever, and blessed are thy holy parents Joachim and Anne, of whom thou wast miraculously born. Mother of God, intercede for us.
We fly to thy patronage, holy and amiable Child Mary, despise not our prayers in our necessitities, but deliver us from all dangers, glorious and blessed Virgin.
Pray for us, holy Child Mary That we made be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Let us pray: O almighty and merciful God, Who through the cooperation of the Holy Spirit, didst prepare the body and soul of the Immaculate Infant Mary that she might be the worthy Mother of Thy Son, and didst preserve her from all stain, grant that we who venerate with all our hearts her most holy childhood, may be freed, through her merits and intercession, from all uncleaness of mind and body, and be able to imitate her perfect humility, obedience, and charity. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen.
The greatest work you will ever do
Anne and Joachim.
The parents of Mary. And Jesus’ grandparents.
They are today’s saints. And background characters in the Gospel narrative.
Deep background. There’s even less about them in the Gospels than the one-off characters that surround Jesus’ birth (like Simeon or the Magi). As in nothing.
Anne and Joachim didn’t make it into the Bible.
So, why do we care about them? What’s the point of having a feast for people who are this invisible?
Because – and this goes hard against the spirit of our own age – invisible does not equal unimportant.
Truth be told, some of the most important work ever done is never seen.
We’ve got a blind spot when it comes to people who do great things. Or even just people who are well-known.
We like to think of them in isolation. Towering, singular, self-made. As if they did it all by themselves.
Which couldn’t be further from the truth. Because no one – none of us – gets anywhere alone.
All of us are where we are because countless people have invested their time and effort in us. Equipping us, forming us, building us up, encouraging us. Making sure that we had what we needed. Whether for a moment or for a lifetime.
This is one of the many reasons why we make such a big deal about Mary. This is what she did for Jesus. She’s a big part of why Jesus is who He is. That’s obvious.
But how did Mary become Mary? Anne and Joachim.
They are why Mary became Mary. Because they answered God’s call. They used the gifts that God gave to them to lift her up. That is why we remember them, because they show us what we are called to do.
God gives you and me the same call, when he entrusts us with the gifts of our lives. God gives us the gifts of our lives – our skills, our abilities, our resources, and even our time – not for ourselves, but to use for others. To lift them up.
When you use your God-given gifts to help someone, you are being true to your God-given nature. You are being who God called you to be.
If you have ever wondered why there is such joy in helping someone? This is why.
Because the greatest work you will ever do is lifting up someone else.
Today’s Readings
Hodie XVI augusti quoque… Sancti Joachim, patris immaculatae Virginis Genitricis Dei Mariae.
St. Joachim, Ontario; 2012
Presentation of Our Lady
Russian Icon
July 26 is the feast day of St. Joachim and St. Anne, the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary
St. Anne with the Virgin Mary and Jesus Child, St. Anne's Church, Spain
Life of St. Anne and St. Joachim
In the Scriptures, Matthew and Luke furnish a legal family history of Jesus, tracing ancestry to show that Jesus is the culmination of great promises. Not only is his mother’s family neglected, we also know nothing factual about them except that they existed. Even the names “Joachim” and “Anne” come from a legendary source written more than a century after Jesus died.
The heroism and holiness of these people however, is inferred from the whole family atmosphere around Mary in the Scriptures. Whether we rely on the legends about Mary’s childhood or make guesses from the information in the Bible, we see in her a fulfillment of many generations of prayerful persons, herself steeped in the religious traditions of her people.
The strong character of Mary in making decisions, her continuous practice of prayer, her devotion to the laws of her faith, her steadiness at moments of crisis, and her devotion to her relatives—all indicate a close-knit, loving family that looked forward to the next generation even while retaining the best of the past.
Source of picture: https://fear-not-beloved.tumblr.com
Joachim and Anne—whether these are their real names or not—represent that entire quiet series of generations who faithfully perform their duties, practice their faith, and establish an atmosphere for the coming of the Messiah, but remain obscure.
Source: https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saints-joachim-and-anne
SAINTS OF THE DAY (July 26)
On July 26, the Roman Catholic Church commemorates the parents of the Virgin Mary, Saints Joachim and Anne.
The couple's faith and perseverance brought them through the sorrow of childlessness, to the joy of conceiving and raising the immaculate and sinless woman who would give birth to Christ.
The New Testament contains no specific information about the lives of the Virgin Mary's parents, but other documents outside of the Biblical canon do provide some details.
Although these writings are not considered authoritative in the same manner as the Bible, they outline some of the Church's traditional beliefs about Joachim, Anne, and their daughter.
The “Protoevangelium of James,” which was probably put into its final written form in the early second century, describes Mary's father Joachim as a wealthy member of one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel.
Joachim was deeply grieved, along with his wife Anne, by their childlessness.
“He called to mind Abraham,” the early Christian writing says, “that in the last day, God gave him a son Isaac.”
Joachim and Anne began to devote themselves to rigorous prayer and fasting, in isolation from one another and from society.
They regarded their inability to conceive a child as a surpassing misfortune and a sign of shame among the tribes of Israel.
As it turned out, however, the couple were to be blessed even more abundantly than Abraham and Sarah.
An angel revealed this to Anne when he appeared to her and prophesied that all generations would honor their future child:
“The Lord has heard your prayer. You shall conceive and shall bring forth; your seed shall be spoken of in all the world.”
After Mary's birth, according to the Protoevangelium of James, Anne made a sanctuary in the infant girl's room and allowed nothing common or unclean on account of the special holiness of the child.
The same writing records that when she was one year old, her father made a great feast. He invited the priests, the scribes, the elders, and all the people of Israel.
“Joachim brought the child to the priests,” the account continues, “and they blessed her, saying: 'O God of our fathers, bless this child and give her an everlasting name to be named in all generations.'
And he brought her to the chief priests; they blessed her, saying: 'O God most high, look upon this child, and bless her with the utmost blessing, which shall be forever.'"
The protoevangelium goes on to describe how Mary's parents, along with the temple priests, subsequently decided that she would be offered to God as a consecrated Virgin for the rest of her life and enter a chaste marriage with the carpenter Joseph.
St. Joachim and St. Anne have been a part of the Church's liturgical calendar for many centuries.
Devotion to their memory is particularly strong in the Eastern Catholic churches, where their intercession is invoked by the priest at the end of each Divine Liturgy.
The Eastern churches, however, celebrate Saints Joachim and Anne on a different date, September 9.