Letlotlo le be ho Ntate, le ho Mora le ho Moea o Halalelang joaloka ha le ne le le teng tšimolohong le joale le kamehla le mehla. Amen.
SANOL
Thapelo ea Morena / Our Father (Sesotho)
Ntata rona ea maholimong,
bitso la hao le halaletsoe,
Muso oa hao o tle,
thato ea hao e etsoe lefatšeng jwaloka hae etsoa leholimong.
U re fe kajeno bohobe ba rona ba tsatsi leleng le le leng,
U re tšoarele libe tsa rona, joaloka re tsoarela ba re sitetsoeng,
Me o se ke oa re isa molekong,
o mpe u re ntše bobeng. Amen.
Tumediso Ya Lengeloi (The Angelus) (Sesotho)
Lengeloi la Morena la beela Maria.
Mme a emola ka matla a Moya o halalelang.
Ahe Maria…
Ke nna lekgabunyane la Morena.
Ho etswe ho nna jwalokaha o boletse.
Ahe Maria…
Mme lentswe la iketsa motho.
Mme la aha har’a rona.
Ahe Maria…
O re rapelle Mme ea halalelang wa Modimo,
Re tle re tshwanelwe ke dipallo tsa Jesu Kriste.
A re rapeleng:
Oho Morena, ak’o tshele moyeng wa rona thuso ya hao, hore, ha re se re tsebisitswe ka polelo ya lengeloi hore Jesu Kriste Mora wa hao o n’a iketse motho, re fihlele letlotlo la tsoho ya hae, ka tokelo ya lefu la hae le ya sefapano sa hae. Ke seo re se kopang ka yena enwa Morena wa rona. Jesu Kriste. Amen.
Our Lady, the Divine Shepherdess
FEAST 25 SEPTEMBER
The devotion to the Divine Shepherdess dates back to 1703, when Capuchin Friar Isidoro of Seville, a scion of Spain’s most noble families, experienced a mystical illumination in which the Virgin Mary asked him to spread devotion to her as Shepherdess of Souls. He commissioned a painting, preached this devotion, and it is well-known today in Spain.
This Marian invocation came to mind while pondering the widespread moral corruption we are seeing in the Church.
The present situation is truly tragic. We need to put ourselves in the perspective of the Church that has long been in a process of self-destruction that is now in a very advanced stage.
The Action of Wolves
Ravenous wolves outside the flock are destroying Catholic morality and doctrine. Through media and the culture, they have undermined Catholic morals and practice. They have promoted heresy and error, which lay the foundation for the physical abuse of sheep. They have infiltrated the flock, in sheep’s clothing, and in all their undisguised hideousness, they made deals with certain shepherds.
As a result, the wolves have decimated the flock over the last few decades. The scandals served as catalysts that made the sheep feel unprotected by the shepherds. In face of the immensity of the crisis, the sheep are now exasperated and desperate. They are taking measures of self-defence which are entirely within their right. They are loudly complaining to the shepherds, some of which do not heed their cries.
Thus, many are now claiming the need to put the flock under the care of the sheep to fight off the wolves.
The Nature of Sheep
The good intentions of these sheep are praiseworthy. Indeed, some of these sheep are extremely competent and organized. They are movers and shakers that know how to get things done. However, they are limited in their ability to deal with this problem. This is because a sheep is always a sheep. When confronted with wolves, even the most competent sheep will inevitably lose. Sending sheep into the dens of wolves will not resolve the problem.
It is not the fault of the sheep, just the nature of the predators and all the resources of culture and society that support them.
The Role of Shepherds
There is no doubt that many shepherds have not protected the sheep as they should. However, to change the structure of the flock by giving functions of the shepherds to the sheep is a quick road to disaster.
In face of the immensity of the crisis, the sheep are now exasperated and desperate. This is because a shepherd is a shepherd. He is equipped with the authority, skills and knowledge to deal with wolves. The shepherd’s office is endowed by God with graces and charisms to teach, govern and sanctify.
Shepherds often have sheepdogs whose hatred of all things wolf is in their DNA. When a shepherd, even a weak one, seriously confronts a wolf, the wolf will almost always lose.
Dancing with Wolves
The worst thing about the present crisis is not that we are entrusting faithful sheep to other more competent sheep to stave off the wolves. Rather, many are proposing that the task be delegated to others who are not even part of the flock. They are asking independent observers, often friendly to the wolves, and who hate the flock, to oversee it. They are asking the government to get involved.
Yet worse, ex-members of the flock join the chorus asking that sheep oversee the flock. Wolves also demand that the Church be structured differently, and even promise their friendship should things change.
What Wolves Want
The objective of the wolves is always the same regarding sheep. Wolves want to kill and devour sheep. To accomplish this purpose, they need to get rid of shepherds—even bad shepherds. The very office of shepherd is a symbol that frightens wolves. He is also an obstacle, since the shepherd guarantees the continuity of sacramental life that strengthens the sheep. As long as shepherds exist, there will be the possibility of good shepherds that will rise up and kill wolves.
Thus, wolves want sheep without shepherds. They want weakened sheep without grace. That is why they would suggest that sheep and non-sheep oversee the flock. That way they might ravage more easily the Church of Christ with their false doctrines and immoral behaviour. They might also lead the faithful away from the verdant pastures which nurture the sheep.
The strategy of the wolves is to make the shepherds the common enemy of both wolves and sheep. The real common enemy of both shepherds and sheep should be the wolves.
The Separation and Mutual Hatred of Wolves and Sheep
A crisis like ours always happens when the Church tries to make a deal with the world—to peacefully co-exist with the wolves. In our particular case, it is much graver since we have sought to get along with the evils of the modern world with its denial of sin and adoration of progress.
Thus, we live in a world of intermingled sheep and wolves. It is a hypersexualized culture that destroys all morality and modesty. It is a relativist world in which there are no absolute truths, moral norms or certainties. We live in a broken society in which the family and community are coming apart. Our secular society has dethroned God as the centre of our lives.
That is why any real solution cannot be an administrative or regulatory fix. It will not be resolved simply with the dismissal or resignation of shepherds; however, corrupt they might be. It must be a moral solution. We must return to a hatred of sin. We must again establish that healthy separation and mutual hatred between wolves and sheep. We must condemn immorality by working against the corrupt world. God must return to the centre of our lives and be proclaimed in the public square.
We must return to orthodoxy at all levels inside the Church. It was not power, secrecy or authority that led to the scandals. It was the abandonment of orthodoxy in the Faith that created the conditions for abuse to happen. For without moral principles, the worst abuses and abominations are made possible—and indeed happened.
Indeed, this is a crisis of Faith for which we have been justly chastised. Saint John Eudes notes that “The most evident mark of God’s anger, and the most terrible castigation He can inflict upon the world, is manifest when He permits His people to fall into the hands of a clergy who are more in name than in deed, priests who practice the cruelty of ravening wolves rather than the charity and affection of devoted shepherds.”
An Appeal to the Divine Shepherdess
The first step to solving the crisis is to recognize that anything short of a moral reform is not serious. We need to humbly admit that for decades our problem has been unholy shepherds, unholy sheep and cunning wolves. To change the structure of the shepherd and the flock will only play into the hands of the wolves.
The second step is to realize that Catholics, both sheep and shepherds, must do all we can humanly do to make this moral reform happen—and eradicate the wolves in our midst. That means rallying behind the faithful shepherds that uphold Church teaching and resisting all who do not.
However, given the immensity of the crisis, an intervention is needed. That is why we must repair to that pasture where the Divine Shepherdess appeared. Our Lady at Fatima speaking to the three shepherd children brought a message of warning and hope. She warned us of the growing moral corruption and proposed solutions that we should take to heart. Above all, we must humbly appeal to the Divine Shepherdess that she intervenes as promised and restore shepherds and flock, bringing the triumph of her Immaculate Heart.
Our Lady, Divine Shepherdess of Souls, Pray for us!
Written by: John Horvat II
Hail, Holy Queen Prayer
Hail Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy.
Hail our life, our sweetness and our hope!
To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve;
to thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears.
Turn then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us and after this our exile,
show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.
V. Pray for us, O holy Mother of God.
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Noveen vir Maria Hemelvaart
NOVEEN VIR DIE
HEMELVAART VAN
ONSE LIEWE VROU
7 – 15 AUGUST
Gebed:
Here Jesus Christus, U het die mag van die dood vernietig en die hoop op die ewige lewe vir liggaam en siel gegee. U het u Moeder ‘n spesiale plek in u glorie gegun, en nie toegelaat dat verval haar liggaam raak nie. Terwyl ons ons verheug in die Hemelvaart van Maria, gee ons hernude vertroue in die oorwinning van die lewe oor die dood. Amen.
DAG 1
Onbevlekte Maagd, Moeder van Jesus en ons Moeder, ons glo in u seëvierende hemelvaart waar die engele en heiliges u as Koningin van Hemel en aarde aanhef.
Ons loof saam met hulle en loof die Here wat jou bo alle skepsele verhef het. Saam met hulle eer ons u. Ons is vol vertroue dat u oor ons daaglikse lewens waak en ons vra dat u nou vir ons intree.
(Noem jou versoek)
Ons word vertroos deur ons geloof in die komende Opstanding en ons sien uit na u vir gebede en vertroosting.
Na hierdie aardse lewe, wys vir ons Jesus, die geseënde vrug van u skoot, O vriendelike, O liefdevolle, O lieflike Maagd Maria. O Koningin wat in die Hemel opgeneem is, bid vir ons. Amen.
DAG 2
Maria, Opgeneem in die Hemel, ons vereer u as die Koningin van Hemel en aarde.
Soos u saam met u Seun op aarde die bitterheid van pyn en hartseer gesmaak het, geniet u nou die ewige saligheid saam met Hom in die Hemel.
Liefdevolle Koningin, tree vir ons in in ons behoeftes.
(Noem jou versoek)
Ons loof Jesus dat Hy vir ons so ‘n liefdevolle moeder gegee het.
O Koningin wat in die Hemel opgeneem is, bid vir ons. Amen.
DAG 3
O Moeder, Opgeneem in die Hemel, omdat u in al die geheimenisse van ons Verlossing hier onder gedeel het, het Jesus u met heerlikheid gekroon.
Met u heerlikste en kragtigste voorbidding, help ons O liefdevolle Moeder en stel ons versoek aan Jesus.
(Noem jou versoek)
O Koningin wat in die Hemel opgeneem is, bid vir ons. Amen.
DAG 4
O Liefste Moeder Maria, opgeneem in die Hemel, God het u aan Sy regterhand geplaas sodat u vir sy kleintjies as die Moeder van God kan intree.
Te midde van al die heiliges staan u as hulle Koningin en ons s’n – dierbaarder vir die Hart van God as enige skepping. U bid vir u kinders en gun ons elke genade wat ons liefdevolle Verlosser aan die Kruis gewen het.
Tree asseblief vir ons in in ons behoeftes en vra Jesus om ons versoek toe te staan as dit ten goede van ons siele is.
(Noem jou versoek)
O Koningin wat in die Hemel opgeneem is, bid vir ons. Amen.
DAG 5
O barmhartige en liefdevolle Moeder, mag u heerlike skoonheid ons harte vul met ‘n afkeer van aardse dinge en ‘n vurige verlange na die vreugdes van die Hemel.
Mag u genadige oë afkyk op ons stryd en ons swakheid in hierdie tranedal.
Hoor dan liefdevolle Moeder, ons versoek en smeek Jesus vir ons.
(Noem jou versoek)
Bekroon ons hier met die suiwer kleed van onskuld en genade, en met onsterflikheid en heerlikheid in die Hemel.
O Koningin wat in die Hemel opgeneem is, bid vir ons. Amen.
DAG 6
Maria, ons dierbare Moeder en magtige Koningin, neem en ontvang ons arme harte met al hulle vryheid en begeertes, al die liefde en al die deugde en genades waarmee hulle versier mag wees.
Alles wat ons is en alles wat ons mag wees, alles wat ons het en hou in die orde van die natuur sowel as van genade, het ons van God ontvang deur u liefdevolle voorbidding.
Help ons, liewe Moeder, om alles wat ons het, insluitend ons petisies, aan God oor te gee.
(Noem jou versoek)
Onse Liewe Vrou en Koningin, in u sagte hande sit ons alles met vertroue, dat dit na sy edele oorsprong teruggebring kan word.
O Koningin wat in die Hemel opgeneem is, bid vir ons. Amen.
DAG 7
Maria, Koningin van elke hart, aanvaar alles wat ons is en bind ons aan Jesus met die bande van liefde sodat ons vir altyd aan u kan behoort en in alle waarheid kan sê:
“Ek behoort aan Jesus deur Maria”.
Ons Moeder, opgeneem in die Hemel en Koningin van die Heelal, ewig-Maagd Moeder van God, verkry vir ons wat ons vra, as dit tot eer van God en die beswil van ons siele is.
(Noem jou versoek)
Ons Moeder, opgeneem in die Hemel, ons het jou lief. Gee ons ‘n groter liefde vir Jesus en vir u.
O Koningin wat in die Hemel opgeneem is, bid vir ons. Amen.
DAG 8
Maria, Koningin opgeneem in die Hemel, ons is bly dat u die Koningin van Hemel en Aarde is. U het u heilige fiat aan God gegee en die Moeder van ons Verlosser geword.
Verkry vrede en verlossing vir ons deur u gebede, want u het geboorte gegee aan Christus ons Here, die Verlosser van die hele mensdom.
Tree vir ons in en bring ons versoeke voor die Troon van God.
(Noem jou versoek)
Deur u gebede, mag ons siele vervul word met ‘n intense begeerte om soos u te wees, ‘n nederige voorwerp van die Heilige Gees en ‘n dienaar van die Almagtige God.
O Koningin wat in die Hemel opgeneem is, bid vir ons. Amen.
DAG 9
O Geseënde Moeder wat in die Hemel opgeneem is, na jare van heldhaftige martelaarskap op aarde, is ons bly dat u uiteindelik geneem is na die troon wat vir u in die Hemel voorberei is deur die Heilige Drie-Eenheid.
Lig ons harte saam met u op in die glorie van u Hemelvaart bo die verskriklike aanraking van sonde en onreinheid.
Leer ons hoe klein aarde word as dit vanuit die hemel gesien word. Laat ons besef dat die dood die triomfantelike poort is waardeur ons na u Seun sal gaan en dat ons liggame eendag weer by ons siele sal aansluit in die oneindige saligheid van die hemel.
Van hierdie aarde af, wat ons as pelgrims betree, kyk ons na u vir hulp.
Ter ere van u Hemelvaart, vra ons vir hierdie guns:
(Noem jou versoek)
In die uur van ons dood, lei ons veilig na die teenwoordigheid van Jesus om saam met u die visie van God tot in alle ewigheid te geniet.
O Koningin wat in die Hemel opgeneem is, bid vir ons, dat ons die beloftes van Christus waardig gemaak mag word. Amen.
Quotes of St John Vianney
- Do not try to please everybody. Try to please God, the angels, and the saints – they are your public.
- There is nothing so great as the Eucharist. If God had something more precious, He would have given it to us.
- When the heart is pure and simple it cannot help loving, because it has discovered the source of love which is God.
- God commands you to pray, but forbids you to worry.
- A priest goes to Heaven or a priest goes to Hell with a thousand people behind.
- All that we do without offering it to God is wasted.
- The sign of the cross is the most terrible weapon against the devil. Thus the Church wishes not only that we have it continually in front of our minds to recall to us just what our souls are worth and what they cost Jesus Christ, but also that we should make it at every juncture ourselves: when we go to bed, when we awaken during the night, when we get up, when we begin any action, and, above all, when we are tempted.
- If you invoke the Blessed Virgin when you are tempted, she will come at once to your help, and Satan will leave you.
- The Lord is more anxious to forgive our sins than a woman is to carry her baby out of a burning building.
- Our Guardian Angels are our most faithful friends, because they are with us day and night, always and everywhere. We ought often to invoke them.
- Prayer is the inner bath of love into which the soul plunges itself.
- On the Way of the Cross, you see, my children, only the first step is painful. Our greatest cross is the fear of crosses. . . We have not the courage to carry our cross, and we are very much mistaken; for, whatever we do, the cross holds us tight – we cannot escape from it. What, then, have we to lose? Why not love our crosses, and make use of them to take us to heaven?
- My little children, your hearts, are small, but prayer stretches them and makes them capable of loving God. Through prayer we receive a foretaste of heaven and something of paradise comes down upon us. Prayer never leaves us without sweetness. It is honey that flows into the souls and makes all things sweet. When we pray properly, sorrows disappear like snow before the sun.
- We put pride into everything like salt. We like to see that our good works are known. If our virtues are seen, we are pleased; if our faults are perceived, we are sad. I remark that in a great many people; if one says anything to them, it disturbs them, it annoys them. The saints were not like that – they were vexed if their virtues were known, and pleased that their imperfections should be seen.
- You either belong wholly to the world or wholly to God.
- How happy is that guardian angel who accompanies a soul to Holy Mass!
- Almighty God sends no trial without consolation.
- Private prayer is like straw scattered here and there: If you set it on fire it makes a lot of little flames. But gather these straws into a bundle and light them, and you get a mighty fire, rising like a column into the sky; public prayer is like that.
- If people would do for God what they do for the world, what a great number of Christians would go to Heaven.
- The Devil writes down our sins – our Guardian Angel all our merits. Labor that the Guardian Angel’s book may be full, and the Devil’s empty.
- When our hands have touched spices, they give fragrance to all they handle. Let us make our prayers pass through the hands of the Blessed Virgin. She will make them fragrant.
- Upon receiving Holy Communion, the Adorable Blood of Jesus Christ really flows in our veins and His Flesh is really blended with ours.
- The man of impure speech is a person whose lips are but an opening and a supply pipe which hell uses to vomit its impurities upon the earth.
- If you find it impossible to pray, hide behind your good Angel and charge him to pray in your stead.
- Put a good bunch of grapes under the winepress, and a delicious juice will come out. Under the winepress of the cross, our soul produces a juice that feeds and strengthens us. When we haven’t got any crosses, we are dry. If we carry them with resignation, what happiness, what sweetness we feel!
- Humility is like a pair of scales: the lower one side falls, the higher rises the other. Let us humble ourselves like the Blessed Virgin and we shall be exalted.
- The virtue of obedience makes the will supple… It inspires the courage with which to fulfill the most difficult tasks.
- Envy, my children, follows pride; whoever is envious is proud. See, envy comes to us from Hell; the devils having sinned through pride, sinned also through envy, envying our glory, our happiness. Why do we envy the happiness and the goods of others? Because we are proud; we should like to be the sole possessors of talents, riches, of the esteem and love of all the world! We hate our equals, because they are our equals; our inferiors, from the fear that they may equal us; our superiors, because they are above us.
- Only after the Last Judgment will Mary get any rest; from now until then, she is much too busy with her children.
- Have you been working on Sunday? Have you been buying or selling without necessity in the course of this holy day? Give to the poor some alms which will exceed the profit you have made.
Novena to St Philomena
Litany & Novena to Saint Philomena
Litany to Saint Philomena
Composed by St. John Vianney
Lord have mercy on us.
Christ have mercy on us.
Lord have mercy on us.
God the Father of Heaven, have mercy on us.
God the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy on us.
God the Holy Ghost, have mercy on us.
Holy Trinity one God, have mercy on us.
Holy Mary, Queen of Virgins, pray for us.
St. Philomena, pray for us.
St. Philomena, filled with the most abundant graces from your very birth, pray for us.
St. Philomena, faithful imitator of Mary, pray for us.
St. Philomena, model of Virgins, pray for us.
St. Philomena, temple of the most perfect humility, pray for us.
St. Philomena, inflamed with zeal for the Glory of God, pray for us.
St. Philomena, victim of the love of Jesus, pray for us.
St. Philomena, example of strength and perseverance, pray for us.
St. Philomena, invincible champion of chastity, pray for us.
St. Philomena, mirror of the most heroic virtues, pray for us.
St. Philomena, firm and intrepid in the face of torments, pray for us.
St. Philomena, scourged like your Divine Spouse, pray for us.
St. Philomena, pierced by a shower of arrows, pray for us.
St. Philomena, consoled by the Mother of God, when in chains, pray for us.
St. Philomena, cured miraculously in prison, pray for us.
St. Philomena, comforted by angels in your torments, pray for us.
St. Philomena, who preferred torments and death to the splendours of a throne, pray for us.
St. Philomena, who converted the witnesses of your martyrdom, pray for us.
St. Philomena, who wore out the fury of your executioners, pray for us.
St. Philomena, protectress of the innocent, pray for us.
St. Philomena, patron of youth, pray for us.
St. Philomena, refuge of the unfortunate, pray for us.
St. Philomena, health of the sick and the weak, pray for us.
St. Philomena, new light of the church militant, pray for us.
St. Philomena, who confounds the impiety of the world, pray for us.
St. Philomena, who stimulates the faith and courage of the faithful, pray for us.
St. Philomena, whose name is glorified in Heaven and feared in Hell, pray for us.
St. Philomena, made illustrious by the most striking miracles, pray for us.
St. Philomena, all powerful with God, pray for us.
St. Philomena, who reigns in glory, pray for us.
Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world, spare us, O Lord,
Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world, graciously hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God Who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.
V. Pray for us, Great Saint Philomena,
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Let us pray:
We implore Thee, O Lord, by the intercession of Saint Philomena, Virgin and Martyr, who was ever most pleasing to Thy eyes by reason of her eminent purity and the practice of all the virtues, pardon us our sins and grant us all the graces we need (and name any special grace you may require). Amen.
Novena to Saint Philomena
O great Saint Philomena, glorious Virgin and Martyr, wonder-worker of our age, I return most fervent thanks to God for the miraculous gifts bestowed on thee, and beseech thee to impart to me a share in the graces and blessings of which thou hast been the channel to so many souls. Through the heroic fortitude with which thou didst confront the fury of tyrants and brave the frowns of the mighty rather than swerve from thy allegiance to the King of Heaven, obtain for me purity of body and soul, purity of heart and desire, purity of thought and affection.
Through thy patience under multiplied sufferings, obtain for me a submissive acceptance of all the afflictions it may please God to send me and as thou didst miraculously escape unhurt from the waters of the Tiber, into which thou was cast by order of thy persecutor, so may I pass through the waters of tribulation without detriment to my soul. In addition to these favours, obtain for me, O faithful spouse of Jesus, the particular intention I earnestly recommend to thee at this moment. O pure Virgin and holy Martyr, deign to cast a look of pity from Heaven on thy devoted servant, comfort me in affliction, assist me in danger, but above all come to my aid in the hour of death. Watch over the interests of the Church of God, pray for its exaltation and prosperity, the extension of the faith, for the Sovereign Pontiff, for the clergy, for the perseverance of the just, the conversion of sinners, and the relief of the souls in purgatory, especially those dear to me. O great Saint, whose triumph we celebrate on earth, intercede for me, that I may one day behold the crown of glory bestowed on thee in Heaven, and eternally bless Him who so liberally rewards for all eternity the sufferings endured for His love during this short life. Amen.
Prayer:
O most pure Virgin, glorious Martyr, Saint Philomena, whom God in His eternal power has revealed to the world in these unhappy days in order to revive the faith, sustain the hope and enkindle the charity of Christian souls, behold me prostrate at thy feet. Deign, O Virgin, full of goodness and kindness, to receive my humble prayers and to obtain for me that purity for which thou didst sacrifice the most alluring pleasures of the world, that strength of soul which made thee resist the most terrible attacks and that ardent love for our Lord Jesus Christ, which the most frightful torments could not extinguish in thee. So, that wearing thy holy cord and imitating thee in this life, I may one day be crowned with thee in heaven. Amen.
Saint Joachim and Saint Anne
Parents of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary
Feast Day: 26 July
ST. ANNE was the spouse of St. Joachim, and was chosen by God to be the mother of Mary, His own blessed Mother on earth. They were both of the royal house of David, and their lives were wholly occupied in prayer and good works. Only one thing was wanting in their union – they were childless, and this was held as a bitter misfortune among the Jews.
At length, when Anne was an aged woman, Mary was born, the fruit rather of grace than of nature, and the child more of God than of man. 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 and to Him Anne gave her back.
Mary was three years old when Anne and Joachim led her up the Temple steps, watched her pass 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 Holy Trinity in celestial glory.
Taken from Butler’s Lives of the Saints 1894
God has been pleased by visible effects to testify how much he is honoured by the devotion of the faithful to Saint Anne, who is the great model of virtue to all in the married state, and charged with the education of children. It was a sublime dignity and a great honour for this saint to give to a lost world the advocate of mercy, and at the same time to be the parent of this advocate who would shortly be exalted with unimaginable dignity as the mother of God.
But it was a far greater happiness to be, by the grace of God, the greatest instrument of Mary’s virtue, and to be spiritually her mother by a holy education in perfect innocence and sanctity. St. Anne, being herself a vessel of grace, not only by name, but by the possession of that rich treasure, was chosen by God to form the soul of the Blessed Virgin Mary in perfect virtue – and her pious care of this illustrious daughter was the greatest means of her own sanctification and glory in the Church of God to the end of ages.
It is a lesson to all parents whose principal duty is the holy education of their children. By this they glorify their Creator, perpetuate His honour on earth and sanctify their own souls. St. Paul says that it is by the education of their children that parents will be saved. 3 Nevertheless, we see parents solicitous for the worldly qualifications of their children, and earnest to procure them an establishment in the world; yet supremely careless in nurturing them in virtue, in which alone their true happiness consists.
This reflection drew tears from Crates, a heathen philosopher, who desired to climb to the highest place in his city and cry out, with all his strength: ”Citizens, what is it you think of? You employ all your time in heaping up riches to leave to your children; yet take no care to cultivate their souls with virtue, as if an estate were more precious than themselves.”4
The Hebrew word Anne signifies “gracious.” St. Joachim and St. Anne, the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary, are justly honoured in the Church, and their virtue is highly extolled by St. John Damascene. The Emperor Justinian I built a church at Constantinople in honour of St. Anne, about the year 550. 1 Codinus mentions another built by Justinian II in 705. Her body was brought from Palestine to Constantinople in 710, whence some portions of her relics have been disseminated in the West. F. Cuper, the Bollandist, has collated a great number of miracles wrought through her intercession. 2
Two popular shrines to Saint Anne are that of Ste. Anne D’Auray in Britanny in western France, and that of St. Anne de Beaupre near Quebec, where countless mementos hang in thanksgiving for favours and healings granted.
Taken from Butler’s Lives of the Saints 1903
Prayer to St. Anne
Good St. Anne, you were especially favoured by God to be the mother of the Most Holy Virgin Mary, the Mother of Our Saviour.
By your power with your most pure daughter and with her Divine Son, kindly obtain for us the grace and the favour we now seek.
Please secure for us also forgiveness of our past sins, the strength to perform faithfully our daily duties and the help we need to persevere in the love of Jesus and Mary.
Amen.
Notes:
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