Today, July 26th, the Church remembers St. Joachim and St. Anne, the parents of the Virgin Mary. Despite the importance of their role as the maternal grandparents of Jesus, we do not know too much about them; they are not mentioned in the Scriptures.
Regarding Joachim, it is thought that he was a shepherd from Jerusalem, married to Anne. They did not have any children, and they were a rather elderly couple when, one day, while Joachim was at work in the fields as usual, an angel appeared to announce the birth of a child, and Anne also had the same vision. So they called their little girl Mary, which means “loved by God,” and then they moved to Nazareth, where they educated her, teaching her the law of the Lord. We do not know when Joachim and Anne died, and for many centuries their memory remained in the shadows.
Even though we do not know a lot about them, we honor Mary’s parents as saints. We celebrate with joy their joint feast today. Their love for one another and for Mary is an example to us of how God calls us to live. They also remind us to honor our own grandparents and to thank them for the blessings they have passed down to us in love.
Let us pray. “God of our fathers and mothers in the faith, you gave Saints Anne and Joachim the privilege of being the parents of Mary, the mother of your incarnate Son. May their prayers help us to attain the salvation you have promised to your people. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.”
Bonus/ Extra: On July 25th, the first World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly, Pope Francis said he is worried about how an individualistic society treats its older members, and he urged young people to give them love and attention. “I worry when I see a society full of people in constant motion, too caught up in their own affairs to have time for a glance, a greeting or a hug,” the Pope said in a homily read by Archbishop Rino Fisichella at a Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica. “Our grandparents, who nourished our own lives, now hunger for our attention and our love; they long for our closeness. Let us lift up our eyes and see them, even as Jesus sees us,” the Holy Father stated. The Mass, scheduled to be offered by the Pope, was instead celebrated by Fisichella, the president of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization, while Pope Francis is convalescing at the Vatican after undergoing surgery July 4.
In January of this year, Pope Francis established a World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly, to take place annually on the fourth Sunday of July, close to the feast of the grandparents of Jesus, Saints Anne and Joachim.
