“This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about,” Matthew’s gospel describes the birth of Jesus through the experience of Joseph, the husband of Mary. It’s summarized in the creed. “I believe in Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God…who by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary.”
Is this true? Here’s Pope Benedict XVI:
“The answer is an unequivocal yes. Karl Barth pointed out that there are two moments in the story of Jesus when God intervenes directly in the material world: the virgin birth and the resurrection from the tomb, in which Jesus did not remain, nor see corruption.
“These two moments are a scandal to the modern spirit. God is “allowed” to act in ideas and thoughts, in the spiritual domain–but not in the material. That is shocking. He does not belong there. But that is precisely the point. God is God and he does not operate merely on the level of ideas. In that sense, what is at stake in both of these moments is God’s very godhead. The question that they raise is: does matter also belong to him?
“Naturally we may not ascribe to God anything nonsensical or irrational, or anything that contradicts his creation. But here we are not dealing with the irrational or contradictory, but precisely with God’s creative power, embracing the whole of being. In that sense, these two moments – the virgin birth and the real resurrection from the tomb–are the cornerstones of faith.
“If God does not have the power over matter then he is simply not God. But he does have this power, and through the conception and resurrection of Jesus Christ he has ushered in a new creation. So as the Creator he is also our Redeemer. Hence the conception and birth of Jesus Christ from the Virgin Mary is a fundamental element of our faith and a radiant sign of hope.”
(The Infancy Narratives: Jesus of Nazareth, Joseph Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI, pp 56-57 )
December 12th is the feast of Our Lady Guadalupe, which recalls the appearance of Mary on a hilltop near Mexico City to Juan Diego, a humble Mexican laborer, in 1591, ten years after the Aztec Empire was crushed by the colonial armies of Spain. Mary appeared dark skinned, with native features and in native dress, not at all like someone from the colonial powers. In appearing like them, Mary helped many of the native peoples accept Christianity.
Keep this story in mind when the next discussion on immigration comes up.It’s a strong reminder of Isaiah’s ancient call in our Advent readings: God wishes all to be his children.
Pope John Paul II said this about St. Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, whose feast is celebrated December 9th:
“He has lifted up the humble. God the Father looked down onto Juan Diego, a simple Mexican Indian and enriched him not just with the gift of rebirth in Christ but also with the sight of the face of the Blessed Virgin Mary and a role in the task of evangelizing the entire continent of America. From this we can see the truth of the words of St Paul: those whom the world thinks common and contemptible are the ones that God has chosen – those who are nothing at all to show up those who are everything.
“This fortunate man, whose name, Cuauhtlatoatzin, means “the eagle that speaks,” was born around 1474 in Cuauhtitlan, part of the kingdom of Texcoco. When he was an adult and already married, he embraced the Gospel and was purified by the waters of baptism along with his wife, setting out to live in the light of faith and in accordance with the promises he had made before God and the Church.
“In December 1531, as he was travelling to the place called Tlaltelolco, he saw a vision of the Mother of God herself, who commanded him to ask the Bishop of Mexico to build a church on the site of the vision. The bishop asked him for some proof of this amazing event.
“On 12 December the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to Juan Diego once more and told him to climb to the top of the hill called Tepeyac and pick flowers there and take them away with him. It was impossible that any flowers should grow there, because of the winter frosts and because the place was dry and rocky. Nevertheless Juan Diego found flowers of great beauty, which he picked, collected together in his cape, and carried to the Virgin. She told him to bring the flowers to the bishop as a proof of the truth of his vision. In the bishop’s presence Juan Diego unfolded his cape and poured out the flowers; and there appeared, miraculously imprinted on the fabric, the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe, which from that moment onwards became the spiritual centre of the nation.
“The church was built in honor of the Queen of Heaven. Juan Diego, moved by piety, left everything and dedicated his life to looking after this tiny hermitage and to welcoming pilgrims. He trod the way to sanctity through love and prayer, drawing strength from the eucharistic banquet of our Redeemer, from devotion to his most holy Mother, from communion with the holy Church and obedience to her pastors. Everyone who met him was overwhelmed by his virtues, especially his faith, love, humility, and other-worldliness.
“Juan Diego followed the Gospel faithfully in the simplicity of his daily life, always aware that God makes no distinction of race or culture but invites all to become his children. Thus it was that he enabled all the indigenous peoples of Mexico and the New World to become part of Christ and the Church.”
Why does Mary, the Mother of Jesus, have such a big place in our church? The words of the angel in Luke’s gospel, words we often repeat in prayer, are an answer: “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you.”
Mary is filled with God’s grace, gifted with unique spiritual gifts from her conception, because she was to be the mother of Jesus Christ, God’s only Son.
She would be the “resting place of the Trinity,” and would give birth to, nourish, guide and accompany Jesus in his life and mission in this world. To fulfill that unique role she needed a unique gift. She would be free from original sin that clouds human understanding and slows the way we believe God and his plan for us.
“How slow you are to believe” Jesus said to the two disciples on the way to Emmaus. Jesus made that complaint repeatedly as he preached the coming of God’s kingdom. “How slow you are to believe!” “What little faith you have!” “Do you still not understand!” Human slowness to believe didn’t end in gospel times. We have it too.
Mary was freed from that slowness to believe. “Be it done to me according to your word,” she immediately says to the angel. Yet, her acceptance of God’s will does not mean she understood everything that happened to her. “How can this be?” she asks the angel about the conception of the child. “The Holy Spirit will come upon you.” But the angel’s answer seems so incomplete, so mysterious.
Surely, Mary would have liked to know more, but the angel leaves, never to return. There’s no daily message, no new briefing or renewed assurance by heavenly messengers. The years go by in Nazareth as the Child grows in wisdom and age and grace, but they’re years of silence. Like the rest of us, Mary waits and wonders and keeps these things in her heart.
That’s why we welcome her as a believer walking with us. She is an assuring presence who calls us to believe as she did, without knowing all. She does not pretend to be an expert with all the answers. She has no special secrets she alone knows. “Do whatever he tells you,” is her likely advice as we ponder the mysteries of her Son.
The feast of the Immaculate Conception is celebrated 9 months before the feast of the Birth of Mary (September 8). The feast was extended to the universal Church by Pope Clement XI in 1708.
Pope Pius IX solemnly proclaimed the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception in 1854: “We declare, pronounce, and define that the doctrine which holds that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin” (Ineffabilis Deus, 1854)
The Presentation of Mary in the Temple, November 21, is an ecumenical feast originatingin Jerusalem in the 6th century. A new church, honoring Mary, was built for pilgrimsby the Emperor Justinian near the ruins of the Jewish temple. Tradition said Mary was born nearby. Other early traditions place her birthplace inNazareth or the neighboring city of Sepphoris.
Artists like Giotto supported the Jerusalem tradition by their popular portrayals of Mary introduced into the temple by Ann and Joachim, her mother and father. (above)
Luke’s gospel may support the Jerusalem tradition by noting that Mary’scousin Elizabeth was married to Zechariah, a temple priest. Luke also says Mary and Joseph were familiar visitors to the temple. Forty days after the birth of Jesus , they went there “when the days were completed for their purification,” (Luke 2,22) Theybrought Jesus to the temple as a child to celebrate the feasts. For Jesus the temple is“my Father’s house.”There is no direct scriptural support that says Mary was born and raised in Jerusalem, however.
This feast celebrates Mary’s gift for “listening to the word of God and keeping it.” (Luke 11:28) For Mary the temple was always a place of God’s presence. In the temple she learned to see that God was everywhere, in Nazareth, Bethlehem, even on Calvary.(cf. John 4, 22-26) “You are the temple of God and the Spirit of God dwells in you,” St. Paul reminds the Corinthians. (1 Corinthians 3, 16)
St. Paul of the Cross, founder of the Passionists, was greatly devoted to this feast because he began his 40 day retreat to discern God’s will on this day. He experienced God’s call to found a community during those holy days. Afterwards, he dedicated the first retreat of his congregation on Monte Argentario to the Presentation of Mary and returned there year after year to renew the grace he received then. St. Vincent Strambi, his biographer, writes:
“Whenever possible, Paul kept the feast in the Retreat of the Presentation. How often, even when old and crippled, he would set out from the Retreat of St.Angelo, traveling over impassible roads in the harsh days of November, to Monte Argentario, where he would celebrate the feast with great recollection. It would be difficult to describe the days he spent there. His heart seemed to melt like wax in a fire because of his love for the Mother of God and his gratitude towards her.As the feast drew near he was so full of joy that the air around Monte Argentario seemed to breathe a sweetness similar to what the prophet Joel describes: “On that day, the mountains will drop down sweetness and the hills flow with milk.” On the day of the feast, he seems totally penetrated with tender devotion.Even on his deathbed, he recalled, “The day of the Presentation was always a holy and solemn day for me.”
Please pray for the Passionists, the community he founded that, like Mary, the Mother of God, we may hear God’s word and kept it.
Today many young people are not baptizing their children or offering them much religious formation. “Let them decide for themselves.” Introduce your children to your religious tradition from their earliest years, this feast says. Get them familiar with their church. That’s what the parents of Mary did. They prepared her for the coming of the Angel and the presence of her Son.
“Where is the temple where you learn to hear God’s word?’ we have to ask ourselves.
After consulting local traditions, the Emperor Constantine and his successors built churches over important biblical sites in Jerusalem and the Holy Land in the 4th century. One of the churches, built near the ancient pool of Bethesda, just north of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem, was associated with Mary, the mother of Jesus.
It was built on a spot pointed out in John’s gospel: “Now there was in Jerusalem at the Sheep Gate, a pool in Hebrew Bethesda, with five porticoes. In these lay a large number of the blind, lame and crippled,” (John 5,2) Jesus healed a paralyzed man at this healing place, where pagan gods like Asclepius and Serapis were honored.
Third century traditions concerning Mary, the Mother of Jesus, were associated with the church built over the ancient healing site. The traditions claimed that Mary’s birth and early life took place in this area. By the 5th century, Mary’s birth was celebrated here September 8. Christian pilgrims, returning home, began ti celebrate the feast of her birth on this day.
Ruins of Bethesda and ancient church
In the last century archeologists uncovered the ancient healing pool with its porticoes, parts of an ancient church and ruins of a temple of Asclepius (2nd-4th century) ..
Ruins of the Temple of Serapis
The early traditions said that Mary’s mother was Anne and her father Joachim. He provided sheep for the temple sacrifices. They were looked down upon as old and childless, but angels came and told them they were to conceive a daughter. Like Abraham and Sarah, their faith was rewarded.
Stories of Mary’s birth and her childhood strongly influenced the spirituality and devotional life of the early Christian churches of east and west. The feast of her birth is still celebrated by all the ancient churches on September 8 . Her parents are honored September 9 by the Greek Church. The Roman Church celebrates their feast July 26th.
When the Crusaders conquered the Holy Land in the 11th century they rebuilt the small church over the healing pool, which had fallen into ruins, and also built a new, larger church honoring St. Anne, the mother of Mary, southeast of the pool.
The present Church of St. Anne is one of the most beautiful of Jerusalem’s churches today. A favorite destination for pilgrims, it stands overlooking the remains of the old church and the ancient healing pool.
Readings for today’s feast see Mary’s birth awaited by all her ancestors. The gospel, St.Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus, begins with Abraham whose hopes and the hopes of generations before him were fulfilled when Mary brought Jesus Christ into the world. “We commemorate the birth of the blessed Virgin Mary, a descendant of Abraham, born of the tribe of Judah and of David’s seed,” (Antiphon, 1st Vespers, Roman rite)
“This feast of the birth of the Mother of God is the prelude, while the final act is the foreordained union of the Word with flesh. Today, the Virgin is born, tended and formed and prepared for her role as Mother of God, who is the universal King of the ages…
Today the created world is raised to the dignity of a holy place for him who made all things. The creature is newly prepared to be a divine dwelling place for the Creator.”
(St. Andrew of Crete, bishop, Office of Readings, Roman rite)
The Birth of Mary is the first great feast in the Orthodox Church calendar which begins in September. Their calendar ends with the feast of Mary’s Dormition, on August 15th.
The Orthodox liturgy sees Mary as the mysterious ladder that Jacob saw in a dream reaching from earth to heaven. (Genesis 28,10-17) She is the way the Word came down to earth’s lowest point, death itself, and returns to heaven having redeemed humanity. The Orthodox liturgy also associates Mary with the miracle of the paralyzed man at the Pool of Bethesda. She has a role in healing our paralyzed humanity.
May your Church rejoice, O Lord, for you have renewed her with these sacred mysteries, as she rejoices in the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the hope and the daybreak of salvation for all the world. Through Christ our Lord.
“Christians live from feast to feast,” St. Athanasius said. The church’s feasts are linked to each other through the year, and every feast is linked to the great feast of the Resurrection of Jesus.
The feasts of Mary follow the pattern of the feasts of her Son, for she shares in his saving work. Following the feasts year by year, we learn the mysteries of God, little by little. Mary was blessed from her conception. ( Immaculate Conception, Dec. 8). We celebrate her birth 9 month later. (The Nativity of Mary, September 7). Her death and assumption into heaven are celebrated Augustus 15th.
The Feast of the Queenship of Mary, August 22, is part of the mystery of her assumption into heaven. Introduced into the liturgy of the Roman Catholic church in 1955, the feast celebrates the privileged place of Mary in heaven. She “was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory when her earthly life was over, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things.” (Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium 59)
Royal titles were commonly given to God and those anointed by God in the Old Testament; Christianity continued the pratice, giving royal titles to Jesus and Mary. She is called queen in traditional Christian prayers like the Hail Holy Queen (Salve regina) and Queen of Heaven (Regina Coeli):
“Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of mercy, our life, our sweetness and our hope. To you do we cry, poor banished children of Eve. To you do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in the valley of tears. Turn then, most gracious advocate, your eyes of mercy towards us, and after this our exile, show to us the blessed fruit of your womb, Jesus. O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.
Pray for us, O holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Mary is a queen, but also a mother. She is the Mother of God, Mother of Jesus Christ, Mother of us all, the New Eve, given to us by her Son from the Cross through his disciple John.
Mary knows her greatness is from her Lord, as she acknowledges in her Magnificat:
“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior. He who is mighty has done great things to me; holy is his name.” ( Luke 1:46-55)
In the portrayal above, Fra Angelico captures Mary’s humility; she bows before her Son, her hands closed in prayer. The saints below her know that honors given to her are a reflection of the graces promised to humanity.
“Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.”
When I was a little boy, on August 15, the Feast of the Assumption of Mary into Heaven, my mother would tell me to go down to the Newark Bay, just a few blocks from my home in Bayonne, NJ, and go into the water. There’s a blessing in the water today, she told me.
I learned later where that custom came from. In medieval Europe the Feast of the Assumption was the day the fields were blessed. The middle of August was harvest time, and on this day herbs were gathered from the fields and brought to the church to be blessed with water. After they were blessed they were brought home to be medicines for the sick. We still get many if not most of our medicines today from herbs.
Customarily, a sprig was placed on the wall where children slept, asking God to keep them healthy and strong.
We will have herbs, a small olive tree, fruits of the earth and flowers before our altar for the feast on August 15 and then we will have a procession to our Mary Garden to bless them..
Many important feasts of our church occur in one of nature’s cycles. The birth of Jesus Christ, December 25, is celebrated as darkness gives way to light in the Western Hemisphere. Easter, the celebration of the death and resurrection of Jesus takes place during the Passover celebration, which occurrs at the spring harvest. Mary’s Assumption, August 15th, falls as the summer harvest begins.
You can see why Mary’s Assumption into heaven is a day to bless herbs and to bless the fields. It’s a feast of life. On this day Mary followed Jesus, her Son, into the mystery of his death and resurrection in a unique way. Mary’s body, her humanity, like the humanity Jesus assumed, like the humanity we all share, came from the earth.
We all come from dust, from creation, and to dust we shall return.“From dust you are, and to dust you shall return,” we are reminded on Ash Wednesday. But the promise we have from Jesus is that this dust will rise again to new life.
Mary witnesses to his promise in a unique was. Mary’s body, like the body of Jesus, never returned to the dust. She was assumed body and soul into heaven to become a sign of bodily resurrection. The promise of resurrection given to her is also given to us. Not only is it given to us, but to all God’s creation. Mary is the sign of a new creation, promised by God.
The first reading for her feast, from the Book of Revelation, describes Mary as a woman “ clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She gave birth to a son, a male child, destined to rule all the nations.” After his resurrection, Jesus was enthroned in heaven and Mary was taken up to heaven to join him.
The Assumption of Mary is a time to rejoice in “the resurrection of the body and life everlasting”, the whole created world also rejoices in the promise of a new creation. Listen to Psalm 96:
O sing a new song to the Lord, sing to the Lord all the earth. O sing to the Lord, bless his name. Let the heavens rejoice and earth be glad, let the sea and all within it thunder praise, let the land and all it bears rejoice, all the trees of the wood shout for joy at the presence of the Lord for he comes, he comes to rule the earth.
The Feast of the Assumption of Mary into Heaven offers a future so different than the bleak picture of life we’re tempted to see today. She visits us today as she did her cousin Elizabeth long ago announcing a great mystery. We are called, like Mary, to a heavenly place with Jesus her Son. Our world, so battered with the storms and disease, so threatened by a changing climate, wars and poverty, also sees a glorious future in her assumption into heaven.
Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
On the summit of the Esquiline Hill, a short distance from the Lateran Basilica, is the church of St. Mary Major, begun in the early 5th century and completed by Pope Sixtus III (432-440.)
Salus Populi Romani, c 5th century
Mary, the mother of Jesus, is honored here as the Mother of God. . In 431, the Council of Ephesus repudiated Nestorius, the patriarch of Constantinople, for refusing to call her “Mother of God.”
The title is important because it safeguards Christian belief in the mystery of the Incarnation: Jesus is God and man, the council said. For the Christian world Mary is the defender of Jesus, her son, who was both human and divine.
Devotion to Mary ran high in the Christian world after the Ephesus council, and churches dedicated to Mary arose everywhere. In the city of Constantinople alone, 250 churches and shrines in her honor were built before the 8th century. Pictures, icons of Mary holding her divine child multiplied, especially in churches of the East, where they became objects of special devotion.
Mary’s title, Mother of God, does not make her a goddess, otherwise how could she have given birth to Christ who is truly human? Yet, she can be called Mother of God, because Jesus who is truly her human son is truly Son of God from all eternity as well.
The 5th century, however, was hardly a good time to build a church in Rome. In 410, Alaric and his Goths shocked the Roman world by sacking a city all thought invincible. In 455 the Vandals under Genseric vandalized Rome. Twice more in the century other barbarian tribes invaded.
In far off Palestine St. Jerome cried out in disbelief at Rome’s misfortunes, which he saw heralding the end of the world. In Africa St. Augustine wrote “The City of God” in response to the followers of Rome’s traditional religions, who said Christian weakness caused the city’s devastation. Christians were not the cause of the city’s misfortunes, St. Augustine wrote; two loves are at work in the world building two cities. One love builds an evil city; Christianity builds the City of God, promoting love and justice.
The English historian Edward Gibbon called this period a time of decline and fall, the end of the Roman Empire. God’s plan does not lead to decline and fall, they say, but to triumph in Christ. God’s plan does not lead to decline and fall, they say, but to triumph in Christ. God’s plan does not lead to decline and fall, this church says. On the walls of St. Mary Major has stories from the Old and New Testaments calling for courage and hope.
In the church of St. Mary Major, Mary appears as Jesus’ mother and closest disciple. To use a phrase of St. Pope John Paul II, this church is “a school of Mary” who teaches mysteries she has learned. A noticeable number of women from the Old and New Testaments surround her: she represents those who seem powerless, but are empowered by God.
The great 13th century mosaic in the church’s apse of Mary crowned by Jesus Christ as heaven’s queen proclaims God’s triumph in her, but also his triumph in the church as well. She is taken up to heaven “to be the beginning and pattern of the church in its perfection, and a sign of hope and comfort for your people on their pilgrim way.” (Preface of the Assumption)
It shouldn’t surprise us that many of the mysteries in which Mary had a special role were first celebrated here as liturgical feasts. The Christmas liturgy, especially the midnight Mass on December 25th , began in this church in the 5th century and spread to other churches of the west.
A replica of the cave under the church of the Nativity at Bethlehem, the traditional site of Jesus’ birth, was constructed here early on.. After the Muslim conquest of the Holy Land in the 7th century, Christian refugees placed relics here purported to be from the crib that bore the Christ Child and relics of St.Matthew, an evangelist who told the story of Jesus birth.
Relics of the Crib from Bethlehem
Besides the Christmas liturgy, other great Marian feasts, such as her Immaculate Conception and Assumption, developed their liturgical forms in this church.
Built on a hill where all could see it, near Rome’s eastern walls so often threatened by barbarian armies, St. Mary Major affirms Christianity’s ultimate answer to its enemies. It is not military might, but the power of faith and love that triumphs in the end.
Visiting St.Mary Major
The church’s 18th century façade was built to enhance the appearance of this important church at a time when many visitors, especially from England and Germany, were traveling to Rome on the Grand Tour to visit its classical and religious sites.
The church’s interior, with its splendid 5th century mosaics along the upper part of the nave, retains its original form better than any other of the major basilicas of Rome.
The Sistine Chapel at the right hand side of the nave was built to house a silver reliquary with relics of the crib brought from the Holy Land in the 8th century. Two popes, Sixtus V and Pius V are buried there.
The Borghese Chapel at the left hand side of the nave honors the ancient icon of the Virgin and Child,”Salus populist Romani”, that Roman Christians have reverenced for centuries. A reproduction of the icon is a nice remembrance to bring home. Pope Francis has requested to be buried here.
The magnificent 13th century mosaic in the apse of the basilica presents the Coronation of Mary in heaven. It’s surrounded by 5th century mosaics depicting scenes from the birth of Jesus and the life of Mary.
We celebrate the Feast of Ann and Joachim today, parents of Mary, the Mother of Jesus. The New Testament says nothing about them, but an early 2nd century document called the Gospel of James tells their story,
Ann and Joachim lived in Jerusalem, the ancient source says, where Joachim, a descendant of David and a wealthy man, provided sheep and other offerings for the temple sacrifices. The two had ties to Bethlehem nearby and Nazareth in Galilee.
They were well off but for twenty years disappointment clouded their marriage: they had no child. Even after vowing to dedicate their child to God, no child came. And so, at a time when children were treasured, they were thought poor. Descendants of David, they were blamed also for failing to continue the line the Messiah would come from.
Stung by criticism, Joachim spent more time in the mountains, brooding among the shepherds and their flocks. As her husband distanced himself from her, Ann too grew sad. God seemed far away.
In the garden one day, noticing some sparrows building a nest in a laurel tree, Ann burst into tears: “Why was I born, Lord?” she said, “birds build nests for their young and I have no child of my own. The creatures of the earth, the fish of the sea are fruitful, and I have nothing. The land has a harvest, but I have no child in my arms.”
At that moment, an angel of the Lord came and said, “Ann, the Lord has heard your prayer. You shall conceive a child the whole world will praise. Hurry to the Golden Gate and meet your husband there.”
At the same time, In the mountains an angel in dazzling light spoke to Joachim, “Don’t be afraid, the Lord hears your prayers. God knows your goodness and your sorrow and will give your wife a child as he did Sara, Abraham’s wife, and Hannah, mother of Samuel. You will have a daughter and name her Mary. Give her to God, for she will be filled with the Holy Spirit from her mother’s womb. Go back to Jerusalem. You’ll meet your wife at the Golden Gate and your sorrow will turn into joy.”
Joachim and Ann met at the Golden Gate to the temple, the place of God’s presence. They embraced as they spoke of the angel’s promise. Returning home, Ann conceived and bore a daughter, and they called her “Mary.”
When she was three years old, Ann brought Mary to the temple to learn the scriptures, to pray and take part in the Jewish feasts. She watched her father bring lambs to be offered in sacrifice. She grew in wisdom and grace in God’s presence.
When Mary approached marriage age– then 15 or so–her parents arranged for her marriage as it was customary. They sought the high priest’s advice, tradition says, and Joseph of Nazareth was chosen as her husband. Nazareth was then their home.
The angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and announced that she was to be the Mother of Jesus. By the power of the Holy Spirit she conceived the Child.
After Jesus was born in Bethlehem, Mary and Joseph returned to Nazareth where Jesus grew up. He was raised in a large extended family that included his grandparents, Ann and Joachim, who cared for him as a child.
No one knows just when or where Ann and Joachim died, but Jesus must have treasured them in life and on their passage to God.
The 2nd century Protoevangelium of James repeats a fundamental theme of the Book of Genesis: God promises Adam and Eve many children who will enjoy the blessings of the earth. God repeats the promise to an aged, childless couple, Abraham and Sarah, and again to Hannah, who bemoans her childlessness to the priest Eli in the temple. In the same way, God gives a child to Ann and Joachim. Mary, their daughter, brings blessings to the nations through her son Jesus Christ, born of the Holy Spirit.
Giotto’s 14th century illustrations (above) from the Arena Chapel in Padua. helped popularize the story of the parents of Mary in Italy, Europe and the rest of the western world.
It’s an important story for grandmothers and grandfathers. Like Ann and Joachim they have a big role raising the next generation. More than they think.
A novena preparing for the Feast of Saints Ann and Joachim, the parents of Mary, the mother of Jesus, July 26 has begun, reminding us of the role parents and grandparents play in raising children. Some years ago I visited the ancient temple ruins in Jerusalem where Jewish women were fervently praying with their daughters before the temple’s western wall.
Ann and her daughter Mary must have prayed here too.
The picture above is a model of the temple from Jesus’ time at the Israel Museum. Tradition says Ann and Joachim were closely associated with the temple and may have lived nearby. An ancient church honoring St. Ann stands today near the Pool of Bethesda, near the temple. There, a paralyzed man was healed by Jesus. (John 5, 1-18) That’s the church in the ruins below.
Church of St. Ann, Jerusalem
A statue of Ann and her daughter Mary is in the Jerusalem church. Ann is teaching her daughter at her side.
What is she teaching her? Some statues show her teaching Mary the scriptures, but I’ve seen a statue, like the one below, showing Ann teaching her the ABCs and numbers. That’s what parents and grandparents do, isn’t it? They teach children life’s basics: how to live and how to pray.
Cathedral, Tegucigalpa, Honduras
Still true today. We put the little statue below of the two of them under our chapel altar for the novena. Parents and grandparents, the next generation is at your side. Ann and Joachim pray for us; show us the way.
The Victor's Place 
