From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   On Inconstancy of Heart:  [I]   
      
   CHRIST.   
   My son, do not trust your affections, for they are changeable and   
   inconstant. All your life you are subject to change, even against your   
   inclination.(Rom.8:20) At one time you are cheerful, at another sad;   
   now peaceful, now troubled: now full of devotion, now wholly lacking   
   it; now zealous, now slothful; now grave, now gay. But the wise man,   
   who is well versed in spiritual matters, stands above these changing   
   emotions. He pays small regard to his momentary feelings and whims,   
   but directs all the powers of his mind towards the right and true end.   
   --Thomas à Kempis --Imitation of Christ Bk 3, Ch 33   
      
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   July 26th – SS. Anne and Joachim   
      
   It is a dogma of faith that Mary the mother of God-Made-Man was   
   herself conceived and born immaculate--that is, untainted in soul by   
   the stain of original sin that has marked the souls of all other human   
   beings since Adam’s fall. Some devout Catholics of yore thought it   
   appropriate to theorize that Mary herself was not conceived in the   
   normal way, but by a virginal conception like that of Jesus. Catholic   
   devotion to SS. Anne and Joachim overrules this mistaken piety. In   
   honoring them as the true grandparents of Jesus, it implies that Mary   
   was begotten in the manner that God established for the human race.   
      
   The gospels tell us nothing about Mary’s parents. Not even their   
   names. Practically everything that tradition says about them comes   
   from a second century “imitation” gospel called the “Proto-gospel of   
   James.” In the early Church, there was some difficulty about sorting   
   out true books of the New Testament from counterfeits written in   
   scriptural style for one purpose or another. The most respectable of   
   these “pseudo-scriptures” is the Proto-gospel of James (2nd century).   
   If it is not accepted as a bible book, it quite likely does record   
   some actual traditions about Our Lady.   
      
   According to the Proto-gospel, Mary’s parents had the names we give   
   them today--Anne and Joachim. They are said to have been rich and   
   pious citizens of Nazareth. But they were also childless, in a   
   civilization in which childlessness was considered a stigma. Grieving   
   over their sterility, Joachim withdrew to the desert to pray. Anne   
   (i.e. Hannah, which means “grace”) remained at home; but she also   
   prayed for a child, promising to give over any offspring to God for   
   His own service. To each of them an angel now appeared. Their plea has   
   been granted, he said: when they reunited, Anne would conceive a girl.   
   The prediction was fulfilled. The parents called her Mary (i.e.   
   Miriam). The story parallels that of the Biblical narrative (1 Samuel   
   1) of the childless Hannah bearing Samuel. It is worth noting that in   
   Hebrew Anne and Hannah are the same name.   
      
   Popular Christian devotion to these parents of so great a daughter   
   developed naturally. They must have been wonderful people to have been   
   so favored. Through them, Jesus became a member of an extended   
   family--a concept that society venerated. Finally, they were saints   
   whom average couples could more easily appreciate than the virginal   
   parents of Jesus Himself.   
      
   Devotion to St. Anne in the Mideast dates from at least the 4th   
   century. Her feast was set on July 25. The Greeks also had a feast of   
   SS. Joachim and Anne, observed on September 9. In the West, there was   
   devotion to St. Anne as early as the eighth century, but she was   
   honored by a feast day, July 26, only after the 13th century. The cult   
   of St. Joachim developed more slowly, achieving recognition in the   
   15th century. He was assigned a feast day, September 16, only in 1913.   
   After Vatican II, the Church appropriately gave the couple a joint   
   feast on July 26, the former feast date of St. Anne alone.   
      
   At Auray in Brittany, France, there was a very popular shrine to St.   
   Anne in the early middle ages. In the New World, the chief shrine to   
   Mary’s mother is at Beaupre in the Province of Quebec, Canada. Here,   
   on March 13, 1658, French immigrants laid the foundation of the first   
   chapel in her honor. St. Anne de Beaupre became a popular spot for   
   pilgrimage from that day on. By 1905 the annual number of pilgrims had   
   reached 168,000.   
      
   Although St. Anne remains more popular than her saintly husband,   
   Catholic devotion to the pair has been essentially a devotion to the   
   human family. Having produced a daughter whom God called upon to give   
   to the world its redeemer, they had become the supreme witnesses of   
   the greatness of the family as a divine creation. In them, every other   
   couple can find a reassurance that in marriage, by bearing and raising   
   children for the greater honor and glory of God, they are privileged   
   to be, if not God’s grandparents, at least co-creators with Him of the   
   human race.   
   –Father Robert   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   The love of worldly possessions is a sort of bird line,   
   which entangles the soul, and prevents it flying to God.   
   --Saint Augustine   
      
   Bible Quote:   
    Who shall find a valiant woman? far and from the uttermost coasts is   
   the price of her. 11 The heart of her husband trusteth in her, and he   
   shall have no need of spoils. 12 She will render him good, and not   
   evil, all the days of her life. (Proverbs 31:10-12)   
      
      
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      Joachim and Anne, how blessed a couple! All creation is indebted   
   to you. For at your hands the Creator was offered a gift excelling all   
   other gifts: a chaste mother, who alone was worthy of him.   
      Joachim and Anne, how blessed and spotless a couple! You will be   
   known by the fruit you have borne, as the Lord says: "By their fruits   
   you will know them." The conduct of your life pleased God and was   
   worthy of your daughter. For by the chaste and holy life you led   
   together, you have fashioned a jewel of virginity: she who remained a   
   virgin before, during, and after giving birth. She alone for all time   
   would maintain her virginity in mind and soul as well as in body.   
      Joachim and Anne, how chaste a couple! While leading a devout and   
   holy life in your human nature, you gave birth to a daughter nobler   
   than the angels, whose queen she now is.   
   --from a sermon by St. John Damascene   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)