07/26/2022 – Feast of St Anne and Joachim

Today is the Feast of the Grandparents of Jesus, Ss Joachim and Anne.

We don’t know if they were alive at the time of the Annunciation. Did they see Mary off as she went to visit Elizabeth? We simply don’t know. But we do know they were at the Resurrection as Jesus had descended to the faithful departed. Was this Jesus’ first meeting with them (in His human nature).

They would have entered heaven when it was opened to receive Jesus at the Ascension. Think of their joy at their daughter’s Assumption into heaven and at her Coronation as Queen of Heaven and Earth. St Joachim and Anne are present in so many ways in our daily rosary, not least of which is in the encouragement they give parents and grandparents to pray with and for their children.

Johnnette Benkovic of EWTN’s Women of Grace, in her testimony attributed her conversion to the prayers of her Grandmother. Her Grandmother prayed a rosary everyday for each one of her grandchildren, trusting Our Lady to bring and keep them in the Catholic faith.