Tuesday is St Anne's Day

It is a lovely sentiment to offer special acts of love and devotion to a saint on ‘their’ special day of the week.

Think about it.

How touching it would be if my husband brought home flowers for me every Friday evening or if my children were to make me breakfast in bed every Saturday morning without fail. So it must feel in the hearts of our heavenly friends, when we send them our loving ‘salute’ on a day that was meaningful and blessed whilst they were still upon earth. The day chosen was never just any day, it was special to them and to heaven, often it was the day of the week they died in the fragrance of His love. It would be like my husband choosing Fridays to give me flowers because it was the day we first met.

I had read over at 4 Real recently a thread, Struggles as a new convert where there's been a conversation about converts and their adjustments to new rituals/prayers (eg: the Mass) and I remember one lady stating,

“Theology I get, but it is so hard to form personal habits of devotion when you have no model.”

I thought this was a very interesting point.

I am blessed (these beautiful free gifts of grace from God) to have a natural attraction for honouring these days (I just need to be more consistantly faithful) only because my own mother and my father’s mother (nana) both have/had a great love for St Anthony who also shares Tuesdays with St Anne. They would often recite special prayers, remembering him at Mass, offering their Holy Communions in his honour, thanking God for giving this saint so many graces as everything is ultimately Christ-centered, we acknowledge His grace in their lives. I was aware of the significance of devotional days. This was a great blessing.

And I know that by my own expression of this devotion I deeply impress the minds and hearts of my children - it was passed onto me and now I pass it on to them - this holy devotional practice will continue on as it has throughout the many centuries in the past. ~It’s a beautiful thought~

The holy and heroic Fr John Hardon relates he was profoundly affected by his mother’s life time example of abstaining from certain foods in honor of Our Lady on Saturdays. What did it impress upon the young John? He had a very deep love for Our Lady – for it’s what we DO rather than what we say that speaks with such strength to our children’s minds and hearts.

Tuesday is the day dedicated to St Anne. It has come down from ancient times in tradition that her grandson Jesus had spoken to his grandmother,

"Blessed art thou, My beloved grandparent! All who venerate thee shall have blessings for soul and body. If they invoke thee in their needs, I will hear them for thy name's sake. Since thou dost die on a Tuesday, I appoint this day for thy honor, and I will grant the prayers of all who honor thee on this day." Good St Anne. pg 40

And so St Anne obtains many graces and blessings for those who heed her Divine Grandson's words. It is also a devotion that is pleasing to the Virgin Mary. She has revealed to different saints her joy and desire for such a devotion to be practised, for she being a perfect daughter, wishes to see her own holy mother honoured.

So how can we show special devotion to St Anne on Tuesdays? The highest form of praise is by offering our Holy Communions in thanksgiving for graces God bestowed on his grandmother. If we are unable to attend daily Mass, maybe making the effort to attend every Tuesday or on a Tuesday where we can. Some devotees have made a novena of nine Tuesdays when asking for very speical graces. Of course any prayers offered to her is pleasing. Maybe the Litany to St Anne or her own memorare?

"St Gertrude beheld in a vision how pleasing it is to the Saints if we thank God for the graces He has bestowed upon them. It was revealed to her that those who do this will be adorned with the merits of the Saints they thus honor." Good St. Anne pg 41

Of course I mentioned the lovely little story of Fr Hardon's mother, whereby she went without in order to honour and please God in honouring His masterpiece of creation - His mother. We cannot underestimate how pleasing sacrifice is in God's eyes and how efficacious it is in defeating the devil. The Bible tells us,

"Some things are cast out by prayer and fasting." (Mat 17:20)

and "Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church" (Col 1:24)

They are quotes we should remind ourselves of as often as possible and act upon it. In refraining from some pleasure we are 'fasting' and so to go without our favourite 'thing' during a day (maybe the morning coffee?...no use of sugar for the day etc) is a beautiful offering indeed, to the Saint we wish to honour.

There is a lovely story in the Good St Anne manual about the holy death of a lady who had great devotion to St Anne throughout her life, I won't share the story in full today but save it for a posting on St Anne, the patroness of a happy death in the future, but what I do want to say is that it was related to the priest afterwards, who attended at her death, that she had abstained from milk every Tuesday all her life and this lady died in the arms of the sacraments under extrodinary circumstances...

Next Tuesday I want to talk about how we can make the most of these Tuesdays with our family, with some prayers included and the week after, share a personal story of how St Anne can show her tangible interecessory power on our behalf through her special day.