Why I LOVE Tuesdays...and St Anne.

My own personal experience with honouring St Anne on her Tuesdays is that your prayers do not go unanswered.

My devotion has waxed and waned (though never again!) over the years, honouring her days only when praying for some special intention rather than just for herself, but she has always been understanding of the child (me) who was just learning to walk, tottering and falling like a toddler.

I remember that I offered my Tuesday Communions during my hardest pregnancy 6 years ago and I was very reliant on her intercession. When I felt I could hardly endure the suffering and I called upon her, it would lift, I would have relief. Then when the beautiful boy was born, it was a labour where I lost the plot completely at the end (for good reason) but I felt she intervened, turning a scary situation into a quick and blessed outcome within 15mins, I will never forget it. (When you go kissing all the nurses attending, believe me, your grateful!)

I have also prayed to St Anne for my health.

She has assisted me recently, since the birth of my little girl, as I was very, very unwell. At first I wondered why the sickness, as I had prayed to her for a good pregnancy, a safe birth, baby baptised and my good recovery. Why not the good recovery? It was only as I plunged further down and started to get worse that I realised she wasn't just assisting me in the temporal things I was asking for but that she had far greater, spiritual gifts to give. She knew the weaknesses in my soul greater than I did. But I soon became aware of them.

My soul was softened and made pliable through all the suffering and I KNEW what had to be changed in my spiritual life, my motherhood and more. I cannot be more grateful as I write this, she has been SO GOOD to me! What was the use of giving me back my health for my children if I wasn't going to be a better mother for it? That whole incident is an enormous story in itself and most I will hold in my heart but I will say is that St Anne was using her Tuesdays to show me things through that whole trial and tribulation.

She has helped me greatly on two other important occasions healthwise and I will share just one of those with you today as it a story where I feel St Anne left me tangible signs that the help I received was through her intercession ~ through her Tuesdays.

I have a serious thyroid disorder, Hashimoto’s disease and unfortunately the normal medication was not being properly utilized by my body. (I was unaware of this until later) All I knew was I was unwell and could hardly function. I would go into my ‘thyroid coma’ (I like to call it) every morning and would be on the bed for hours until it passed, it affected my ability to function for my children, my husband.

I had been praying to St Anne for answers and very soon I was given a recommendation of a doctor who could help me. The man who gave me the details also had a wife with Hashimoto’s and his words to me was, “It’s all about getting back your quality of life.” This practioner had helped his wife experience that 'quality' again.

Because of the seriousness of my situation I had to see this doctor every week for months, and it wasn’t until I was in the month of July and it was the 26th (St Anne’s feastday) that I realised I had been visiting this doctor every Tuesday – it didn’t have to be that day, it just was. In that year the 26th of July WAS a Tuesday and that morning I was in his waiting room when it dawned on me that I was there on her feastday and that I had been there every Tuesday for months on end!

The happy conclusion to this story is that the reason why my body was not feeling good on the original medication was discovered and adjustments and changes to medication were made to rectify it, GIVING ME BACK MY LIFE! There are not many doctors who are sufficiently aware of this problem and know how to deal with it, so I was blessed indeed to have been lead to this doctor.

To this day I feel St Anne was telling me that she had been a powerful, heavenly intercessor in this wonderful answer to prayer and she let me know it through the significance of her Tuesdays.

(St Anne)...”obtains restoration of health for the sick mother, preserves her precious life for the helpless children..." Good St Anne pg33