Abbot Trithemius and St Anne

Many, many saints and blesseds over the centuries have loved St Anne and placed great, unshakable faith in her. One saintly client was Abbot Trithemius. He was a very famous and learned Benedictine Abbot. I will quote Good St Anne:

"Abbot Trithemius practiced an extraordinary devotion to St Anne and did all in his power to induce others to venerate her. He wrote a book in her praise in which he says: 'To St Anne God has given the power to aid in every necessity, because Jesus, her Divine Grandchild according to the flesh, will refuse her no petition, and Mary, her glorious daughter, supports her every request. Those who venerate good St Anne shall want for nothing, either in this life or the next. Believe me, if you love and venerate this Saint, you will experience how highly God esteems her. He grants all she asks! It would be impossible to enumerate the many graces she obtains daily for her servants."

When I was really sick, I referred often to this holy abbot's words, they are just so inspiring! How can you not have confidence in his words, when he expresses them so definitively?

Good St Anne goes on further:

"The same writer (Abbot Trithemius) continues: "St Anne by her intercession dispels melancholy and evil desires. She also aids the poor, cures the sick and comforts the sorrowing. She removes tribulations and by her intercession obtains for her clients the grace to eradicate vice and implant virtue. She obtains light for the intellect, strength for the will and affection for the heart. This powerful Saint has preserved thousands from contagious diseases. Through her intercession, evil spirits have been expelled. For the barren in the married state, she obtains children and heavenly assistance in delivery. She inspires the despairing with trust in God's mercy and excites the tepid to zeal and fervor. St Anne has rescued many from imminent death; yes, through her intercession the dead have, in several instances, been restored to life. Those who worthily vererate St Anne can obtain aid in every necessity through her mediation."

For those who have read previously of my sickness in the last few months, will remember how I felt St Anne had blessed me beyond my expectations with spiritual gifts when I had only been looking for temporal ones (the temporal ones were granted as well) So I look at this quote below and say, "I believe it!!"

"She removes tribulations and by her intercession obtains for her clients the grace to eradicate vice and implant virtue. She obtains light for the intellect, strength for the will and affection for the heart."

The Abbot does have more to say about St Anne but I'll save it for next week but I would like to finish up by sharing something very special to me. Do you remember me talking about the photo of my St Anne altar, the one that I place at the beginning of each posting? I had mentioned that there was a special Russian Icon sitting on it and said that I would save the story surrounding it, for another time. I'd like to share it today.

The icon is extremely precious to me. It was posted out from Canada from a loving friend of mine, who I met over at 4Real, 'MaryMary' is her forum name. Mary had posted it in November sometime I think, and it took about three months to arrive in the mail.

In early/mid February (my memory's vague, I'm sure that's right..) I felt I was still very seriously ill, it was scaring me and I was very distressed. I was trying SO HARD to have faith and trust - I'd read my Good St Anne book often for encouragement and the Abbot's words above, helped me in those hard moments.

Despite all of this, there was one particular morning where I felt I was losing it....I just started crying and crying...bawling, in fact. "Was I ever going to get better? What would become of me? My poor children, they need me!" This was the sort of thing that was running through my head and messing with it. I knew I should have been strong and holding on with great faith, not allowing fear to attack in such a way. "ST ANNE, HELP ME!"

Right in the middle of all this, there was a knock at the door. It was the postman, dropping off parcels! There were two for me. The first was a package full of many Good St Anne books that I had ordered for distribution. The second package.......was from Mary. In it was a beautiful Precious Blood Manual, an encouraging and touching letter and finally...this icon.

Central on the icon is the image of Our Lady holding the Child Jesus and either side was St Anne and St Joachim. I nearly fell off my chair! I was astounded, I still cannot adequately describe how it impacted on me, I'll just leave it to your imagination. That package arrived not just on the DAY I needed it, but in the MOMENT I needed it.

So like the Abbot, we all should have confidence in Saint Anne in everything. And when your confidence is being tested? Well, that's when she carries you in her arms.

The Chaplet of St Anne

Today I wanted to talk about the chaplet of St Anne, otherwise known as 'St Anne's Rosary'. It is a beautiful way to petition the mother of Mary in all our needs, particularly on Tuesdays. The chaplet dates back to 1875 and it is not known who designed it. It consists of the following:

It is broken into three parts, the first part in honour of Our Lord, the second part in honour of Our Lady and the third, in honour of St Anne. Each part consists of an Our Father and five Hail Mary's. After each Hail Mary you add, "Jesus, Mary and St Anne, please grant the favour I ask" I often like to be a bit more personal, stating exactly what intention I am petitioning for.

Below is a chaplet I made yesterday, you will see the three parts of the chaplet, at the beginning of the chaplet is a medal of St Anne, this one I bought is a bronze vintage reproduction, just so delicate and exquisite!

If you would like to try and make a chaplet yourself or as a project with your children go to Alice Cantrell's Gardens of Grace, where she has generously shared her talents and knowledge on pdf in the making of a St Anne chaplet, this is where I learnt, even though mine is not exactly like the one she has done.

I have used Rose Swarovski Crystals 10mm for the Our Father's, by each Our Father is two 4mm Vintage Rose Swarovski Biscone Crystals to give greater highlight to the deep pink crystal. Each Hail Mary consists of the beautiful Ruby Crazy Lace Agate gemstone 6mm, these are just so feminine and sweet.

I have started up with a few friends a lovely Catholic homeschooling get together which just so happens to fall on a....Tuesday every fortnight (as it suits one lady in particular, so quite coincidental) It is where we have an hour doing activities with the children, splitting up into two groups, one going through My Path to Heaven and the younger group doing the Catholic Mosaic. This goes on for an hour, after which we have dinner and then unstructure play for the children.

The mothers then spend time talking together but since we are all gathered on the Tuesday and St Anne being the perfect patroness for mothers, we then recite the St Anne chaplet together. When we come to the part where we say, "Jesus, Mary and St Anne..." we add "please grant us happy and holy families" Here is our St Anne altar today, I bought a lovely crocheted doily from a garage sale for 50c and the children picked matching Hibiscus, so it looks very beautiful.

I also wanted to add a beautiful prayer I found today, oh, so lovely!

If you read it through, would you add my friends, Chemai and Donna-Marie to your intention? Donna-Marie has been blessed to be expecting baby number 8 but has in the last few pregnancies, suffered greatly with an unknown condition that affects her throat which is quite distressing, she is most in need of prayers to give her strength and healing.

Chemai has been through so much bringing her lastest blessing into the world last year but unfortuantely her trials have not finished as yet and is in much need of prayer.

FOR SICK PEOPLE

Saint Anne, here I am again. You may be tired of listeningto my prayer so often repeated. But, you are the Saint in whom I have so much trust! You are a grandmother extruding your love! You were given us by Jesus to console us as we groan in pain. St Anne, have pity on me, relieve me of my misery, bring me some consolation. May I get well again. Oh! please, take pity on me, your child.

I would never have believed sickness could affect me so mercilessly. I would never have imagined I would suffer so much and for so long. I always relied on good health to do so many useful things. And now I feel miserable in my sickness and I am disheartened. You remain, beloved Saint Anne, my one hope. I know how close you are to Jesus, your Grandson.
Will I every have recourse to you without being helped?

In spite of my sufferings which exhaust me day and night, I want to intercede on behalf of all sick people. My prayer must be charitable. There are so many people who moan on their hospital bed, or locked up in their home as in a prison. Who will listen to them as they whimper, who will take a lenient view of their infirmities and wounds, who will smile to them, who will pacify them, if not you, dearest Saint Anne? Give a helping hand, come to their rescue.

Saint Anne, to make my illness profitable, I present my discomfort to Jesus suffering on the cross. I unite my distress to the distress of Mary your daughter, standing at the foot of the cross. I offer my torment and my affliction to my Lord as I look at you, Saint Anne, my heavenly grandmother. Promptly come to my assistance and give new life to all suffering people.
Heal me if this is God's will, give me peace and lasting joy.

HT: St Anne Chaplet

St Anne patroness of Christian Mothers continued.

Continuing on from last week, I'm just reflection on passages in Good St. Anne where it talks about St Anne being the patroness for Christian Mothers. As mothers there is sure to be at least one of those phrases we can relate to, but most likely there are a few.

I continue on by re-quoting part of it:

"She preserves peace in married life, restores harmony in discord and often wonderfully changes the bad disposition of a husband or wife."

How often do we need peace in the family, if not our close family, our extended family? And as you go through life you realize more assuredly that you only have control over your own choices and will (and often that is a battle and a half!) but not others. We can find it frustrating. There is only one thing to resort to with trust under those circumstances. Prayer. Miracles can and will take place. St Anne herself, would have resorted to prayer for every challenge in life and tradition tells us that she certainly had challenges. When we call upon her, she wishes to impart to us what she possessed in life by the grace of God.

"She protects the birth of children in an extrordinary manner."

My own experience is that St Anne certainly protects the birth of children in an extraordinary manner. My fourth labour was one such circumstance, which I wrote about earlier on and then there is the birth of my little girl 12 weeks ago. My precious girl was breech from 32weeks and did not shift from that position no matter what I tried to do...and I TRIED! It occurred to me as I prayed for the up-and-coming birth that I needed to have faith and let go my ‘controlling efforts’ and trust that St Anne could change baby around if needed or that she would be born safely, if she stayed breech. Once I really trusted in that, the stress melted away.

She was breech even very late into the labour (when palpated) but I continued to trust in St Anne – all would be right. As I was well into second stage my homebirthing doctor exclaimed that she was coming down head first! She was born with a perfect knot in her cord, she had obviously flipped through it at the last moment...my prayers were answered and my faith was put to the test till the last moment but what a glorious answer to prayer it was.

"Bestows blessings that lighten the task of rearing children properly; brings wayward chidlren back upon the right path."

I love that line – how do WE feel we need to have this task lightened? Some days can feel enormous, as if the world is pressing down up us! That heavy ‘cross’ can vary, sometimes we may be physically exhausted, sleep deprived from feeding babies in the night or getting up to our little ones, or suffering a migraine or struggling with some chronic health issue.

Other times we feel emotional, just not having a good day and despite it all we need to keep ourselves on an even keel for the sake of the children. Possibly we can feel our nerves unraveling due to the chaotic situations around us. Or feeling frustrated by our lack of control - we are desperately seeking peace and quiet and it is nowhere to be seen.

What of the days of spiritual dryness? Why are we doing this? We cannot ‘see’ the spiritual fruits in all these unrelenting tasks. We feel we are not being the best example to our children, spiritually, lacking consistency maybe? It is in those moments we should call out for help and grace, to a mother who mothered the Immaculate Mother. Remember: It was revealed to St Gertrude that it is pleasing to the Saints to thank God for the graces He bestowed upon them in their earthly lives and in their heavenly eternity - those who do will be adorned with the merits of the Saints they honour. Wouldn’t we all want to be adorned with the motherly virtues that St Anne possessed in raising her Blessed Daughter?

What about those wayward children? (in small ways and big) We often think of St Monica when it comes to these issues and she is powerful but St Anne is also a saint who has shown to listen to the cries of mothers for their children's souls.

"Obtains restoration to health for the mother when sick; preserves her precious life for her family, for her helpless children; and prevents the loss of husband and father. "

This is the line that moves my heart the greatest and always has.

I’ve always had health issues. I’ve had scary moments in my life with my health. I have a husband who is a great deal older than myself so I think of his health and wellbeing. I remember after the birth of baby number four and during a time I had great devotion to St Anne. We were holidaying in another state and my husband had food poisoning, we thought it was going to kill him, he was THAT sick! We had gathered around him asking St Anne to “prevent the loss of husband and father” with the words from Good St Anne in our minds – all turned out well and we thanked St Anne once again.

I’ve already shared some of the times St Anne has tangibly shown her ‘hand in things’ due to my health concerns and I’d like to share one more while focusing on this quote. During my sickest pregnancy (number 4) I had prayed continuously to St Anne and Our Lady “Oh Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to Thee.” Insisting that if my health was not restored that I don’t know how I could continue schooling and raising these children.

After the birth I had a strange reaction to a drug which lead me to detox program (for my mercury poisoning) so that I could undertake my first serious detoxing of the heavy metals that had tested up very high in my body – mercury, lead, cadmium, arsenic and since they were all high they were having a nasty ‘synergistic’ affect on my symptoms.

The practioner who ran the program has patients from different Australian states and overseas and was very hard to get into. The closest appointment available was 3-4 months down the track, because of this I didn’t bother to nominate my preferred days, times etc. I took whatever came. The starting date was the 8th of December the feast of the Immaculate Conception. It was a rocky and rough but very effective detox that gave me a new level of health and wellbeing never experienced before – I could cope once again. And the finishing date of the program? .......26th of July – St Anne’s feast – my two patrons ‘opened and closed’ my treatment, I knew it was a beautiful answer to a mother’s prayer for good health for the sake of her children.

I’d like to finish today with a beautiful poem about St Anne:

Prayer of Guidance

White star above the Ocean,
Guide thou, St. Ann, our bark:
Lead us in pure devotion
Safe thro’the tempest dark.

St. Ann, in Heaven shining,
There in thy glorious home,
T’ward thee our hearts inclining,
Bless us where’er we roam!

To wounded soldiers lying
Lone on the battle field,
And sailors storm defying,
Thy help and comfort yield!

St. Ann, in Heaven shining,
There in thy glorious home,
T’ward thee our hearts inclining,
Bless us where’er we roam!

Sweet Mother, with thy healing,
Thou dost the lame restore;
The blind before Thee kneeling
Behold Heaven’s light once more!

St. Ann, in Heaven shining,
There in thy glorious home,
T’ward thee our hearts inclining,
Bless us where’er we roam!

Cure then our fervor halting;
To our blind hearts give sight;
To Mary’s love exalting,
Bring us to Jesus’ light.

- From the magazine The Child,
- November 1894,
Sung to the air: Home, Sweet Home.


“Cure then our fervor halting;
To our blind hearts give sight;”

These lines mean a lot to me at present, in one of my previous postings I talked about how not all my temporal requests were answered immediately in order to for me to be blessed with spiritual graces I had not asked for but stood very much in need of. Thank you, St Anne!

A Spring Cleaning of All Sorts in, um...Autumn.

Slowly but surely I've been recovering from the virus I caught right after the birth in mid January. It was the worst virus I've ever contracted. It effected my heart and has left me with an ectopic beat, but it is slowly settling...there were other symptoms as well but they have in the last 10 days, started settling somewhat. Here in Australia, a famous sportswoman caught it too and due to her strenuous training, needed to have a pacemaker which ended her career, there and then. So it's been a shocker.

I have followed a continual herbal program with my herbalist to boost and strengthen my body. Unfortuantely this virus due to being the lingering type, replicated in the spleen again at 6 weeks and my two oldest (who also had it) and myself, suffered a slight set back. At that stage my herbalist decided to use a particular herb on us: Atractylodes or otherwise known in the Chinese world as Bai Zhu, it strengthens the spleen. My herbalist said it would flush this virus out from the spleen, and stop this thing for good, and I'd have to say that all three of us have noticed a noticable difference on it.

The other herb I've used is Comfrey. We eat this. Now I will say, it is banned by the TGA in Australia for internal consumption but Isabell Shiphard, the author of How to use HERBS in my daily life? (best herb book ever) holds a different opinion on this and after reading her thoughts on it, I feel very comfortable to continue doing what mankind has been doing with comfrey throughout the centuries - to it eat. But please read the information (on the net it is only some of the full article) before thinking of doing something similar. (to make an informed decision about it)

Comfrey is an extrodinary herb, it puts down a tap root that goes very deep and draws up rich minerals from below - if you plant it in your yard, you are unlikely to get rid of it again, because if only a fragment of the root remains, it re-shoots (unless you live at our house, we really do have a way of knocking off any plant..) It is herb that rebuilds bones, muscles, tendons, flesh and heals the body powerfully of so many complaints. I read once that people who live daily on this herb, find that they rarely suffer sickness, that in time each cell of the body is 'replaced and rebuilt' by the constitutes of comfrey.

At our home we have run hot and cold with comfrey and it is more to do with me running hot and cold with my gardening! Recently I bought more comfrey from Isabell's farm (she must think, "that crazy woman wanting ANOTHER box of comfrey?!?" - did I tell you I kill plants?) but I knew that it would take time before I had them big enough to feed us adequately, so I asked if she sold bags of cut comfrey and she did.

I came home with it and thought, "How can I make this comfrey last and still be eating it daily, way beyond it's normal cut life?" Usually I would make 'comfrey shakes' wizzing up fresh comfrey with unsweetened pineapple juice (one of Isabell's recommendations) - then I thought, "Why not make many batches of it using up this great, big bag-full and freeze them into little clip-lock bags and eat them like an icy-pole? Well, that's what I did and they taste great....no I mean it, they really do!! More importantly my children look forward with great eagerness to their daily serving of comfrey in iceblock form. This time, I mean to stick with it!!

I really feel like it's spring, so much has happened in my life that makes me think I've been spring-cleaning. Cleansing my body, all the great good that came from the intense suffering after the birth, a desire to clean and spruce things up after being unable to much, for so long.

Oh, and another thing, I've got my blogrolls back properly after they went AWOL for months and I've been visiting again! It's been great so far and I haven't seen too many as yet but I have come across the posting I've just needed to read considering my weeks of momentum and change and today I wanted to link you to some inspirational reading, please drop by, you won't be disappointed.

Firstly, Marilyn over at Enjoy the Journey has shared her thoughts on Redemptive Suffering.

Secondly, Kim over at Starry Sky Ranch has posted some fabulous thoughts on schooling, virtue and the like, I've printed this series up, for bedtime re-reading.

Perseverance Part 1

Perseverance Part 2

Struggles with Structure

PS

Finally, Elizabeth at In the Heart of My Home has written some thought-provoking postings on some of our daily duties, the ones that can often get us down...but there is real virtue hidden in the diligent applying of ourselves to these tasks. I remember St Louis deMonfort said that Our Lady gained more virtue in the threading of a needle than all the merits and sufferings of all the saints combined. It echoes St Therese's words on this too - she saw great merit in the littlest, mundane things...

Why Bother?

On Being Intentional

About those Lists

St Anne, teacher of Mary

As mothers we are entrusted with the most profound responsiblity in the world – the education of our children in the faith and life. We don't go into this task 'unarmed' thank goodness, we are given the graces for that undertaking, by virtue of our sacrament of marriage.

Here is what the Catholic Catechism has to say:

"Through the grace of the sacrament of marriage, parents receive the responsibility and privilege of evangelising their children. Parents should initiate their children at an early age into the mysteries of the faith of which they are the 'first heralds' for their children. They should associate them, from their tenderest years, with the life of the Church" (2225, p.537).

Now listen to what G.K. Chesterton says about the sublime role of parent especially one that takes on the whole education of their child in the home:

“I am concerned with pointing out that the passage from private life to public life, while it may be right or wrong, or necessary or unnecessary, or desirable or undesirable, is always of necessity a passage from a greater work to a smaller one, and from a harder work to an easier one. And that is why most of the moderns do wish to pass from the great domestic task to the smaller and easier commercial one.

They would rather provide the liveries of a hundred footmen than be bothered with the love-affairs of one. They would rather take the salutes of a hundred soldiers than try to save the soul of one. They would rather server out income-tax papers or telegraph forms to a hundred men than meals, conversation, and moral support to one. They would rather arrange the educational course in history or geography, or correct the examination papers in algebra or trigonometry, for a hundred children, than struggle with the whole human character of one.

For anyone who makes himself responsible for one small baby, as a whole, will soon find that he is wrestling with gigantic angels and demons.”

Don’t you just love that? “....will soon find that he is wrestling with gigantic angels and demons.” Oh boy, he was right there!

What I like about Chesterton is that he is smack-bang on the mark every time. He cuts through the chaff and gets to the pearl of great price. Many in this world are stumbling around in the chaff and can’t recognize a pearl even if it were dangled in front of them. Sadly many parents are influenced by the so called "fashionable thinkers" of our time who perpetuate the fallacies. Little do they know they are bringing down a culture, a generation and more...

As Christian mothers we DO know what that priceless pearl is – the education of our children. We are honoured to be given this noble task, God in fact, entrusts ALL of this to us. Of course, it is one that requires fortitude, courage and strength on our behalf. It requires that we call out for that grace daily, that grace we were assured of on our wedding day.

St Anne of course is the PERFECT heavenly intercessor for these graces. Just reminding you of what Good St Anne says about her:

“Sublime was her office in instructing this blessed child (Mary) in virtue and holiness”

“How encouraging this is to all parents who make the holy education of their children their principal duty. By this they glorify their Creator, perpetuate His honor on earth and sanctify their own souls. From the hands of the parents God will one day require the souls of their children. Happy will those parents be who can say to the Divine Judge: “Not one of those whom Thou hast given me has been lost through my fault.”

“Realizing, therefore, the great duty she has in rearing her children well, the Catholic mother will daily recommend her children to God and pray especially to St Anne for the gift of imparting to them a good training, the highest and most difficult of arts.”

“The highest and most difficult of arts.” It certainly reflects Chesterton’s words, doesn’t it?

It is for this reason we are in great need of support and mentoring, someone who knows only too well, just what graces we are in need of. St Anne is that saint to whom you can entrust your dearest desires for yourself and your children, knowing she was given the awesome task of and succeeded in, the education of the Mother of God.

There have been many good mothers canonized throughout the history of Christendom and even beautiful, inspiring examples from the Old Testament, all those good mothers are worthy of being called ‘prayer warriors’ for us mothers today. But except for the Blessed Virgin herself, who can incline more, the heart of Jesus towards our pitiful cries when we are ‘wrestling’ with our cherubs?

Think of the times when we chosing a catecetical program for our children and need to make the best decision possible? Who can we turn to? St Anne.

Of the times when we are struggling in setting the best example daily for our children? Who can we turn to? St Anne.

And those times when a child has opened his or her heart to us, maybe even unwittingly and we are needing guidance in how to respond to it? Who can we turn to? St Anne.

And what about those days when we ourselves feel we can no longer perservere in the daily struggle and toil of providing our children with their academic education, we feel we just can’t continue on? Who can we turn to? St Anne.

Who can we call upon in the protection of our children’s souls from all things that are harmful to character and virtue? St Anne, of course!

She has the blessing and good pleasure of her own beloved daughter and Divine Grandson, when we turn to her with confidence and love.

Parents' Prayer to St. Anne

We call upon you, dear St. Anne, for help in bringing up our family in good and godly ways. Teach us to trust God our Father as we rear the precious heritage entrusted to us. May His will prevail in our lives and His providence defend us. These blessings we ask for all families in our neighborhood, our country, and our world. Amen.

~0~

Daily Prayer to St. Anne

Dear St. Anne, you never tire of assisting those who recommend themselves to you. Trusting not in our merits but in your powerful intercession, we request your help through this present day with all its duties and responsibilities, all its situations whether happy or anguishing. And when "tomorrow" becomes today, assist us anew for God's glory and our good. Amen.

~0~

Good St. Anne, you were especially favored by God to be the mother of the most holy Virgin Mary, the Mother of our Savior. By your power with your most pure daughter and with her divine Son, kindly obtain for us the grace and the favor we now seek....... Please secure for us also forgiveness of our past sins, the strength to perform faithfully our daily duties and the help we need to persevere in the love of Jesus and Mary. Amen.

~0~

A Story of Wormwood and Red Chubby Fingers

What a strange heading! Well these beautiful photos of our little blessing who is now 10weeks old were taken on a day that she discovered that her little fingers can be great pacifiers! We had started our annual worming program with the herb Wormwood. Within a couple of hours of my first dose, she refused to feed and it continued as the day wore on. I rang my herbalist and she said that it was obviously too bitter for her (that is saying something as she has been drinking my milk fine despite my heavy use of herbs since birth) and so I had to discontinue it and use pumpkin seeds instead (not looking forward to the daily, medicial doses of that!) In the meantime this poor little darling discovered fingers had more uses than previously known.

My other children, who are just LOVING this girl, have been snap happy for days, taking memory-full loads of photos of her, took this series of shots (BTW) just look at the colour of those fingers:


"Ooops, I've been caught 'red handed'!"

"But that's ok, 'cause I'm mummy's little darling and can do no wrong!"

"Well, just LOOK at me, can you blame her?"

St Anne - Patroness of Christian Mothers

Patroness of Christian Mothers...in this day and age when motherhood, christianity, morals and the very foundation of society are under attack, we as mothers, are much in need of heavenly patrons to turn to. How can we ever understand the sublime importance of mothers? Think of the saying, 'The hand that rocks the cradle, rules the world' and we all can say, “Oh, don’t I know it!!!”

It is because we have been entrusted with such a blessed vocation, one that has such great influence over others, we are in need of grace, support and guidance everyday and who better to turn to than those saints who were given that same mission in life and can intercede to Our Lord for us with great understanding and empathy?

When we look at St Anne we are looking at a mother who was entrusted by God, with “tainted nature’s solitary boast” (as Wordsworth so beautifully put it.) – Our Lady. Besides Our Blessed Mother herself, who else can give us a better example of motherhood? The manual Good St Anne, (pgs 31-33) has much to say about why one of St Anne’s primary patronages is to assist mothers:

“St Anne is the great model of all in the married state and of those otherwise charged with the education of children. Great was her honor in being the mother of the Mother of God and in giving to a lost world the Advocate of Mercy. Sublime was her office in instructing this blessed child in virtue and holiness.

St Anne herself was a “vessel of grace” not in name only, but in the possession of those gifts with which God has endowed her to be the worthy mother of the Virgin Mary. Her motherly care for the Blessed Virgin was the means of St Anne’s sanctification. Because of this she receives and will receive a special glory in the Church to the end of ages.

How encouraging this is to all parents who make the holy education of their children their principle duty. By this they glorify their Creator, perpetuate His honor on earth and sancify their own souls. From the hands of the parents God will one day require the souls of their children. Happy will those parents be who can say to the Divine Judge: “Not one of those whom Thou hast given me has been lost through my fault.”

Realizing, therefore, the great duty she has in rearing her children well, the Catholic mother will daily recommend her children to God and pray especially to St Anne for the gift of imparting to them a good training, the highest and most difficult of all arts.

St Anne obtains many graces, priceless graces, for all who venerate her, but she grants her maternal assistance in particular to Christian mothers who choose her for their patroness and model. Numberless examples prove that St Anne obtains great favour for Christian mothers.

She preserves peace in married life, restores harmony in discord and often wonderfully changes the bad disposition of a husband or wife. She protects the birth of children in an extraordinary manner; bestows blessings that lighten the task of rearing children properly; brings wayward children back upon the right path; obtains restoration to health for the mother when sick; preserves her precious life for her family, for her helpless children; and prevents the loss of husband and father. She revealed to St Bridget that she would protect all who live chastely and peacefully in the married state. (My emphasis, as this often makes me cry.)

St Anne is glorious among the Saints, not only because she is the mother of Mary, but also because she gave Mary to God. She did not hesitate to sacrifice this child, her greatest joy, to the call to God, dedicating her at the age of three to His service in the Temple. In this she is a beautiful example to parents to foster and encourage vocations to the religious life among their children, rather than running the dread risk of hindering them. Through the intercession of St Anne, parents come to know and acknowledge divine guidance and learn that children are born to them not for earthly ends, but for God.”

The above, lengthy passage is one that I have read over and over and over again. I’ve cried, sighed and pondered over many of those words. I have printed up sentences and statements from it and pinned it around my home as a reminder of her heavenly patronage in times of deep suffering and need and next week I’d like to share my thoughts on it all.