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!