Saturday, July 26, 2008

Happy St Anne Feast Day! - 1 (Day Nine)

"Hail, spiritual bird, announcing the spring time of grace! Hail, sheep, mother of the ewe lamb, who by a word conceived the Word, the Lamb that taketh away the sins of the world! Hail, blessed earth, whence sprang the branch that bore the divine Fruit! O Anne, most blessed in God, grandmother of Christ our Lord, who didst give to the world a shining lamp, the mother of God; together with her intercede that great may be the mercy granted to our souls. Let us cry to holy Anne with cymbals and psaltery. She brought forth the mountain of God and was borne up to the spiritual mountains, the tabernacles of Paradise."

It was in the East that the mother of our Lady was first honored. The Greek church held her in tremendous reverence and sang her praises in words that echo the Akathist hymn above, that great song of praise written in her daughter's honour.

St. Anne Novena Prayer

Glorious St. Anne, filled with compassion for those who invoke you, with love for those who suffer, heavily laden with the weight of my troubles, I knee at your feet and humbly beg you to take my present need under your special protection. Request Vouchsafe to recommend it to your daughter, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and lay it before the throne of Jesus. Cease not to intercede for me until my request is granted. Above all, obtain for me the grace to one day meet God face to face, and with you and Mary and all the angels and saints praising Him through all eternity. Amen.

DAY NINE

Most holy mother of the Virgin Mary, glorious Saint Anne, I, a miserable sinner, confiding in your kindness, choose you today as my special advocate. I offer and consecrate my person and all my interests to your care and maternal solicitude. I hope to serve you and honour you all my life for the love of your most holy daughter and to do all in my power to spread devotion to you O my very good mother and advocate, deign to accept me as your servant, and to adopt me as your child. O glorious Saint Anne, I beg you, by the passion of my most loving Jesus, the Son of Mary, your most holy daughter, to assist me in all the necessities both of my body and my soul. Venerable Mother, I beg you to obtain for me the favor I seek in this novena request, and the grace of leading a life perfectly conformable in all things to the divine will. I place my soul in your hands and in those of your kind daughter. I confide it to you, above all at the moment when it will be about to separate itself from my body in order that, appearing under your patronage before the Supreme Judge, He may find it worthy of enjoying His Divine Presence in your holy companionship in Heaven. Amen.

Pray 1 Our Father, 1 Hail Mary, and 1 Glory Be....
Pray for us, Saint Anne.
That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

I have been to Mass early this morning and Father offered my Mass intention, "In Honour of St Anne" ~ we hope to do some craft today for the feast, I have made a nice colouring image of St Anne, using a computer program that converts images to line drawings:

I'd like to have the children make a golden tabenacle, that holds an image of the Maria Bambina (Child Mary) the tabenacle representing St Anne's womb that bore the Immaculate Conception. Also a banner with a beautiful inscription on it...I'll share more of that tonight.

For our St Anne feast tonight, I am making a traditional fruit pie using apples and berries, as this has been a custom in some parts of the world for her feast. Main meal...French-Canadian Pea Soup!

I will post again tonight with today's activities and the the name of the lady to whom I will be soon posting a St Anne chaplet to. Until then, "Happy Feast Day"

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