Day 4 of the Petitioning Novena to St Anne

DAILY PRAYER TO SAINT ANNE

O glorious St. Anne, you are filled with compassion for those who invoke you and with love for those who suffer! Heavily burdened with the weight of my troubles, I cast myself at your feet and humbly beg of you to take the present intention which I recommend to you in your special care.

Please recommend it to your daughter, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and place it before the throne of Jesus, so that He may bring it to a happy issue. Continue to intercede for me until my request is granted. But, above all, obtain for me the grace one day to see my God face to face, and with you and Mary and all the saints to praise and bless Him for all eternity. Amen.

Our Father, . . . Hail Mary . . .

O Jesus, Holy Mary, St. Anne, help me now and at the hour of my death.
Good St. Anne, intercede for me.

FOURTH DAY

Good St. Anne, you offered your pure and holy daughter Mary in the temple with faith, piety and love. By the happiness which then filled your heart, I beg you to present me to your Grandson Jesus. Offered by you, I will be agreeable in His sight.

Kind St. Anne, take me forever under your protection. Deliver me from the temptations which continually assail me. Above all, attend me in my last hour. As I lie on my deathbed, be present with your daughter to console and strengthen me.

Holy Mary and good St. Anne, show yourselves to be mothers indeed by obtaining for me the grace of a good death. When my soul goes forth, lead it to God’s tribunal so that, by your powerful help and intercession, it may obtain a favorable judgment.

A dear friend is visiting this miraculous shrine in the States where the icon above exudes myrrh/oil. Here is my blog posting about it on Day One of the Novena. She has generously stated she is happy to take any personal prayer intentions and place them at the feet of St Anne's icon on the feast day of St Anne. If you would like to have any prayers intentions taken to the shrine, please email me them and I will gladly pass them on.

I have had many ladies enter the draw this year which has been wonderful, for that reason, since I have a few more vintage reproduction St Anne medals to spare, I will be adding a couple more St Anne chaplets to the draw over the next few days. I will also be adding those new chaplets to the orginal posting so that all the chaplets can be viewed altogether in one spot.

"Flowering Vine of Jesse" Chaplet

This chaplet is very beautiful in the sunlight as it has many little swarovski crystals that throw off beautiful glints and gleams of colour. The colours in this chaplet are reflected in the image below of St Anne's crypt in Apt, France where her body was discovered many, many centuries ago.

"Flowering Vine of Jesse" Chaplet

Once again the light purple has featured in the oval Ave gemstones and the crystals throw of blues and browns like the colours you can see in the crypt. But there is one more symbolic connection in the chaplet that ties to this crypt of St Anne.

See the black and white and image below, it is the design that is still visible, in exactly the same form wherein it was graven so many centuries ago.

It consists of the flowering branch of a tree, interlaced with a vine bearing both foliage and grapes. To look at it is an experience so moving that, months after gazing at it, this chronicler finds it impossible even to write of it without profound emotion. For it reveals, unmistakably, that when the stone slab was carved, even as now, men and women were reverently reciting the litany which begins:

"St Anne, Grandmother of our Saviour, pray for us."

And continues:"St Ane, Root of Jesse, St Anne, Fruitful Vine....pray for us."

The Pater beads are made from carved bone with a flowering vine, that represents the carving found on the ceiling in the crypt of Apt.


Here is my full posting from last year about the crypt at Apt and the inscription on the ceiling above the resting place of St Anne.

I have a beautiful one that I will show tomorrow that is in honour of the St Anne Icon.

If you haven't yet entered the draw to win one of five gemstone, heirloom quality St Anne chaplets (which you can view in detail here) please email me or leave a comment in the comment box (with your blog link or email for contact.)

With many emails I have received, I've also been blessed to hear of other ladies devotion and love for their heavenly grandmother. Here is a beautiful story of one lady's love of St Anne, that has been nutured by her own parents devotion:

"St. Anne was the LIFELONG patron saint of both of my parents who lived to be 101 years of age & were married 80 years. My parents were such a joy! And such a great example of living their faith! I cannot begin to tell you.

I witnessed St. Anne's graces and help during many crisis during the lifetime of my parents, especially my dad who should have been dead at age 42! My dad had leg ulcers for many long years and he wore St. Anne's Medal in a little sac in his elastic stockings because at age 42 they had wanted to amputate both of his legs and he refused and he asked St. Anne to protect those legs for him. He died at age 101 with both legs still in tact and functioning! He outllived every physician and surgeon he ever had that told him he would not survive.

I also am enamored of St. Anne and never a day or night passes without my speaker her name and her prayer. "