Jul 26
Holy Annie, God’s granny
Back in the dim and distant days of 1981 someone published Not the Church Times. One of the few bits I still recall from it was the delightful celebrations of The Sodality of St Anne, Grandmother of God. The note of the day’s celebrations included this gem:
Holy Annie,
God’s granny,
Ora pro nobis.
Remembering this I did a quick Google, and found some kind soul had put images of the pages of this now rather dated spoof online. The page referencing the feast of St Anne and St Joachim is here. (Right-hand column about halfway down.)
Anne and Joachim are first referenced in the Protoevangelium of James. One of the features of some of the NT apocrypha is precisely the fleshing out of details about which the canonical gospels are silent. They became particularly significant in mediaeval devotion. The historian John Bossy suggests that in the face of a great emphasis on the divine Jesus, stress on and devotion to his family was a way of continuing to affirm his human reality. Jesus, like them, was embedded in a large and extended human family.
Anyway, today is their feast day in the Catholic and Anglican Churches, and here’s the Anglican collect of the day.
Lord God of Israel,
who bestowed such grace on Anne and Joachim
that their daughter Mary grew up obedient to your word
and made ready to be the mother of your Son:
help us to commit ourselves in all things to your keeping
and grant us the salvation you promised to your people;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.