Novena to Saints Joachim & Anne

I'm borrowing from PolkaDot's posting of the Novena prayer to Saints Joachim & Anne.  Their feast day is tomorrow, July 26th, and I will be praying this novena starting tomorrow for their intercession to all of us facing Infertility.

Novena to Saints Joachim & Anne:
Good parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary,   grandparents of our Savior, Jesus Christ,
When life seems barren,  
   help us to trust in God’s mercy.
When we are confused,  
   help us to find the way to God.
When we are lost in the desert, 
   lead us to those whom God has called us to love.
When our marriage seems lifeless,
   show us the eternal youth of the Lord.
When we are selfish, 
   teach us to cling only to that which lasts.
When we are afraid,
   help us to trust in God.
When we are ashamed,
   remind us that we are God’s children.
When we sin,
   lead us to do God’s will.
You who know God’s will for husband and wife,
   help us to live chastely. 
You who know God’s will for the family,
   keep all families close to you.
You who suffered without children,
   intercede for all infertile couples.
You who trusted in God’s will,
   help us to respect God’s gift of fertility.
You who gave birth to the Blessed Mother,
   inspire couples to be co-creators with God.
You who taught the Mother of God,
   teach us to nurture children in holy instruction.
You whose hearts trusted in God,
   hear our prayers for . . . (mention your requests here)
Pray with us for the ministry of Catholic family life.
Pray with us for the ministry of Natural Family Planning.
Pray with us for all who give their time, talent and treasure to this good work.
 
Hail Mary. . . Our Father. . . Glory Be to the Father. . .
 
God of our fathers, you gave Saints Anne and Joachim the privilege of being the parents of Mary, the mother of your incarnate Son.  May their prayers help us to attain the salvation you have promised to your people. We ask this through Christ our Lord.  Amen.


Information about Saints Joachim & Anne:
     Novenas to saints Joachim and Ann, as the parents of the Virgin Mary and the grandparents of Jesus Christ, are known for their intense power. Having suffered almost every trial a couple on earth may experience, they are approachable for the solving of any family crisis.
     Shamed by infertility, they were married for twenty years before they had their only child. They faced their daughter’s unexpected pregnancy and her near-desertion by her fiancé with great faith and tolerance. After Saint Joachim died, Saint Ann, in the throes of widowhood, watched as her beloved grandson became a prisoner and was crucified. Saints Joachim and Ann offer the loving acceptance and wisdom of grandparents, and one should never be ashamed to turn to them for any reason.
     Very little factual information is available about the parents of the Virgin Mary. Saint Ann is said to have been twenty years old when she married the forty-nine-year-old Joachim. Comfortable financially, they lived in Nazareth and were faithful followers of the Jewish religion. Each year they divided their income into thirds, offering the first part to the temple for the worship of God, distributing the second to the poor, and keeping the third to maintain their moderate lifestyle. Their great misfortune was their barrenness. At the time, this was considered a divine punishment, and it led ultimately to Joachim’s offering being refused at the temple. Their community began to snub them, considering them inferior. Both Ann and Joachim made a vow to the Lord that if they did have a child, they would consecrate it to his service.
     After twenty years of marriage and no children, and once again humiliated when his offering to the temple was rejected, Joachim, too ashamed to return home, went to live among his shepherds. There, an angel came to him, ordered him to return to his wife, and told him that she was pregnant, saying, “Delayed conceptions and infertile childbearing are all the more wonderful! Your wife will bear you a daughter and you will call her Mary. As you have vowed, she will be consecrated to the Lord from infancy and filled with the Holy Spirit from her mother’s womb.”  Simultaneously, Saint Ann had been given the same news. She gave birth to the Virgin Mary at the age of forty. Saint Joachim was sixty-nine.
     Devoted to God, they raised Mary accordingly. True to their promise, they sent her to live in the temple to serve God when she was three years old. This was an extremely difficult act of faith on their part, surrendering the one thing they cherished most to God. So it was that Mary never lived among common people. She was given extraordinary parents and a sheltered, religious life in the service of God.
     Saint Ann is the better known of the two saints and her cult goes back to the beginning of the church. She is the patroness of housewives and women in labor. Because she kept her home in perfect order, she is the patron of cabinetmakers. In Brittany, Saint Ann has an exalted place. There were many sightings of her there in the 1600s. She is also the patroness of Canada.
     Saint Ann is the patron Saint of: Housewives, Pregnancy, Family Crisis, Cabinetmakers, Brittany and Canada. She is invoked against: Infertility.  Together, Saints Ann and Joachim are the Patron Saints of Parents and Grandparents.  Their Feast Day is July 26.


(Source:  http://novena.com/2009/07/21/509/)