Saturday, July 26th, 2008
Daily Archive
“Joachim and Ann, how chaste a couple!”
Posted by Fr. Aquinas on 26 Jul 2008 | Tagged as: Liturgical Feasts
In a world bent on shaping marriage and family more according to fallen desire than to right reason, today’s feast acquires particular importance. Saints Joachim and Ann, the parents of the Virgin Mary, have long stood as exemplars of chaste married love. Their virtues are recorded in a second-century text called The Protoevangelium of James, and today’s Office of Readings has us ponder St. John Damascene’s eighth-century praise of the holy couple:
Joachim and Ann, how blessed a couple! All creation is indebted to you. For at your hands the Creator was offered a gift excelling all other gifts: a chaste mother, who alone was worthy of him.
Joachim and Ann, how blessed and spotless a couple! You will be known by the fruit you have borne, as the Lord says: By their fruits you will know them. The conduct of your life pleased God and was worthy of your daughter. For by the chaste and holy life you led together, you have fashioned a jewel of virginity; she who remained a virgin before, during, and after giving birth. She alone for all time would maintain her virginity in mind and soul as well as body.
Joachim and Ann, how chaste a couple! While safeguarding the chastity prescribed by the law of nature, you achieved with God’s help something which transcends nature in giving the world the Virgin Mother of God as your daughter. While leading a devout and holy life in your human nature, you gave birth to a daughter nobler than the angels, whose queen she now is. Girl of utter beauy and delight, daughter of Adam and mother of God, blessed the loins and blessed the womb from which you come! Blessed the arms that carried you, and blessed your parents’ lips, which you were allowed to cover with chaste kisses, ever maintaining your virginity. Rejoice in God, all the earth. Sing, exult and sign hymns. Raise your voice, raise it and do not be afraid.
God of our fathers, you gave Saints Joachim and Ann 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 our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.
Provincial Website 2.0
Posted by Fr. Aquinas on 26 Jul 2008 | Tagged as: Dominicans
The Province of St. Joseph recently launched a new version of its website. Bookmark it and check it often for news, announcements, and media presentations from friars assigned all over the eastern US. Of particular interest to us, the new design contains images of all of our parishes, including several of the Church of St. Vincent Ferrer posted throughout the site.