This weekend, on July 26th the church celebrates the parents of the Virgin Mary and the grandparents of Jesus, St Joachim and St. Anne. According to tradition, Joachim was a wealthy and generous man. He and his wife, Anne, were advanced in age and childless. Joachim went to the temple to make an offering but was rejected because he was childless. He then embarked on a forty days of fasting and prayer asking God for a child. Anne also prayed for a child. An angel appeared to both Joachim and Anne, promising that the couple would conceive a child. Nine months later, Anne bore a daughter whom the couple named Mary. Because of a vow they had made, Joachim and Anne brought three-year-old Mary to the Temple where she lived until it was time for her to be married.

Pray to this holy couple today, especially asking their intercession for your grandparents or your grandchildren.

(For the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time, 2026)