Click here for today’s Scripture readings.
Jeremiah 13:1-11
Matthew 13:31-35
Years ago I was in the cathedral in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, and a old statue of St. Ann caught my eye. You can see it above. It’s like many of St. Ann, whose feast day we celebrate today. Mary, her beloved daughter is standing at her side. And Ann is holding a book in her hand, teaching her young child.
What’s interesting is what’s written on the book. Usually, Ann is pointing out to Mary some holy thoughts from the scriptures. But in this scene, she’s pointing out to Mary her ABC’s, 1,2,3,4…Like so many of the stories of the saints told centuries ago, this statue has a lesson to teach. In a time when illiteracy was common, especially among young girls, Ann reminds parents to teach their children how to read and write. It’s what a parent should do and doing it well makes you holy. Holiness is as simple as teaching your kids the ABC’s.
Of course, it means more than that. It means handing on good values right from the start, teaching children how to get along with others generously, what to believe and how to pray. It’s all so simple and such a daily task that parents have to be reminded how important it is.
Today at St.Ann’s Basilica in Scranton, Pa., the Passionists are ending a popular novena to St. Ann which thousands of people attend. Many are parents or grandparents with children in tow. Why do they come? I think they recognize instinctively in the saint some lessons that every parent and grandparent should remember. Bringing up kids is a holy task. It can make you a saint.
Good St. Ann, pray for us.
Fr. Victor Hoagland, CP is the Director of Passionist Press and a member of the Passionist Community in Union City, NJ.
St. Ann and St. Joachim her husband lived on the edge of a precipice. It was not a mountain cliff but the edge of a time when the world would be transformed. How could they know that their child, Mary, would be the mother of the Savior? They were left in the dark, doing only what they knew they should do for their child today, as the statue points out so well.