[annalex]

Courtesy The holy relics of saints Joachim and Anna, the parents of Mary, the mother of Jesus, will be displayed during services throughout this weekend that are open to the public.

Catholic, Orthodox faiths join in celebration of holy relics

By: Staff report

Though it has been nearly 1,000 years since the early Christian Church split into Eastern and Western doctrines, this weekend will witness a coming together of the Catholic and Orthodox Christian faithful of the Sacramento and Roseville area.

A series of celebrations begin today to acknowledge the arrival of the holy relics of saints Joachim and Anna in America, which were originally gifted to an Orthodox monastery in Greece by Cardinal Joachim Meisner, Archbishop of Cologne, Germany, in 1997.

The celebrations will be attended by Bishop William Keith Weigand of the Catholic Diocese of Sacramento and Metropolitan Gerasimos of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of San Francisco.

A Service of Thanksgiving will take place at 7:30 p.m. today at the Catholic Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, located at 1017 11th St. in Sacramento.

A Service of the Supplication will be take place at 5 p.m. Sunday at Saint Anna Greek Orthodox Church, located at 1001 Stone Canyon Drive in Roseville.

The holy relics of saints Joachim and Anna, the parents of Mary, the mother of Jesus, will be brought forth for veneration following both services.

The parish of Saint Anna will be distinguished by the Metropolitan as a Shrine of the Orthodox Church, designated to the sanctity of marriage and family, the first of its kind in the world.

A reception will follow. All are invited to attend.

(Source)

[annalex]

4. And, behold, an angel of the Lord stood by, saying: Anna, Anna, the Lord hath heard thy prayer, and thou shalt conceive, and shall bring forth; and thy seed shall be spoken of in all the world. And Anna said: As the Lord my God liveth, if I beget either male or female, I will bring it as a gift to the Lord my God; and it shall minister to Him in holy things all the days of its life. And, behold, two angels came, saying to her: Behold, Joachim thy husband is coming with his flocks. For an angel of the Lord went down to him, saying: Joachim, Joachim, the Lord God hath heard thy prayer Go down hence; for, behold, thy wife Anna shall conceive. And Joachim went down and called his shepherds, saying: Bring me hither ten she-lambs without spot or blemish, and they shall be for the Lord my God; and bring me twelve tender calves, and they shall be for the priests and the elders; and a hundred goats for all the people. And, behold, Joachim came with his flocks; and Anna stood by the gate, and saw Joachim coming, and she ran anti hung upon his neck, saying: Now I know that the Lord God hath blessed me exceedingly; for, behold the widow no longer a widow, and I the childless shall conceive. And Joachim rested the first day in his house.

The Protoevangelium of James

[annalex]

Scenes from the Life of Joachim: 6. Meeting at the Golden Gate

Giotto di Bondone

1304-06
Fresco, 200 x 185 cm
Cappella Scrovegni (Arena Chapel), Padua

In the last fresco of the upper register the composition is concentrated on the encounter between Joachim and Anne: Joachim is accompanied by a shepherd, who is partly cut off in the fresco. On the one hand, Giotto uses this completely new device in painting to create the impression that the succession of pictures, intersected by the framework, would unfold before our eyes in one continuous procession. On the other hand, a figure cut short in such a manner increases the dynamics within the picture field and makes us focus on the action at its centre.

Even the verticals of the architecture and the golden arch of the city gate respectively illustrate and mirror the way the couple lean towards one another. The two meet on a bridge, on the border between the outside world and the security of the city. They embrace with great tenderness and kiss one another. The way in which the volumes of the figures fuse underlines the tenderness of the moment, in which the faces also melt, as it were, into one another.

The story of Mary's parents begins with a painful rejection and concludes with this intense encounter. The sensitive portrayal of their meeting already contains the germ for the start of the next narrative, which commences with the Birth of the Virgin Mary and which leads to the youth of Christ by way of the Bridal Procession of the Virgin.

(Source)

[NYer]

Would love to witness this! St. Ann is the patron saint of our parish.