Daily HOMILY for July 26, 2014: Feast of Sts. Joachim and Anne

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In 2014, I am facilitating a 12-week interactive online course in contemplative prayer and action for priests with Saint Luke Institute.  Please visit SLIconnect.org to learn more:  https://www.sliconnect.org/product/living-god-program-contemplative-life-2/

Feast of Sts. Joachim and Anne

Cape May Retreat

July 26, 2014

MY PARENTAL MODELING ++++++++++++++++++++++

Ø  Caring for others came home to us as children growing up and it had to do with our family vegetable garden

Ø  Every summer my father harvested lots of tomatoes and my mother would grade them by lining them up on our large kitchen counters from best to worst

Ø  She then would divide them in thirds: the best she gave away to neighbors, the middle third we ate in salads, and the bottom third she used in cooking

Ø  The lesson that the best of what we have is to be shared struck home and lives in all of us to this day

MARY’S PARENTAL MODELING +++++++++++++++++++

Ø  We know very little about Joachim and Anne, the parents of the BVM, it is difficult to celebrate this their feastday

Ø  What we can safely assume, however, is that like our parents, they must have modeled for Mary ways of relating to God and to their neighbor

Ø  So when you look at the qualities of Mary and move back to parental modeling, you might ask, “Where did she learn those values?”

Ø  Where, if not from Joachim and Anne, did she learn her love of God, her caring for others in going to live with her cousin Elizabeth to help her out, her fidelity to Joseph, her caring for the home, her not shirking from holding Jesus accountable when he wandered from them on their return from Jerusalem?

YOUR PARENTAL MODELING ++++++++++++++++++++

Ø  We don’t have to have biological children in order to use good parenting skills we learned from our parents

Ø  Whom have we touched by our example of loving God and loving neighbor?

Ø  Whom have we influenced by R persistence in getting a job done?

Ø  By our being faithful to our vows and promises?

Ø  By our sense of hopefulness when things look dark?

CONCLUSION +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ø  Today we might celebrate the chain of parenting from Joachim and Anne down to our own parents and our parenting to others

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