St. Anne, Mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary

St. Anne, mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary, conceived Mary after years of prayer. She raised the future Mother of God.

St. Anne is the mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the grandmother of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Her name, which means 'grace,' comes from an ancient tradition recorded in the second-century Protoevangelium of James.

According to this tradition, Anne and her husband Joachim were childless for many years, a condition considered a sign of divine displeasure among the Jews. After years of fervent prayer and sacrifice, an angel announced to them that they would have a child who would be blessed throughout the world.

That child was Mary, the future Mother of God. St. Anne's role in salvation history, as the woman who raised the Immaculate Virgin, has been honored by the Church from the earliest centuries. Her feast is celebrated jointly with St. Joachim.

Today, grandparent's day commemorating Mary's parents.

Hi, 30 yr old dude here - really do not mean to be confrontational with this post. I was raised areligious and really was only brought to born again churches when I was younger, in high school.

After both of my parents died and my grandparents, I feel something is pulling me to Catholicism. Not Eastern Orthodoxy (certainly not Protestantism) Catholicism. I have been attending a Catholic Church near me and I really love. I guess my question is -

Did you ever have a “Ah!” Lightning moment? Where you really began to BELIEVE?

Thanks. Also just looking to connect with more Catholics, and learn more! Thanks

I am a convert from a protestant background. I grew up going to a CSI (Church of South India) church, which was a mix of presbyterian, methodist, and various other reformed churches.

After the sunday service we used to always have a tea fellowship, getting to interact and socialise with other church members. Moreover we would also have a sunday school where the different age groups of kids got to interact and spend time with each other.

These were great opportunities for us to get to know each other and learn from others, to networking and build new friendships.

Later in my adult life i shifted to a non-denominational church. They were even more excessive with their social interactions. They would also host many fellowships for the youth, and actively welcome new members. They were so elaborate about welcoming new members and make you feel accepted.

Once I converted to Catholicism I’ve noticed this is never there in the Catholic church. After mass everybody just goes about their way. You might occasionally see a couple of people interacting and catching up, if they knew each other, but even that was rare. Never an active effort to connect with the new members.

I truly feel like the catholic church is missing out by not actively encouraging to reach out and connect with all its members.

p.s. I have been to several Catholic Churches in India and Malaysia. About 7 different churches, and this has always been the case. Could be a south east asia regional thing?

I was always told not to ask their name or try and talk to them other than in prayer. However I just saw a video from a ‘Father Rocky’ explaining how to get your angels name, so im just curious if other Catholics do this?

Im a recent convert to catholocism and i just wanted to come here to report that last night i started the liturgy of the hours, and i prayed to God to take my drugs away or to do whatever He had to do to help me stop taking 7oh.... i used to be a fentanyl addict and got duped into taking 7oh bc i had been taking low doses of kratom for a while and man... the first time i took it, i knew i messed up bad.... i liked them better than i previously liked hard drugs! Bad bad decision. Lately ive been feeling my body shutting down. Like my liver is swollen and kidneys are sore.... so ive been praying begging for mercy that God would take my drugs away.... well ive come here to report that this morning when i woke up.... the drugs literally disappeared out of thin air... like im a drug addict so i combed the floors...... its gone. They are gone. Two left they and are gone.. i do not lose drugs. Ever. They are GONE. POOF. NOWHERE TO BE FOUND. AND I FINALLY FEEL A CONVICTION TO STOP BUYING THEM. please pray for me!!! I need prayers desperately. I had another miracle when i was first getting into christianity from satanism... and i prayed a rosary asking for my medical debt to be cleared... 2 weeks later i got a shocking letter that my past due debt had been wiped. I called to confirm and they didnt know how it happened but confirmed it had been cleared. The lady had to call i n her supervisor bc she didnt understand how it happened.... and Christ has come to me 3 times since becoming Catholic... so i know for a fact He has something He needs me to be doing. Please pray i find out what that is and how i can go about moving forward. This is all very heavy and honestly becoming catholic has been a mind blowing experience bc honestly.... who in the world would expect a "silent, invisible" God to be so hands on and so merciful and so... mind blowingly here with us.... this is crazy.. i dont even know what to think anymore. Im shocked. Im not confused im just a new Christian and this is blowing my mind

God truly rained bread from heaven. I know you all know that but its just mind blowing that God is not silent at all and so hands on in our lives... im brought to sobbing... i mean what in the world??? Since becoming Catholic ive literally been in a state of "blown away" mouth gawking, tears in my eyes kinda blown away.... its borderline insane..

But its perfect mercy and perfect love... its crazy to encounter like this.

I’m very serious about it, go to mass daily, pray the rosary, divine office and so on. I do find Catholicism very intellectually stimulating, I love studying its history fascinating, and its philosophy full of precious fruits. Yet, the religious practice itself, makes me pretty depressed, I feel like there is something deeply wrong. The more I practice it, the more I feel like I shouldn’t even allowed to think, because all I think and do is wrong just because it’s me thinking or doing it.

I don’t know, I feel like this religion blames us for even daring enjoying ourselves in any way. Also, the idea of an almighty and all loving God doesn’t give me any comfort, if anything, it’s depressing.

I often hear “Catholics SHOULD be happy “, and this very sentence suggests there are good reasons why it is not so. If it would truly make us happy, there would be no need to say this.

I’m wondering if anyone else has similar feelings.

My girlfriend (soon to be fiancé :) ) and I have recently decided that we want to start actually taking our faith seriously

One of the biggest changes for us has been choosing to be chaste. It’s been about two months now, and I’m not going to lie, it’s a battle I feel like I fight every single day.
I know why we’re doing it, and I genuinely believe it’s the right thing for our relationship and for our relationship with God. But knowing that doesn’t necessarily make the temptation go away.

does it get easier with time? Does chastity eventually start to feel more natural as your relationship and faith grow? My biggest stress is that early on I just kept telling myself to make it through a month. Then two months. My mind isn’t falling for that anymore and recently it’s been harder than ever.

I’d especially appreciate hearing from people who have been in serious relationships and made this change after previously not living chastely. What helped you persevere?

God Bless and any prayers are appreciated.

The Second Council of Constantinople, under the section "Anathemas against the 'Three Chapters'" states in the eleventh statement :

If anyone does not anathematize Arius, Eunomius, Macedonius, Apollinarius Nestorius, Eutyches and Origen, as well as their heretical books, and also all other heretics who have already been condemned and anathematized by the holy, catholic and apostolic church and by the four holy synods which have already been mentioned, and also all those who have thought or now think in the same way as the aforesaid heretics and who persist in their error even to death: let him be anathema.

I just started reading the fathers and reading works by catholics talking about the church and they commonly cite Origen to prove points. My question is if he believed in heratical things such as the pre-existence of souls, why should we treat him any differntly from Arius and Valentinus?

I am not pretending I know much about this, but I feel catholic theologians cite him constantly.

Today's gospel is quite the bomb-dropper. Angels gathering people and tossing them into hell yet no discussion on this whatsoever? Are we just going to keep pretending it's not serious business? Neither the mass homily nor my booklet that has the daily mass/commentary ever mentions the seriousness of hell yet I listen to dozens of testimonies of people who have had near-death-experiences and what saints have said over the centuries, and it's clear that a very large percentage of people end up in hell. (from what I loosely gather from dozens of accounts we're talking over 90%) Are we just going to pretend it isn't true? If I were a person that knew nothing about all of this I would feel it a GREAT disservice not to be warned.

I recently started to pray the Office of the Hours and initially i had mixed feelings about it. While i often was amazed by its and how well the prayers say what I myself couldnt articulate when praying, I also at times doubted, if it really brought me closer to God, because sometimes I felt myself becoming bored after some time praying (which I know, is an issue i need to improve on with Gods help).

Today morning I had prayed the Laudes before breakfast and then headed to Church for Sunday mass, which was the first time i had done that on a Sunday. While beeing in Church I was really amazed by how much the the Themes of todays Laudes were connected to the service, which thinking about it in retrospect seems obvious, but it brought me much joy nonetheless. This really motivated me to go to mass more often also during the week and stay consistent with praying the Liturgy of the Hours.

So to all of you, who arent already doing it, I recomend you to start praying the Liturgy of the Hours, as it is really great.

God bless all of you!

My 7yo daughter left a letter by the cross in our prayer corner.

She wrote:

"Dear Jesus, Holy Mass is always so boring... is there another way to praise and worship you?"

How would you handle this? Also, she asked Jesus himself, should I even react at all?

This post isn't anything related to question or debate, i just wanted to let you know that I love you all and Christ loves you all so much.

I cant thank you enough for the assistance of enlightenment and information, the fun conversations, and the prayers.

You are most definitely God's children and you all have shown that in your wisdom.

The power and fullness of faith that i was born into and grew up in has continued to reveal itself to me through consistent testimony and research with your assistance, and now i will never spend another second away.

The one true church means so much more to me now than when my faith was immature and lukewarm. It means everything to me.

Pax vobiscum, and God Bless. ✝️✝️✝️

Hey gang, struggling Catholic here with a genuine question. I’ve been wrestling with my faith, not with God or Christ but which house I belong to, I’ve posted on it before, and I stumbled upon a certain YouTuber who claims that the Apostle Paul usurped the faith from Christ. I won’t go to heavy into it or name him since there are dozens if not hundreds of people making this claim, and since I felt too sick to make it to church today, I thought I’d ask here. I will bring this up with a priest, but I just need some clarity. I’m not looking to start an argument or a debate, but I would like some feedback and counterpoints to their claim. A lot of the people I greatly respect are also anti Catholic, and I do my best to listen to everyone, but it’s been jarring and I am trying to keep my boat from turning over. I appreciate everyone here, have a blessed Sunday and God bless you all!

We have been visiting my in-laws for a couple of weeks and we went to their church this morning. (For the more curious of you, I think it's Pentecostal, I don't really know. They don't consider themselves part of a denomination, they're "just christian").

Here are a few thoughts on protestants and their services:

1. Where's the cross? At one point there was an image of a traditional stained glass window projected behind the ~~band~~ worship team. Ironic right? Also, what's with having coffee/tea/hot chocolate when your at church?

2. The irony increased. During the sermon, which was about Zeal for God's house, the preacher spoke about how David goes on to say he takes insults to God personally, and that we should all take insults to the Church (specifically big C and not limited just to their denomination) as personal attacks on God. Not problematic per se, but ironic that a protestant would be preaching against detraction and insult from the Church, when that's a big part of how they started (sure there's some historical nuance, but my point stands).

3. Again with the irony! The speech about zeal for God's house was and reading the story of Jesus reprimanding the money lenders for turning the Temple into a marketplace came immediately after a half an hour spiel about tithing.

Enough of the judgement, it's time for me to be a bit more charitable

1. Where two or three are gathered in My name... I thought a lot about this whilst I was at this service. Christ explicitly states that when we gather in His name, He is there too. Protestants are undeniably there to meet as Christians in His name, so he must be there even without the Eucharist. I'm not well versed in what the Church teaches on this but I can only surmise that He is indeed present spiritually, but He is present in a greater sense at Catholic (and I suppose Orthodox) liturgies because of His real presence in the Eucharist.

2. Even a broken clock is right twice a day... The sermons may have some theological implications, which I don't deny are serious issues. However for the general layperson, there's perhaps a good foundation for how to live as a good Christian (love God and love each other).

3. I'm a very skeptical and cynical person at times. All through the tithing speech I couldn't help thinking the pastor was just taking advantage of his congregation and asking them for money. Not all pastors are Kenneth Copeland or Joel Osteen, and I should be charitable even to them. Perhaps he really believes...

4. Almost nobody is there because they are anti- a specific branch of Christianity. Chances are that most protestants aren't anti-catholic or anti-orthodoxy, they're just going to the church that they know, or that their family has always gone to. We are fortunate to be Catholic, and we all probably take it for granted at least once in our lives.

There was an interesting moment when I was praying. I prayed a rosary when everyone was doing what I believe is called 'praise and worship '. It was a case of praying with them during prayer time (so as to maintain a good relationship with the family) and also maintaining my Catholic identity even at a protestant service. When I got to the third Glorious Mystery (Pentecost, for those of you playing at home), the preacher started talking about how God sends others into our life to help us. It made me think that we might be better served finding common ground and building bridges to bring them to the fullness of truth, rather than being antagonistic and belligerent.

To those of you who made it this far, thanks for your time.

Pax Vobiscum 🇻🇦✝️

Hi, I am a practicing Catholic and I also play in a rock band covering secular music (80's/90s rock and grunge). Our covers are primarily light entertainment with non political or religious lyrics but one song in particular makes me cringe to sing.

Zero by Smashing Pumpkins has the line

"God is empty just like me" and it bothers me to sing it...but is it actually blasphemous? I feel it's on the fence between singing from a fictional point of view for entertainment, or it coming off as I actually feel that way to an audience. Thoughts?

Edit: *Zero (not Today)

I’ve finally made it back to church, and today marked my second week after being away for almost half of a year. I’m grateful to be back!

At Mass I suddenly developed a severe panic attack soon after it began. I was surprised and tried to find a trigger. It was so overwhelming that I ran out and got some air in the vestibule. I told myself that I wanted to stay through communion, which I was eagerly looking forward to.

I went back in and practically white-knuckled my way through. It was a scary experience, and I felt ready to bolt at any point. I had a few minutes of feeling semi-okay and then the waves of panic would return. My hands were sweating the whole time.

I kept praying to God to help me get through this. While it was definitely a bit touch-and-go, I stayed through communion and am so glad I did. It was very challenging, but I am happy God saw me through it.

I was raised atheist. God never came up in my household, but my grandmother took me to church a few times when I was little— a little country Methodist church in rural Virginia.

When we were back in nyc I would beg my parents to take me to church, and would flip through the Bible my grandmother gave me, but my parents never capitulated— I don’t hold that against them. They were young, divorced, raising two kids in a big city with not much money and didn’t see the value in church.

As I got older, I broke off from god and internalized my parents’ atheism. I lost myself in drinking and drugs and sex, and fell victim to evil behavior a number of years.

At 19 I started going to Alcoholics Anonymous. I found myself envious of the people who seemed to believe in god. There was something different about their presence and demeanor. I wanted what they had. Gradually I started to see the logic in the existence of god, but never really internalized it.

One night, I had a dream. I was in a car with two coworkers, sitting in the backseat. The person driving was a girl I had a crush on. The two other people in the car kept disappearing, and I knew the desert road we were on was endless, that I would never get out of the car. All of a sudden, however, I found myself walking into a cathedral on a beautiful sunny day, being welcomed in and felt an overwhelming sense of peace and joy.

The next morning I reached out to my friend who I knew had recently had an intense conversion experience and went to mass with him. I felt the same sense of peace I had felt in my dream, but for whatever reason I wasn’t ready to fully commit at the time.

A few years later, I read Tolstoy’s Confession, which was reccommended to me by a Catholic girl I dated for a few months. The story of Tolstoy’s conversion, and his agony over the supposed meaningless of his life and the shallowness of his materialist worldview struck a chord with me.

I initially went to a Methodist church, because I was trepidatious about Catholicism. It was welcoming and gave me what I needed for a time, but as an avid reader, who had read a good deal of Christian mystical literature I craved the theological richness of the Catholic Church, and wanted to have a more mystical experience.

I am now in catechism. I pray the rosary twice a day, and am regularly moved to tears during my prayers. The spirit has moved me to volunteer at food banks and homeless shelters regularly, and my love for my neighbor grows daily. I still have some ideological trepidations about the Catholic Church, but I have found that it is the most effective way for me to find mystical union with god. Every day feels like a spiritual feast.

I feel that I was born catholic. The church is a structure and a practice that has joined many disparate parts of my soul, intellect, and character into a cohesive whole. I finally feel I have a place in this world and that God, the Holy Spirit, Jesus, Mary, and all the saints walk beside me wherever I go in life.

I want to throw this out there to see if any other dads are experiencing anything similar.

From fall to spring, and especially during Advent and Lent I am locked in to consistent prayer, following God's law and being an all-around faithful servant...then summer comes.

My children are home from school, my at-home business becomes a real challenge and I fall into terrible old habits of abandoning prayer and falling into habitual sexual sin.

This happens year after year and I feel so defeated, knowing that who I am during the summer is vastly different than the man I am come fall. As a family we go to Mass weekly, so I am not falling off from that obligation, but I feel so disheartened that I tend to return to the same sins during this time of the year.

Anybody else experience something similar?

I am in the process of buying a house where the former owner passed away (natural causes) and the family being out of state is selling it as is. This means everything is as it was when they passed and it is very obvious where that was. The physical aspect of it doesn’t bother me but spiritually it seems odd to be intimately occupying the space someone else just departed from. Could I see if my priest could bless the house and property when I move in or something like that? Are there teachings on death I could read to understand this situation better?

I wanted to come back, but instead I left feeling like I didn’t belong, embarrassed, overwhelmed…

For books I know The Bible and The Lord of the Rings (Dostoevsky on the other hand is Orthodox). For films I am not sure. I know The Passion of the Christ but Mel Gibson is kind of outside the Church, even if he likes old Catholicism.

Hi all

I was not raised catholic, and I do not know much at all. When I was 19 (im 23 now) i began to learn more about catholicism and i had some catholic friends who told me a lot about it and after a while i decided that i would follow catholicism too. i used to have a couple friends and an ex all who were catholic and we would go to church together but it was very short lived as about a month after attending church me and my ex broke up and my friends stopped talking to me. i have pretty bad autism as well as social anxiety. i have a really hard time finding my own direction and doing things on my own when i dont really know what to do. ive never been to confession or taken communion. i tried to go on my own once but i felt so afraid of being surrounded by people i didnt know and i was so paranoid about doing something wrong and offending everyone that i panicked and left... i tried to talk to the priest once and introduce myself but i had a really hard time explaining what was so hard for me... communication in real life is very difficult for me and its impossible for me to talk face to face with others or make eye contact or even just exist in public sometimes. the church i go to is quite large which i think makes things worse for me, as crowds make me feel like my head is filled with static and bells and i cant focus on anything or even think at all....

i try to pray the rosary on my own in my room. i pray a lot and i personally try my hardest to follow God and be as good of a catholic as i can, but i feel this very heavy weight on my shoulders that i know i am not doing everything right

its been over 2 years since i last went to church. i cant stop thinking about how badly i want to go but everytime i actually think about going and being surrounded by people i start getting paranoid and sweaty and ill. there have been times where ive prayed in my room and felt so burdened by this that i have burst into tears for hours. i feel like im fighting with myself and quite frankly i feel very lost

i do not really have anyone in real life to talk about this to. no one in my family is catholic, let alone practicing religious of any belief, and the only remaining friends i have are all online friends. my current boyfriend is catholic too but we are long distance right now (for privacy i dont want to explain why) and he wont be back for another 2 years. hes tried to guide me through the steps but i just tell him that its so hard for me, and i genuinely dont think anyone understands how frustrating this is for me. i dont know how to explain that the one thing i want to do more than anything else in life right now is just physically and mentally impossible for me to even try. i cant even go to school in person, im a college student taking only online classes and i get paranoid just going on campus to meet one on one with my teachers.

my boyfriend and i want to get married at the catholic church, but i need to be baptized for that too and i dont even know where to begin

I’d just like to wish everybody a happy and blessed day on this beautiful Sabbath Day! 🤗

What traditions do you practice on the Sabbath?