Feast of Saint Anne and Joachim

Friday was the Feast of Saint Anne and Joachim. They are the parents of Mary and the grandparents of Jesus. I have a special devotion to Saint Anne since she was the Baptismal Saint my parents chose for me. This day is a little more special to my parents now because they are now grandparents too.

 

It is customary on this feast to enjoy shellfish and summertime fruits normally in a sort of pastry or tart. As I stated in my previous post, I have really been craving seafood so I decided to try my hand at Lobster Bisque. I was very impressed with myself because I have never made Bisque from scratch (minus making my own stock). The soup was very tasty! I think it was a huge success. I found the recipe on Pintrest not too long ago and saved it just for this celebration. I'm sure many of you have found tons of cute crafts and recipe ideas from this website too. If you haven't, I have to warn you it is utterly addicting, so check it out at your own risk.

In addition to our Lobster Bisque, I made a watermelon cake! Its an actual watermelon cut into the shape of a cake. I used Vanilla Greek yogurt as the "icing" and covered the "cake" with other summertime fruits and some praline pecans. Not too bad for my first try and I will definitely be making it again.  I liked the idea of having a healthier alternative to the many sweet treats I normally make. You know, the usual cupcakes, candies etc.

A few interesting facts I discovered preparing for celebrating Saint Anne is that she is correlated with rain in Germany and Italy. It is said that the rain showers during the month of July are Saint Anne's dowry. I promise it has been raining for almost 3 weeks straight here and I found it so ironic that it did not rain this past Friday in honor of Saint Anne. Oh well, there is always next year! I hope everyone else had an amazing celebration with their families with special recognition of any grandparents.

The next feast we will be celebrating is the Feast of Saint Ignatius of Loyola on Wednesday! I am hoping to actually have that post completed on Wednesday instead of almost a week later :o) In case anyone was wondering we will be making nachos!!

St Anne Prayer (To Obtain Some Special Favor) Glorious St. Ann, filled with compassion for those who invoke you and with love for those who suffer, heavily laden with the weight of my troubles, I cast myself at your feet and humbly beg of you to take the present affair which I recommend to you under your special protection.

St. Ann, please, recommend to your daughter, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and lay it before the throne of Jesus, so that He may bring it to a happy issue.
St. Ann cease not to intercede for me until my request is granted. (Here ask for favor you wish to obtain.)

Above all, obtain for me the grace of one day beholding my God face to face, and with You and Mary and all the saints, praising and blessing Him through all eternity. Amen.
Good St. Ann, mother of her who is our life, our sweetness and our hope, pray to her for us and obtain our request. (Three times).

 

 

Saint Anne, pray for us!