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Gospel: Matthew 13: 1-9
On that day, Jesus went out of the house and sat down by the sea.
Such large crowds gathered around him
that he got into a boat and sat down,
and the whole crowd stood along the shore.
And he spoke to them at length in parables, saying:
“A sower went out to sow.
And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path,
and birds came and ate it up.
Some fell on rocky ground, where it had little soil.
It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep,
and when the sun rose it was scorched,
and it withered for lack of roots.
Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it.
But some seed fell on rich soil, and produced fruit,
a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.
Whoever has ears ought to hear.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
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I received my first bible when I was thirteen.
“You’re a teenager now,” my grandmother said to me. “Half-way to being all grown up! It’s time for you to start reading the bible. Start with the Gospels: there’s Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.”
It seemed like such a simple fact: there are four Gospels. My grandmother knew each of them by name. Back then, I doubt I could’ve even named one.
Three years went by, then I finally cracked that book open. A year later, I had read the bible from cover to cover…and it changed my life.
In the words of the prophet Jeremiah, “When I found your words, I devoured them. They became my happiness and the joy of my heart.”
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Today we celebrate the feast of Saints Anne and Joachim, the grandparents of Jesus.
Just as my grandmother planted a seed of faith in my heart that later changed my life, I wonder what difference Jesus’ grandparents made on him.
What seeds of wisdom did they plant? What difference did they make in his childhood? What memories of them did he carry throughout his life?
We don’t know.
But we do know this: God wanted the experience of having grandparents.
It’s part of the strange, mysterious truth of the Incarnation – our belief that, in Jesus, God became flesh and lived among us.
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Today, on this feast of Saints Anne and Joachim, we pray for all grandparents, both living and deceased.
May their good works go with them, and may the seeds of faith they have planted – like my grandmother gifting me with a bible – bear fruit in the lives of future generations.
Saints Anne and Joachim, pray for us!
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Image credits: (1) Pintrest (2) Jesus’s Grandparents, Illustrated Prayer (3) Semi-Delicate Balance