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On July 26, the feast day of Saints Anne and Joachim are celebrated in the Catholic Church.  Saint Anne and Saint Joachim are our Blessed Mother's parents, which means they are the grandparents of Jesus.  This special feast day is a great day to not only honor the grandparents of Jesus, but also my childrens' grandparents as well!

Our family is blessed to have both sets of grandparents living about 15 minutes away from us on opposite ends of town.  I should have thought to invite my parents and my in-laws over for dinner as a way to celebrate this feast day waaaaaay before this year, but better now than never right?  But, I think this will have to become a feast day tradition each year from now on, God willing!  

I think I was first inspired to celebrate my children's grandparents on this particular feast day because I remember reading Nicole's post at Children of the Church last year where her children honored their grandparents in special ways.

We had a simple celebration and dinner where my children and I set the table "fancy" with some books about St. Anne (which included text on St. Joachim) and we lit a candle with an image of St. Anne and St. Joachim holding their child Mary.  I printed out an image from my computer of the three of them and taped it to a white candle to add to our celebration.  The flowers were used for table decorations, but then each set of grandparents took them home as gifts from our family.  

 The book on the left is Saints and Angels and the book on the right is Picture Book of Saints.

After I read information about Saints Anne and Joachim and said grace we snapped some photos of both sets of grandparents and then of my children sitting in front of them.

Good Saint Anne and Saint Joachim, 
parents of Mary and grandparents to Jesus, 
be with me and all grandparents 
that we may be wise and loving, 
may share our time and stories and sense of humor, 
and may enjoy and not spoil too much the grandchildren 
who are close to our hearts, 
for they are the sign of God's life to us. 

Jesus, Mary and Joseph, 
be with our grandchildren and all other grandchildren 
that they may love and respect their grandparents 
and all older people, 
may remember to call, 
visit or write, 
and grow in wisdom, 
age and grace before God.

Amen.