I remember my grandparents on my mother's side. My father's parents, sadly, I never knew. My maternal grandfather was my best friend. He died a few days before I turned four years old but I have so many happy memories about him.
My grandmother lived for many years after the death of her husband. She passed away at the ripe old age of 102. She lived with my mother and father for about the last fifteen years of her life, so I saw her quite often. She was the love of my life as well!
When I think about grandma and grandpa, I saw what wonderful parents they were by the way their daughter, my mother, turned out and by the way she loved them. That love was a beautiful, selfless love. I always thought it was because my grandparents were such wonderful people.
We remember grandparents today when we remember the grandparents of Jesus.
Today's feast is of Joachim and Ann, the mother and father of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Mary was raised in the faith from an early age. She must have learned how to pray, to anticipate God's love, to wait for the promised Messiah from her parents. I cannot help but think that her upbringing helped her to say yes to the angel, Gabriel, at the annunciation.
The angel asked her to do something herculean, something most would say was impossible. But Mary found the grace and wherewithal to say yes.
God asks much of us as well.
Because of the upbringing we have received, because of the way we may have been raised in the faith, it might be easier for us to say yes to God as well.
Let's hear it for those who have gone before us, who loved us, who taught us, who shared their faith with us.
Let's hear it for our grandparents, the shapers of faith for our parents, who handed their faith on to us!
