Carmelite spirituality and the practice of mental prayer

This blog is to propagate genuine Catholic devotions in the spirit of Traditional Carmel by providing texts useful for spiritual readings and meditations. "The devil knows that he has lost the soul that perseveringly practices mental prayer" - St Teresa of Avila. "For we preach not ourselves, but Jesus Christ our Lord; and ourselves your servants through Jesus" (2Cor 4:5). Soli Deo honor et gloria. The blog is lovingly dedicated to the Infant Jesus of Prague and under His Patronage

Sunday, July 26, 2020

St Joachim and St Anne, parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Francisco Zurbaran, The Immaculate Conception with St Joachim and St Anne, National Galleries of Scotland

"Joachim and Anne, how blessed a couple! All creation is indebted to you. For at your hands the Creator was offered a gift excelling all other gifts: a chaste mother, who alone was worthy of him... Joachim and Anne, how blessed and spotless a couple! You will be known by the fruit you have borne, as the Lord says: By their fruit you will know them." From a sermon by St John Damascene, bishop, after Spiritual Reading, Universalis