Conception of Saint Anna when she conceived the Most Holy Mother of God. All-Night Vigil Feast.
Nativity Fast.
Galatians 4:22-31. Luke 8:16-21.
Read Galatians 4:22-31
Anna was barren. She was elderly and without child. Her barrenness serves as an image for the fruitlessness of the Old Law. Anna, a faithful and pious woman, was not blessed with a child. In the eyes of her contemporaries, this childlessness indicated that she is being punished by her sin or by someone in her blood line. Likewise, even the most devout and strict followers of the law cannot be saved by it. The law cannot give life. The law is a barren enterprise.
However, God gave Anna a special blessing. Despite her advanced age, the Lord blessed her with a child. She and her husband, Joachim, having lived a life totally devoted to serving the Lord, were granted what was impossible according to the order of nature. And what a child this was! Mary, the mother of God. Her freedom was granted by the Grace of God, not by following the law.
Anna’s miraculous conception of the Mother of God was a pivotal moment in salvation history, and it is a reminder to all of us of two necessary things: 1) Faithfulness to the Lord and 2) reliance on God’s grace for freedom and life. Despite certain ridicule into old age due to her childlessness, Anna maintained these and was blessed with greatest child conceived in the usual manner.
We too will be blessed and delivered from spiritual barrenness should we remain faithful to the Lord and rely always on His grace.