Welcome
Holy Souls Church in Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire
St Joachim and St Anne - 26th July
In the tenth century St Peter Damian warned against inquiring about those things the evangelists decided not to tell us about, especially about the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary. On the other hand, the non-biblical literature which tells us about them is relatively early, and this was a time when memory played as big a part in preserving information as manuscripts. And something must have given credibility in contemporary eyes to the information we have about Joachim and Anne to start its circulation moving. So, it seems there must be occasional nuggets of historical truth, at least, in the information we have about the parents of Our Lady. There are Byzantine icons of Joachim and Anne which show them coming together before the birth of Mary. One interpretation of this icon is that it is a discrete portrayal of the sexual act - the only one in liturgical art. Something of the nature of these saints can also be gleaned from their names. "Anne" means "grace"; "Joachim" means "the Lord prepares." Our Lady was conceived by her parents in the normal way. This point is worth stating because some people confuse the Immaculate Conception, by which Mary was conceived, with the Virginal conception by which she conceived Jesus. But also, Mary was conceived in an environment in which God was at work. Grace was at work within Joachim and Anne. And the Lord prepared things by his providential care. Grace was given, the Lord prepared, and so Mary became capable of conceiving Emmanuel, "God with us." We invoke the daughter of Joachim and Anne as the "Ark of the Covenant" and the "Tower of David," the one in whom all the promises of Israel were fulfilled.
Contact Details and Parish Clergy
Contact Details
Holy Souls Church, Frodingham Road, Scunthorpe, DN15 7TA
Tel: 01724 844895
For both Holy Souls and St Bernadette's Churches
please e-mail:
stbernadettesashby@dioceseofnottingham.uk
Parish Clergy
Canon Matthew Jakes - Parish Priest
Deacon Sebastian Grab
Deacon Sam Sheridan-Garrity
Fr Krzysztof Kosciolek
Polish Chaplain
Email: k.kosciolek@pcmew.org
Tel: 01724 601087
.