Marie Lucchetta-Remond is the newly-appointed Anna Chaplaincy Co-ordinator for Ely Diocese and she has kindly sent us this imaginative piece she has written focusing on the prophetess Anna. You might like to bear it in mind when you are preparing to celebrate Simeon and Anna and the Presentation of the baby Jesus in the Temple at Candlemas next year?
'My name is Anna, and I am a prophet.
I am old, now, I am 84, and I feel the weight of the years on my body. But once, I was young, and my life looked incredibly different. My father was Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. And when the time came, he found me a husband. I was married once. It feels like a lifetime ago. But after seven years, my husband died. What was I to do? A widow, I had lost my purpose. I had no man to cook for, to live for, to laugh with and to support! I felt empty.
I lived in grief. And I often wondered: ‘Why did God do this to me? Am I being punished?’
‘God of wrath’, I thought, ‘do not rebuke me in your anger, or discipline me in your wrath. For your arrows have sunk into me, and your hand has come down on me.’ I felt so crushed!
I remember wondering if I had been arrogant in my happiness, taking things for granted… But I know humility, because I do a lot of planting and gardening: the mere fact of being in contact with soil, in the garden, you know, and planting seeds, remind us that when we cultivate plants, we cultivate humility. We are not in control. We only participate with God in the growing of green things.'