Seeker

T his Advent I am reading Stephen Cottrell's book 'Walking Backwards to Christmas'.  It is written for those who thought they knew the Christmas story well. Each chapter has a key character telling the story from that person's point of view. The 'backwards' element is immediately apparent in the first chapter in which Anna the prophet tells her story. Anna does not appear in the birth narratives until after Jesus' birth and the church usually remembers her story after Christmas. She was a faithful old woman who lived in Jerusalem and spent all her time in its temple. Along with Simeon she met baby Jesus when Mary and Joseph brought him for ritual observances after Jesus' birth. Her name is the Greek and Latin form of the Hebrew name 'Hannah' and means 'grace' or 'gracious'.  Only 3 verses in Luke's gospel tell us something about Anna: "There was also a prophet, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. ...

Today is the feast of 'The Presentation of Christ in the Templ e'. This feast is also known as 'Candlemas'. Its about the story told by Luke in chapter 2: 22-40 of his gospel, featuring Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus and 2 elderly people, Simon and Anna.  The old woman Anna is the one who often doesn't get remembered as much as the others, but she deserves to be.  In Tissot's painting (shown here) Anna's arms are raised in prayer and praise as she saw the sign of her deepest hope fulfilled. On 14th January 2012, my #digidisciple post at the  BigBible   project  'Anna: A Life of Prayer ' was published in my monthly series 'Blogging Women of the Gospels'. This series about women of the gospels is intended for individual or group Biblical reflection or discussion. So in case you might find that helpful, h ere is what I wrote in that post about Anna: Do you know who you are? What do others see in you? How do you think God sees you?...