We can have a tendency to focus on one person of the family of Jesus, and forget that, as fully God and fully man, he had a normal human family, just as we do. As we begin, in the US, our Thanksgiving Day week under, in many places, severe restrictions as to where we can be, how many people we can be with, etc., it’s good to remember that Our Lord had a mother, a foster father, grandparents, and lineage stretching back as part of the history of the Jewish people.
I came across this image of a carving I think shows us in great detail how our devotion to St. Anne, patroness of unmarried women, housewives, women in labor, grandmothers, childless people, equestrians, lacemakers, miners, the poor, and seamstresses, and her relation to her daughter, Our Lady, and her grandson, places us under her protection. As such, we can grow safely in our devotions to the Blessed Mother and the Son of Man, redeemer of the world.
