Hi, readers!  Happy Independence Day!  I feel so blessed to be raising my family in this wonderful nation.

As we start a new month, I have another marriage challenge for you.  In February, we prayed the Novena for Happy and Faithful Marriages together, reflecting on the words of St. Josemaria Escriva (revisit that post here).  This month, I would like to invite you to pray another novena with Chris and me.  This novena asks for the intercession of Jesus’ own grandmother, the mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary: St. Anne.

St. Anne and her husband St. Joachim raised Our Lady, nurturing and guiding her to become the woman God would use to bring His own Son into the world.  It was St. Anne who taught Mary how to be a gentle, loving mother to Jesus and, through Him, to all who believe in His Name.  It was St. Anne who showed Mary how to be a dedicated, faithful spouse to St. Joseph, so that the Holy Family might shine as an exemplary marriage for all Christian couples (check out my reflections on honoring the Holy Family during Advent here).

St. Anne’s feast day is July 26, so many people will start this novena on the 17th to prepare to celebrate that feast.  However, you can start the nine days of this novena whenever you would like.  Bonus points if you pray with your spouse!  You can pray for any intention, but if you need inspiration, St. Anne is the patron saint of unmarried women, housewives, women in labor, the childless, and especially grandmothers.  I hope you will join us in praying- if you do, drop me a comment below to let me know how it went!

I also need to update you on how the June challenge to go on a local pilgrimage went for Chris and me (revisit that post here). As I had mentioned, our family moved from FL to NC this past month, so it was a little bit of a crazy time! But it did mean that we got to try out a new church- our own new parish here in NC! Holy Family is a smaller parish than we had in FL, but it is beautiful and the parishioners seem very friendly. They also have a sweet Mary garden where my daughter and I have said a prayer and left a flower! I would love to hear about your Catholic travels in the comments!