GRM 2.4 · Volume 1
The Gospel as revealed to me
Quotation
«Ah! If we had had a child, I would have liked him thus: with these eyes and this hair…» Anne bends down, in fact she is on her knees and with a deep sigh she kisses the two large grey-blue eyes.
Joachim, too, sighs. But he wishes to comfort her. He puts his hand on her thick curly grey hair and whispers to her: «We must continue to hope. God can do everything. While we are alive, the miracle may happen, especially when we love Him and we love each other.» Joachim stresses the final phrase.
But Anne is silent, dejected, and she is standing, her head bowed, to conceal two tears streaming down her face. Only little Alphaeus sees them and he is surprised and saddened by the fact that his great friend is crying, as he sometimes does. He lifts his hands and wipes the tears.
«Don’t cry, Anne! We are happy just the same. At least I am, because I have you.»
«And me you. But I have not given you a child… I think I have distressed the Lord, because He has made my womb barren…»
«O my wife! How can you have distressed Him, you holy woman? Listen. Let us go once more to the Temple. For this reason. Not only for the Tabernacles! Let us say a long prayer… Perhaps it will happen to you as it did to Sarah[1]… as it happened to Anne of Elkanah[2]. They waited for a long time and they considered themselves dejected because they were barren. Instead a holy son was maturing for them in the Heavens of God. Smile, my wife. Your crying is a greater sorrow to me than being without offspring… We shall take Alphaeus with us. We shall make him pray, since he is innocent… and God will hear his prayer and ours together and will grant it.»
«Yes, let us make a vow to the Lord. The offspring will be His. As long as He grants it. Oh to hear me being called “mamma”!»
And Alphaeus, an astonished and innocent spectator, exclaims: «I call you so!»
«Yes, my darling… but you have your mummy, and I have no baby…»
The vision ceases here.
Detail
Anne and Joachim watch little Alphée, and Anne reveals her pain at not having a child.