As we approach the beginning of Western Christianity’s Advent, we pause a moment to reflect on the previous year. Christ the King has just left us in preparation to return as a helpless child in an animal’s feeding trough, once more I have begun to think of the short life of the one that brought Jesus into the daylight of this earth.

And I realize that until a short 14 or so years ago from the blessed event above, that Mary wasn’t. And by this I mean that not only wasn’t she born but might not have been, save for the grace of God.

Earlier this year when we were ‘taking the mickey’ out of the Bible I reflected that our living traditions regarding Mary Mother of God have come from those Gnostic or knowing Gospels to which we don’t give credit, do not consider them valid.

I remember we laughed and poked fun at the ludicrous scenarios surrounding the birth of Jesus.

It is said that the virgin’s mother was Anne or Hannah, and her father was Joachim, or elsewhere, in the Quran, he is known as Imran. As in other narrations about the births of those children, special and crucial to the work of salvation,  Hannah and Joachim are barren 
“Sts. Joachim and Anna had been married for fifty years, and were barren”

https://orthodoxwiki.org/Joachim_and_Anna#Lives( #)

Hannah and Elkanah

Into the auspicious company of Abraham and Sarah, Hannah and Elkanah, steps Hannah and Joachim. I use the name Hannah since their stories are similar. Hannah mother of Samuel,he  who consecrated David from whose House the Messiah was to come and many centuries later Hannah mother of Mary who bore the Messiah. 

As it was their custom Hannah with her rival wife Peninnah accompanied Elkanah to
Shiloh to worship and offer a sacrifice to God-of-the-Angel-Armies. Peninnah had children and used to taunt the childless Hannah. On one occasion extreme torment drove Hannah to the Temple after dining.

“So Hannah ate. Then she pulled herself together, slipped away quietly, and entered the sanctuary. The priest Eli was on duty at the entrance to God’s Temple in the customary seat. Crushed in soul, Hannah prayed to God and cried and cried—inconsolably. Then she made a vow:

Oh, God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
If you’ll take a good, hard look at my pain,
If you’ll quit neglecting me and go into action for me
By giving me a son, I’ll give him completely, unreservedly to you.
I’ll set him apart for a life of holy discipline.”

BibleGateway. 2018. 1 Samuel 1 MSG – Hannah Pours Out Her Heart to God – Bible Gateway. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Samuel+1&version=MSG
. [Accessed 30 November 2018].

Hannah Mother of Mary

The Hannah of the Quran is very much the forerunner of Hannah Mother of Mary because the events leading to the conception of their children are very similar.

35. The wife of Imran said, “My Lord, I have vowed to You what is in my womb, dedicated, so accept from me; You are the Hearer and Knower.”
36. And when she delivered her, she said, “My Lord, I have delivered a female,” and God was well aware of what she has delivered, “and the male is not like the female, and I have named her Mary, and have commended her and her descendants to Your protection, from Satan the outcast.”

Talal Itani. 2018. Quran Chapter 3 in English. Family of Imran. Ali ‘Imran. Read, Listen, Search, Download.. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.clearquran.com/003.html
. [Accessed 30 November 2018].

Next, a child is born