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Infertility is a difficult cross to bear, one that many throughout history have had to suffer through.
The Bible is full of couples who longed for children and who prayed unceasingly to God.
An ancient tradition even claims that the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary had to go through a similar trial of infertility.
Sts. Joachim and Anne
The Protoevangelium of James is a highly venerated text from the first few centuries of the Church that gives us the names of the Virgin Mary's parents, Sts. Joachim and Anne.
This text is not ranked as divinely inspired, though many early saints of the Church looked to it as authoritative.
The document explains how Sts. Joachim and Anne desired to have children. St. Joachim went to the desert for his time of prayer and fasting:
And Joachim was exceedingly grieved, and did not come into the presence of his wife; but he retired to the desert, and there pitched his tent, and fasted 40 days and 40 nights, saying in himself: I will not go down either for food or for drink until the Lord my God shall look upon me, and prayer shall be my food and drink.
St. Anne also spent time in prayer, voicing her desires to God:
Anna was grieved exceedingly, and put off her garments of mourning, and cleaned her head, and put on her wedding garments, and about the ninth hour went down to the garden to walk. And she saw a laurel, and sat under it, and prayed to the Lord, saying: O God of our fathers, bless me and hear my prayer, as You blessed the womb of Sarah, and gave her a son Isaac.
Anna then prayed a more lengthy prayer in her grief:
And gazing towards the heaven, she saw a sparrow's nest in the laurel, and made a lamentation in herself, saying: Alas! Who begot me? And what womb produced me? Because I have become a curse in the presence of the sons of Israel, and I have been reproached, and they have driven me in derision out of the temple of the Lord. Alas! To what have I been likened? I am not like the fowls of the heaven, because even the fowls of the heaven are productive before You, O Lord. Alas! To what have I been likened? I am not like the beasts of the earth, because even the beasts of the earth are productive before You, O Lord. Alas! To what have I been likened? I am not like these waters, because even these waters are productive before You, O Lord. Alas! To what have I been likened? I am not like this earth, because even the earth brings forth its fruits in season, and blesses You, O Lord.
An angel heard her prayer and spoke to her in response, "Anna, Anna, the Lord has heard your prayer, and you shall conceive, and shall bring forth; and your seed shall be spoken of in all the world."
While God's will is not always known to us, the example of Joachim and Anne reminds us that we can "be angry" with God and voice our concerns openly.
We simply need to be open to God's will and be like the Virgin Mary, open to whatever God is calling us to.
