Feast of the Presentation of Our Lady

Joachim took to wife that most eminent and praiseworthy woman, Anne. And even as the holy Hannah, being stricken with barrenness, by prayer and promise became the mother of Samuel, so likewise this holy Anne, through prayer and promise, received from God the Mother of God, that in fruitfulness she might not be behind any of the famous matrons. And thus Grace (for such is the signification of the name of Anne) is mother of the Lady (for such is the signification of the name of Mary). And indeed this child of grace became the Lady of every creature, since she hath been Mother of the Creator. She first saw the light in Joachim's house, hard by the Pool of Bethesda, at Jerusalem, and was carried to the temple. There planted in the Lord, the dew of his Spirit made her to flourish in the courts of her God, where she was like unto a green olive tree, so that all the doves of grace came and lodged in her branches. And there she in such wise raised her mind utterly above the pride of life, and the lust of flesh, that she kept her soul virgin in her virgin body, as became her that was to receive God into her womb. Book upon the Orthodox Faith by St. John of Damascus- First Lesson of the Second Nocturn in the Breviary.