Dear Anna, You are an honored prophetess and holy model. Your lifestyle, so different from ours. It seems that your God journey turned quite radical after the death of your husband. With a heavy, grieving heart you entered the temple and found comfort there. I cannot imagine you sleeping on the cold stone floors of the damp interior of the temple nor, sitting against its cold walls as you prayed and fasted for years. I have to confess, Anna, that I really like my creature comforts. Sometimes too much. Help me to recall your life when I would complain about this or that infringing upon my comfort. On another level, I ponder the words written about you; you never left the temple. I am a temple of God. Yet, I find myself leaving my temple often. It does not take much to distract me and off I go. Pray for me, Anna, that I can consciously remain in my temple always. I think you must have had strong spiritual intuition. Luke tells us that you came forward at the time that Jesus was in the temple. I do not think it was happenstance that you came across him. I think there was a shift within you, a hearing, a sensing, a knowing that Emmanuel was close by and you went to seek him. You knew, after long years of prayer, fasting, and prophesying, that God’s light had finally come into the world. Jesus was there with you (and us) as a tiny baby. Help me, Anna, to hear, sense, and know when the voice of God within has called me. As a Dominican, I am delighted to know that you were one of the first to spread and preach the good news of Emmanuel. Before John, before the disciples, before the apostles, before the gospels, you were about preaching the Word. I suppose you could not contain your joyful self! Anna, awaken in me a radical way of living. Jumpstart my soul with the selfless passion you possessed. Make me a temple dweller despite any discomforts. Sharpen my intuition so that I may not miss God in others. Help me to spread the Good News in my time. In Emmanuel, Me