What makes non-Christians seek St. Anne’s help?

This is a question that I have long wonder. My mother-in-law who was a Taoist used to faithfully pay homage to St. Anne annually. Without fail, rain or shine, she would board a bus, a ferry and another bus just to get there to pay homage to St. Anne. I never really find out what makes her go there yearly. But from the determination, there must be something that prompt her to do it.

For a couple of years when I was dating my hubby, I dreaded the annual visit because by then, he would fetch his parents there. And with the traffic jam, the muddy ground, the crowds and the hillslopes, I would silently question the logic of going to a place just to light candles. Remember that back then, I was a free thinker or rather you can say, I was too lazy to even bother about any religions as those aren’t significant in my life back then.

But like a twist of fate, many years later, more than a decade to be exact, I am now a Catholic. Now when I look at the above statue, I see the significant of it. The above is a statue of St. Anne and the young girl is the Blessed Virgin Mary. If we are in trouble (which I believe is what drove my mother-in-law to a church eventhough she is a Taiost) we normally tend to seek out compassionate higher beings. Whether it is Kuan Yin or other deities, people will tend to fall down on their knees and pour their hearts out to these.

Of course, going to a motherly figure like the good St. Anne is like asking for help from a motherly friend. And that’s why people continue to pay their annual homage to St. Anne and plead for her to pray to God to help them. I am sure thousands and millions of prayers have been answered and hence, people continue to go back to St. Anne for their thanksgivings.

I pray that one day, I will have the same faithfulness to pay annual homage to St. Anne like my mother-in-law had.