And she was a widow of about fourscore and four years, who departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day.
All Commentaries on Luke 2:37 Go To Luke 2
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
And she was a widow of about fourscore and four years (of age, or, according to S. Ambrose, of her widowhood), which departed not from the Temple. Not that she lived in the Temple, but she frequented it, and spent much time in it. So think Toletus, Jansenius, and Maldonatus. Others, however, think that she actually dwelt in the Temple; for hard by the Temple there were houses of religious women who served God "night and day"—as there afterwards were of deaconesses in the Christian Church, and still are of nuns. This appears from Exodus 38:8; 2 Maccabees 3:20; and 1 Samuel 2:22. These religious women were some virgins, and some widows, of which latter it seems, that Anna was one, as Canisius (Marialis, lib. i. xii) argues.
But served God with fastings and prayers night and day—that Isaiah , serving God, as the Arabic renders it. The Greek λατζεÏουσα, worshipping with "latria"—latria being due to God only. Hence is plain the falsehood of the teaching of the heretics, that fasting is only a mortification of the body, and no worship of God, except in so far as it is understood to mean prayer; for S. Luke here says that Anna served God both with fastings and prayers. By means of her fastings and prayers she served God "night and day." S. Chrysostom (Hom42 , ad pop.) eloquently commands prayer made by night: "Behold," he says, "the company of the stars, the deep silence, the great calm, and admire the dispensation of thy Lord. For then is the mind purer, lighter, and more subtle, more sublime and agile. The darkness itself and the great silence have the power of inducing compunction. And if thou lookest upon the sky, dotted with numberless stars as with eyes . . . bend thy knees, groan, pray thy Lord to be propitious to thee. He is the more appeased by prayers made in the night, when thou makest the time of rest the time of thy struggles. Remember the King, what words he said: "I am weary of my groaning, every night wash I my bed, and water my couch with my tears." So Christ used to give the day to preaching, the night to prayer, Luke 6:12. So too S. Paul, Acts 16:25, and 2 Timothy 1:3. So S. Anthony, S. Hilarion, and the other anchorites; nay, the Church also, as is plain from the "Nocturns" which monks still chant by night.
