Mary of Magdala

July 22 -Mary of Magdalene

Mary of Magdala is my patron saint and today is her feast day.  She is the saint name I took for my confirmation.  Through the years and through my reconversion to the faith, I have come to love Mary Magdalene and embrace her as my patron saint.  She is often associated with the woman caught in adultery, (John 8:1-11) but there is no biblical reference that the woman was Mary Magdalene.  She is mentioned as the women whom Jesus has cast out seven demons (Luke 8:2, Mark 16:9) and of course she was one of the women who stayed at the cross of Jesus even when others fled. Maybe the most important role she played as the apostle to the apostles is to be the first to witness Jesus after the resurrection!

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. John 20:1

When Mary of Magdala stood outside of the empty tomb, she thought that her savior’s body was stolen. Scripture tells us it was dark when she arrived at the tomb.  This detail, that it was still dark, has haunted me over the last year. 

My usual routine in the morning is to wake up early and grab my bible and a cup of coffee.  This is the only time of the day, when everyone is sleeping still, that I can find time to pray.  As soon as the house is awake, I can only hear the TV and the conversation in the house and even taking refuge in a bedroom – I find little enough peace to remain in prayer. 

Over the last 6 months or so my routine has been upset.  Job changes, adult children living at home and rotten weather that has kept me in doors has meant I need to find an alternate time to pray or I need to wake earlier to find the quiet I need. 

When I find that prayer time, that time with Jesus, I find that I am a softer person. By softer I mean I find it easier to love and to just be. I am calmer and dare I say it, I am probably easier to be loved!  Without that prayer time, I notice a hardness about me.  My friends and family probably notice it too. It usually around that time I feel a nudge to get back to confession and reestablish my morning prayer routine.  I need to enter into prayer while it is still dark, even if that means a 5:00 a.m. alarm.

Last summer I was blessed to meet my daughter as she was backpacking through Europe.  We met in France and toured Paris and the south of France.  Since the purpose of the trip was to be with my daughter, it was far from being a pilgrimage, but our travels did include some sacred sites.

While in Aix-en-Provence we visited the Saint Sauveur Cathedral which contains first-century church archeology and pillars of a Magdalene shrine. Streets of Aix once formed a Magdalene abbey. Archeological digs are still uncovering convents and churches dedicated to her. Tradition tells us that it is in France that Mary Magdalene fled to continue to evangelize. It is here that she taught about the transformative power of love and converted the Provence and the royal family to Christianity.

It is said that Mary Magdalene retired to the wooded cliffs near Saint Victoire Mountain where she lived out the rest of her life.  I didn’t get the chance to visit there but it is a popular pilgrimage site to this day.

I knew very little of her legacy in that area of the world until I had the chance to visit there. It seems Mary Magdalene is everywhere in the south of France. I This may sound strange, but I could feel a softness in the air while visiting there.  The same sort of softness I feel in myself when I spend time with Jesus in scripture or adoration.  Maybe the softness comes from the Lavender fields, but even the fragrance of the hills seems to point us to a greater love. 

Modern film, fiction and feminists would have Mary portrayed as a romantic love interest of Christ.  Not only is this portrayal inaccurate, it loses the point of the greater love that Mary of Magdala had for Jesus.  Mary’s love is of the “agape” kind.  The highest form of love, charity, and the love of God for man and of man for God. It embraces a universal, unconditional love that transcends and persists regardless of circumstance. 

Part of my haunting over the last year has been a longing to return to the place of Mary Magdalene. I feel like there is something my patron saint wants to teach me. Most likely it is something about love. 

This seems to be the time for Mary Magdalene to become anew a role model for women in our church.  In 2016, Pope Francis elevated her feast day to a major feast day marking women as the first evangelizers. The decree that was issued by the Vatican, says that this woman, “recognized as one who loved Christ and who was very dear to him,” can be considered by the faithful as “a paradigm of the ministry of women in the Church.”

Mary Magdalene has also been at the center of the ministry of WINE: Women in the New Evangelization, which is also “a paradigm of the ministry of women in the Church!”

I hope to bring a pilgrimage to this part of France someday. To learn, to explore and to know more about this apostle to the apostle, but mostly to discover more about myself as I learn to love.  But for now, I need to learn from her example to enter the tomb in search of Christ – even when it is still dark.  I need to learn of the love that persists regardless of circumstance.

If you are interested in exploring the idea of a pilgrimage in the footsteps of Mary Magdalene in France, please contact me at Sharon@CatholicVineyard.com.  

Check out this video of me from last year’s WINE summer book club taken while I was in Aix-en-Provence

https://www.facebook.com/sharonagneswilson/videos/10213575510163643/?t=48

Prepare the Way

You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High;

for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way,

to give his people knowledge of salvation

by the forgiveness of their sins.

Canticle of Zechariah

Today is the feast of St. John the Baptist. We are reminded of him every time we say morning prayer and pray the Canticle of Zechariah.

“You, my child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way.” 

It seems sad that John, who is called for such great things has a life that is cut so short. He is known for eating honey and locusts.  We are first introduced to John when we hear the story of Mary and Elizabeth and this prophet is so key in the coming of Jesus he is destine even in the stars!

One fascinating fact about John the Baptist is his feast of his birthday.

 In the Churchs’ wisdom, the feast of the birth of St. John the Baptist falls near the summer solstice, that is when the tilt of the earth marks the longest day of the year.  In contrast, the birth of Christ falls near the winter solstice – marking the shortest day of the year. 

After the summer solstice the days get shorter.  The long sunny days start going away,

that is until the winter solstice.  After the shortest or darkest day of the year, finally our days start get longer again.

He must increase; I must decrease. John 3:30

It seems the heavens even knew of the place John had in the coming of Christ. 

I have been hanging out in church circles for some time now and learning about the faith. Others occasionally come to me and ask me questions about the church or their faith journey.  I love interacting with people and it is a privilege to chat about our faith and I feel especially privileged when people share with me about their own spirituality or prayer life. I often say people are more likely to share about their sex life than their prayer life. It is or can be such an intimate thing. 

Being asked my opinion or being sought after can boost my ego and I need to always remember – “It is not about me.”  Humility and remembering that my job in these situations is always to point to Jesus.  Like John the Baptist, I need to decrease so that He may increase.

I do have one caveat in this lesson of humility though.  Humility does not mean that we think less of ourselves. John the Baptist was sure of himself and in who he was and what his mission was. To prepare the way of the Lord.  No easy task. Humility is not that you think less of yourself – It means to think of yourself less.

To me – John the Baptist is a great example of humility and of doing God's work.  I will strive to point the way to Christ. (I just hope my head never is served on a silver platter!)

How are you called to prepare the way of the Lord? What are your gifts to bring?  How do you view humility? Do you think less of yourself or of yourself – less? 

Easter Alleluias from the Mouths of Babes

When I wrote about my Triduum reflection five years ago, I spoke about Easter Vigil and the unexpected death of my Father -in -law. This year we missed the Easter Vigil and went instead to an early morning Easter Mass.

The Vigil is filled with mystery and light and darkness and new Catholics coming into the church. It is a beautiful experience and if you have never attended a Vigil – you should!  The Easter Morning Mass however seemed to bring a different sense of hope.

As we drove to Mass both my husband and I reflected on the five years without his Dad and the upcoming one year anniversary of his Mother’s passing.

The Easter Sequence brought me words to ponder about life and death as the choir sang:

Death and life fought bitterly for this wonderous victory.

The Lord of Life now reigns on high. Alleluia!

But the greatest sign of love, life and hope that I heard at Mass was not from the priest or the Choir.  The parish was full of families with children dressed in their Easter best. A baby in front of me cooed and as if on cue a child from across the sanctuary babbled.  Soon it seemed to be a choir of babies cooing, babbling and singing from all corners of the church (and not a one of them crying).

Really, it was like one babe calling out to another and they were singing praises to God!

O LORD, our Lord,

how awesome is your name through all the earth!

I will sing of your majesty above the heavens

with the mouths of babes and infants.

Psalm 8:2-3

The only time I did not hear these children was when the choir sang the Hallelujah chorus  from Handel’s Messiah.  I am not sure which was more beautiful.

The sounds of these children made me smile and helped me remember that Easter is about new life no matter our age and we get to be born into the newness every Easter and every day.

That is the Easter story and we are Easter people!

Alleluia! Alleluia!