On July 19 - 21st, we prepared to celebrate the feast of St. Mary Magdalene, the first woman preacher, apostle to the apostles.

We are one church …
with Mary Magdalene sent from the tomb itself to preach the risen Christ.

Voluntary Fast

We are invited to abstain from proclaiming the bad news – like criticism, judgments, assumptions, etc. and to proclaim the Good News – affirmations, insights, encouragement, creative ideas, a surprise awareness, etc.

Tridium - July 19, 20, and 21

Our St. Louis associate group, has provided reflections on St. Mary Magdalene for the three days before the feast for our praying and pondering.  

Day One – July 19, 2011

Mary Magdalene

What can we say about Mary Magdalene, Mary of Magdala as one gospel writer names her?  “I always like Mary Magdalene” says a friend from my Toronto parish.  “She is so down to earth!”

I agree!  Mary Magdalene is down to earth, an earthy woman, a woman living inside her own skin, a sensual woman!  Does this language make us uneasy, in a climate of increasing debasement and abusing of human, and especially female, bodiliness?  Is this apt language for Mary Magdalene, Apostle to the Apostles, Patroness of the Dominican Order, the first proclaimer of Jesus’ resurrection?  Indeed it is.  Let’s consider Mary M. 

With her eyes wide open, seeing as if for the first time, Mary Magdalene beheld the beauty and compassion of the face of Jesus, a face radiant with the splendour of truth.  Her seeing confirmed what others couldn’t see, He was ‘too good to be true.’ Jesus revealed to Mary her own beauty and she believed.  Mary Magdalene saw Jesus, she knew, and she followed.

With her ears vibrating with harmonies of truth, Mary listened to Jesus, the Word, Incarnating a loving God, the Way to salvation and true life, teaching, feeding, healing and consoling all seekers.  Seeing and hearing clearly the message of Jesus gave Mary Magdalene the courage to stay with Jesus in spite of her rejection, dismissal, silencing or being treated invisible by others. 

Is Mary Magdalene the one who came to wash the feet of Jesus with her tears of joy and thanksgiving, to dry them with her flowing hair, and to anoint them with sweet-smelling oil?  Is she the woman Jesus received as the prophet of his death and burial by defending her tender ministering to his tired feet, in touching and caring that shocked challenged the upright?  Should we do likewise, in memory of her, for love of Him?  Mary Magdalene breathed the sweetness of Jesus in the pure nard, the costly ointment.  This was her consoling ministering to Jesus, who makes her, and us, whole.

Mary tasted her salt tears---following Jesus on His way to Calvary, standing at the foot of the cross, witnessing cruel abuse and violence against that dear Body, hurrying early in the morning to keep vigil at the tomb, weeping, grief upon grief: “They have taken His body away and I do not know where they have lain him!”  He calls her name; she hears, she sees, she knows.  She runs to preach and to celebrate the Good News.  Jesus lives!

Mary Magdalene, embodied woman, faithful disciple woman, woman in Love, invites us to ponder again this Mystery of Incarnation, in our spirited human bodiliness and in the body of earth.  We are thankful for Mary Magdalene, a down to earth saint for our time.

Cora Twohig-Moengangongo
Associate

Mary Magdalene, Pastoral Caregiver 

                                                                                     
9 When Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had driven seven demons. 10 She went and told those who had been with him and who were mourning and weeping. 11 When they heard that Jesus was alive and that she had seen him, they did not believe it.   Mark 16

We know little about Mary Magdalene; only that she was one of the women most supportive of Jesus.  Even loved ones often cannot face the hospital or the funeral home.  Mary Magdalene stayed with Jesus through the gruesome events of his passion and his burial.  What gruesome things had she experienced, possessed by seven demons?  Having received care, she gave care.  She went to those who were mourning and weeping.  She comforted with the comfort with which she had been comforted.  (2 Cor. 1:4)  Mary Magdalene, a pastoral caregiver, had the heart of a chaplain.

Shirley Talbot, BCC (Chaplain)  
St. Louis Group (Guest)

When Your Healing Comes Through Tears
Mary Magdalene: The First Preacher of the Gospel

Why would God choose a woman to hear, know and preach the Gospel first? I believe it is because Mary Magdalene, as a woman, could be trusted to absorb the emotion and truth of the resurrection through her heart first and her head second. This is why she was so easy to believe. Her male counterparts did not ever, if you notice in any of the Gospel accounts, say she was “wrong”. They were simply stunned by the news and wanted to see the truth for themselves. They were trying to hear the Gospel with their heads. They needed to see for themselves. Yet they never once told Mary she was wrong. They wanted the experience Mary was demonstrating in word and deed and tears.  Mary’s tears tell us she was listening with her heart.

When any of us know a truth in our heart first, as opposed to in our head, something permanent and deeply transformative happens within the depths of our being. We are imaged and imprinted with the new truth we have known by “experience” and not just by telling. To me, it makes perfect sense for God to choose a woman to declare the resurrection news as the first preacher. She “experienced” the Gospel. She “felt” the Gospel. She “cried” the Gospel, literally, with tears of healing. She could spread the news with her whole being-emotional, physical, mental, emotional, spiritual -a holistic preacher sharing a holistic preaching! I do not think it gets any more profound, thorough, convincing or glorious than this. Of course, God would pick a woman to preach first. It just makes sense! Amen!

Jo Ludwig -  Associate, St. Louis, MO

THE WOMAN
Reflections on the Penitent Magdalen
By Guercine

See the woman? The woman of the Cross.
How sad the face that once shown with hopeful blush.
Now shadowed; the eyes whose tears, salt the earth and
stain the soul.
Eyes that have seen the nails go deep....deep into feet, her
hair once caressed..
How to comfort this heart so broken?
How to restore this hope now seemingly lost?

See the woman! The woman of the Stone ?
If I tell you now, that He is not gone.
Would your troubled heart lighten?
         Your tears cease?
Those hands clasped in anguish-clinched with anger and grief.
That once smoothed oil on His weary brow...
Take now one hand...one finger to feel the cloth,
which once wrapped Him
Sealed His body in earthly sleep
Your hope is in this empty linen.

See the woman! The woman of the Tomb
Those huddled shoulders once shared the earthly burden
of her Beloved..
That burden now lifted..
The path you seek seems now uncertain.
Bow not your head to the ground.
Nor languish near this barren rock..
Place your heart upon the pathway home..
You always knew the Way.

Kathy Teresa Rowland
Associate
St. Louis MO  

Day Two - July 20, 2011

Mary Magdalene

Aside from our Lord, the Apostle Peter is the central figure of the Gospels.  Peter is one with whom I can readily identify.   He often said the wrong things and did the wrong things.  His denial of Christ was an intensely human act.  His fear the night Jesus was taken was palpable.  He was simply terrified that he would suffer with Jesus if he was identified, and even more so, if he stood by him.

In contrast to Peter stands Mary of Magdela.   She has always impressed me as the true “petras” in the Gospel story.  She was the perpetually dependable disciple.  To me, the only other character of equal stature to her was the disciple whom Jesus loved (the “other disciple” whom we assume is John).

Mary was as fearless as she was loyal.   Her love for the Lord is unquestionable. She does not waiver.  Yet we focus on the men.   We assume they have scattered—mourning the loss of their master, lost as to what to do next, and also still fearful of what might happen to them if they are identified as Jesus’ followers.   It is Mary who is the strong one.  She was at the foot of the cross.  She witnessed all of the horror of that day.  She held her own vigil of sorts at the tomb. She was the first witness of the Resurrection.  She was the first preacher of the “Good News.”  

Mary’s is a short story, but it is a powerful one.   I wish we knew more about her. It is no surprise to me that later Gnostic writings praise her.  I imagine that in the days of the early Church she was a prominent figure for her steadfastness, her witness, her wisdom and her demonstrated love of the Lord when it counted most. 

Michael Burroughs - Associate, St. Louis, MO

Reflection on Mary Magdalene

They didn’t believe her. She’d run, out of breath and mind spinning. I imagine she flung open the door, grabbed their hands, called for all of them to come. She certainly didn’t rehearse what she was going to say, or plot how best to convince them, or find texts to underscore her point—the message Mary carried was immediate and, to her mind, clear.

When I first considered Mary’s role as preacher, I thought about her message—the news she rushed to share, the intensity with which she must have carried and delivered it.

When I returned to the texts, I was struck by how her words aren’t believed by the other apostles. In Mark, it says, “But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it.” In Luke, an apostle says, “We heard from our women friends that he is alive, but that is crazy and we could not believe it.”

It must be a terrible thing to be greeted with disbelief. I can’t imagine what she might have felt, the frustration or confusion—after all they’d been through together, they doubt her word now?

It makes me angry on her behalf. I want to stomp my foot and say to the other disciples, “Listen! How many times are you going to get this wrong?”

And then I hear the question for myself. How many times do I miss God’s word, or doubt God’s message, or forget in my daily life the wild reality of God’s presence?

I don’t like change. I like the routines and known things about my life. Even good news can feel like stress sometimes, especially if it brings change. Am I spinning my chrysalis too small and too tight if I keep my spiritual life closed, relying only on what I’ve experienced and accepted so far?

If I met Mary on the road today, luminous and full of big, big news, would I open my hands and heart to her life-changing message, or would I doubt and turn away from everything she offers?  If I profess to believe in the ongoing life-changing message of Christ in the world, how can I situate my heart to receive, again and again, the Gospel?

On one hand, we are committed to proclaiming the Truth, to sharing and spreading the Gospel. We do not preach in a vacuum, though—we are also all listeners, and receivers of testament and witness that can affirm our lives, give salve to our hearts, and rock our worlds from complacent patterns.

Today, as I work to connect with Mary of Magdala, I pray that God will keep me courageous enough to listen, hopeful enough to receive Truth even if it shatters my expectations and reroutes me spiritually.  I am reminded through Mary’s witness that God so frequently works in ways we did not imagine, and speaks in voices that aren’t always what we expect. I pray that when God gives me strength to preach, God also gives me the willingness to truly hear.

Stephanie Varnon-Hughes - Associate,  Claremont, CA

Mary Magdalene and I

Mary Magdalene.  Long heralded by patriarchal hierarchy as prostitute and apostle to the apostles.  The first to keep women in their place, subservient to men; the second to allow a possible purpose for women to be able to speak to men to herald the Gospel.  Really?  Like the Magdalene, women have uttered the Gospel to male ecclesiastical power for centuries, like Phoebe and Catherine.  What has changed? Little.  Perhaps the questions I ask of the Magdalene, like many other women, are the wrong questions…

Perhaps the commonality between us lies not in her preaching or her speaking Truth, but in the communio of the deep yearning and love for the mystical One whom she knew was the Christ.  A communio that can only be born of the deepest yearning and longing to be at-one with the Man she knew, trusted and believed to be God making God’s self known to humanity.  Did not her washing of His feet parallel His washing of the Apostle’s feet, a distinct parallel of an act of Love well integrated into her actions?  Is not her action, her yearning for at-onement with the Christ that which I seek to do and be as bread broken for the other as a chaplain, and the communio I engage in adoration and mystical contemplation?  Is that communio not the tie that binds me to the Magdalene, as well as countless female and male mystics throughout the world and time?  And is it not that communio that binds all of humanity together in the Spirit of Love?

Questions you beg beloved Magdalene, and answers that resound in souls through time and space.  Blessings my consorore on your feast day, and may you bless all of your earthly sisters with your wisdom of communio…

A reflection by Chaplain Donna Zuroweste (friend of the St. Louis associates)

An Encounter in the Garden

Often when we think of Mary of Magdala, we are reminded of the passage in the gospel of John where Mary enters the garden early in the morning to find the tomb of Jesus empty.  It is easy to imagine she was both grief-stricken and confused, yet Mary gathered strength enough to continue her search, seeking her Lord.  What joy she must have felt that morning to find she was standing in front of the risen Christ in the midst of that garden.  And in that garden Mary heard Jesus call her name and she responded, “Teacher.” 

With a closer look and our spiritual imaginations, we just might find our lives parallel Mary’s encounter in the garden.   Gardens conjure up thoughts of nature’s bounty, beauty, and fertility.  Thoughts of awakening, creativity, budding, opening, blossoming, and fragrance remind us that love, hope, and possibilities abound in our own lives.   We, too, seek Jesus, filled with questions, desiring a closer relationship with our Teacher.  And Jesus calls our names just as he called Mary. 

And we, too, find we cannot always linger in our safe and enclosed gardens.  Our joy of discovery of the risen, living Christ will lead us to do his bidding.  Just as he taught Mary, he continues to teach, and Christ’s message to Mary remains the same to us.   “Tell them.  Tell them I am going to my Father and your Father, my God and your God.”  And as Dominicans, we remember, we pray, we teach, we preach.  And like Mary, we, too, proclaim, “I have seen the Lord.” 

Janice Burroughs - Associate, St. Louis, MO

Mary Magdalene, “Apostle to the Apostles”

Mary Magdalene, is often called the “apostle to the apostles.”  It was Mary Magdalene who went broken hearted to the tomb.  As the others hid in fear of being discovered as followers of the crucified Jesus, Mary did not hesitate to go to the place where Jesus lay so she could mourn.  Jesus revealed himself to Mary first.  And so it was a woman’s voice to first proclaim Jesus risen from the dead.  The apostles were skeptical to say the least upon hearing her news. Who could  blame them?  Any reasonable person would have found it hard to believe.

But perhaps that’s precisely why it was possible to Jesus to appear first to Mary Magdalene.  Mary was acting from her heart not her head.  The apostles were using their heads and afraid to trust their hearts.  Many times women are accused of not being logical and of being too emotional.  In this case it is precisely Mary Magdalene’s ability to trust her heart, her woman’s intuition, if you will, that made her the perfect person to proclaim the Good News and to become “apostle to the apostles.”  So we now revere this woman from a culture that neither heard nor respected the wisdom of women.  Jesus always lifts up the lowly to show us the way to him.  Can we recognize the Good News proclaimed to us in the most illogical ways from the most unlikely people?  We can if we listen with our hearts.

Mary Kay McVey Christian - Associate, St. Louis, MO

                         EMPTY HANDS

Reflection for the Feast of Mary Magdalen.  By S. Carla Mae Streeter

July 22, 2011

Hanging On?

“Do not cling to me,” he said, “for I have not yet ascended to my Father, to my God and to your God…Go, tell my disciples…”

Scripture scholars tell us Jesus was weaning Mary Magdalen from the Jesus she knew and introducing her to the Jesus of the resurrection, the new Jesus. Mary was being told to let go of the old, and relate to him in a new way. Now this may be so.

But I would like to go a bit deeper. If someone I knew and loved were brutally killed, and then suddenly appeared before me, I think I would grab them and hold on with all my might. So what is really going on in this passage?

The first reading for this feast is from Exodus, and it recounts the giving of the ten commandments to the Jews. This was indeed what the Jewish community hung onto. This was the law, sent to them by God to guide them.

Mary has found what she intends to hang onto. She grasps Jesus. He has become the living law for her. He has shown her what it means to be human. He died. He was taken from her. Now he’s back, and she has no intention of losing him again.

So what is the reason Jesus gives for loosening her grasp? He says he has not yet ascended. He has not yet taken that precious transformed humanness back to his Father. So for now, she has a job to do. He missions her. He sends her to the disciples to tell them that he’s back…to stay, and yet when she goes, she simply says instead, “I have seen the Lord…”

Now to have “seen the Lord” means clearly that he who was dead is now alive. This first woman preacher simply tells them of her experience. He knew her. He called her by her name.

He knows us too. We stand in the line of this woman preacher, patroness of all Dominicans. But there is one difference. He has ascended to his Father. So I suggest that we, who stand at a distance from this event, can grasp him with all our soul. Cling to him, enfold him, and press him to your soul with all your strength. When he comes to feed you in Eucharist devour him so that what is him and what is you is hard to tell. Hold on to him with all the strength of your soul. Never let him go. For with us, to grasp him is to be filled with him to overflowing. Then from the fullness the mouth speaks. We become words of the Word. Then we too can “Go, tell…”

S. Carla Mae Streeter OP