Patroness for a Priest

"Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?  Whom are you looking for?" She thought it was the gardener and said to him,"Sir, if you carried him away, tell me where you laid him, and I will take him."  Jesus said to her, "Mary!"  She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rabbouni," which means Teacher.  Jesus said to her, "Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father.  But go to my brothers and tell them, 'I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'"  Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord," and then reported what he told her." ~John 20:15-18

A first priestly blessing for my family

This past weekend my family was graced and blessed to attend a beautiful Holy Hour Vigil of Prayer, an Ordination Mass and the First Mass of Fr. John Baumgardner.  The Ordination Mass happened to fall on the Feast of St. Mary Magdalene.

At the beautiful holy hour vigil held at Saint Francis de Sales Seminary, the priest spoke to a full chapel about the Magdalene and how she will be the special patroness for Fr. John.  He said, "As Jesus told Mary Magdalene not to cling to Him, so we, too, must not cling to Fr. John.  We must let him go in freedom to serve the Lord as he has been called.  Neither his family nor any future parishioners he may come to know should cling, so that he may be open to love all.  And this is hard for a priest, too.  But out of obedience the priest must go where he is sent."

In his homily at the ordination, Archbishop Listecki also spoke of Mary Magdalene.  He said that she possessed two essential characteristics:  faith and love.  Because she had confidence in the person of Jesus she was faithful at the foot of the cross and her love for him opened her eyes upon hearing her name spoken in a loving manner.

Then, the Archbishop addressed the ordinand directly:  "John, I know the same voice called your name.  His invitation, framed in love, was to join the priesthood and become an apostle announcing His life, death and resurrection which is the only hope."  

Holy Father, May Fr. John Baumgardner be blessed with a long and holy priesthood under the patronage of St. Mary Magdalene!  May she guide his every step with her faithful love.  May he ever hear the voice of Jesus calling his name and leading him along the path to sanctity as he, himself,  leads so many souls along that same path.  Amen.

She Has Loved Much

"While he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at the table, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment of nard, and she broke open the jar and poured the ointment on his head."  ~Mark 14:3

My living room shrine includes a statue of Our Lady of Lourdes from the shrine in France, an antique heirloom crucifix from my mother, a relic of St. Margaret Mary, a picture and relic of St. Maria Goretti, several jars of sea glass, and now, my treasured painting of St. Mary Magdalene.

My beautiful and extremely talented friend, Christi Jentz, has blessed me a fabulous and original painting of my favorite saint, Saint Mary Magdalene, entering the gates of heaven while tightly holding onto her jar of precious ointment.  I had her framed and she now graces my living room wall. Every time I see her, I just stop, caught off guard by her beauty, and I offer a prayer of thanksgiving for Christi's prayerful and artistic talent, and for the example of love set by my favorite saint.  I hope and pray that not only will I emulate St. Mary Magdalene's great love upon this earth, but that one day, I, too, will know the joy of walking through that magnificent gate into the eternal wonder of heaven. ( Visit Christi's website, Lumen Christi Art, for more of her fabulous artwork. I highly recommend a thorough and lengthy visit here-there is much to learn and Christi freely shares her artistic and spiritual knowledge.  You will be enriched!)

St. Mary Magdalene captures my attention far more than any other saint.  What was it like, I wonder, to have walked the earth in her sandals, to have the singular grace of physically touching the Lord, of crying at his feet, of looking into His eyes and finding love and forgiveness there?   How unbearably crushing was it for her to stand with His Mother at the foot of the cross and watch in anguish as he gasped his last tortured breath? And after His resurrection, how she must have been beyond ecstasy and unable to keep from sharing the miraculous story of her encounter with the Lord outside the tomb with the rest of the world.  Every person she met must surely have been the recipient of her great joy and left her presence deeply moved by her words, "He is risen!  I have seen Him!"  Don't you think she must have shared her story over and over again with everyone who would listen?  After all, who could possibly be quiet and still after a glorious encounter such as witnessing the resurrection of Jesus from the dead?

And yet, many must have thought her quite mad.  Did they scoff at her, thinking she was simply unable to accept the death of her dearest friend, and was now telling tales of an extraordinary fantasy?  Was she considered an outcast by her community for her insistence upon the resurrection of the Lord?  After all, this was the woman who once was afflicted with seven demons, who was known to live a sinful life.  Why should anyone listen to her?

There is a little known book, St. Mary Magdalene: Her Life and Times as Seen in the Gospels, History and Tradition, by Edith Filliette, which gives a deeper insight into this lovely saint's life experience.  Perhaps most moving to me is the passage that explains how the Lord touched her outside the tomb and how that gentle caress remained with her physically even beyond the death of her body.  Regardless of whether or not anyone believed her words of witness to the resurrection, she knew within her heart, soul and body, that His love was worth living and dying for, that Jesus Christ alone was the Word of Life and the God of Love, our Savior and Redeemer, our eternal joy.

 "When St. Mary Magdalene's body was exhumed, "a  small piece of skin was found attached to the brow. It was smooth, clear and lighter than the remainder of the body, and was the size of two fingertips. As it resembled live skin, it was subsequently named "Do Not Touch Me"-the words spoken by Christ to Mary Magdalene at the Resurrection; it was believed to have been the touch of the risen Lord on the brow of Mary Magdalene."

"This small particle of skin remained unchanged for another 500 years, and no suitable explanation was ever found for the phenomenon. Five centuries after its discovery, it finally detached itself from the brow, and was placed in a separate reliquary." ~from St. Mary Magdalene-Her Life and Times by Edith Filliette

St. Mary Magdalene by Christi Jentz

Thrice Bereft

"Lift your soul off the earth; lift it up, bravely, calmly. Do not let its fragrant petals drag in the soil; do not let selfish hands pluck you. Be not afraid that you will be crushed under foot. A Divine Gardener watches with jealous love over your growth, refreshing you with the gentle dew of His Heart's Blood, while he warms the Golden Mantle of His grace. It is true that we are on earth, but our souls are made to be lifted up, up from the earth to God."
 ~Letters from Fr. Page by Fr. Gerald Fitzgerald, sP

the altar at St. Joseph's Church, Baraboo, Wisconsin

the twelfth station, Jesus dies on the cross, St. Joseph's Church, Baraboo, WI

St. Joseph's Church, Baraboo, WI

Each year when my family and I enjoy our annual camping vacation, we attend Sunday morning Mass at St. Joseph's Church in Baraboo, Wisconsin.  It's one of my favorite churches, full of beautiful statues and stained glass. Mass at St. Joseph's is always reverent despite the faint scent of campfire that hovers about my family and I while we worship.

This year something caught my eye that I had never noticed before.  While looking at the altar, I was struck by the image of St. Mary Magdalene, bereft, upon her knees in grief, at the foot of the cross. In many churches it's common to see the Blessed Mother and St. John standing at the foot of the cross, but here, they were absent, and Mary Magdalene alone was portrayed in her sorrow. Glancing to my side at the stations of the cross, I saw that once again, there was the Magdalene on her knees, this time joined by Our Lady and the disciple that Jesus loved.  And finally, as I turned to leave the church after Mass, I saw yet another image in stained glass, of the saint who loved much, on her knees before our crucified Lord.

I thought of the three times that our Lord asked St. Peter if he loved Him after His resurrection, and St. Peter affirmed his love with three verbalizations.  In contrast, Mary Magdalene gave three obvious, yet wordless, displays of love for Jesus, not just as seen in the artwork at St. Joseph's Church, but also in scripture.  She knelt at His feet in the house of Simon the Pharisee, with her alabaster jar of ointment, broken open and spilling love for the Lord with abandon.  She knelt at the foot of the cross on Good Friday in utter despair.  She knelt at the entrance of the tomb not realizing the glory of the resurrection that was just beyond that tearful moment.  In each situation, her love was evident without requiring any questioning from the Lord.   She is a fragrant flower, blooming at the stem of Love and Mercy. 

And the Lord blessed her for her openness, for her inability to hold back her feelings, for her willingness to release her sins and accept the forgiveness of God, and then to go forth to proclaim His love to the world.   He accepted her passionate grief, knowing that her own love, watered by her tears, nourished by her compassion, would blossom into a witness for the world on how we, too, are to love the Lord; that is, fully, wholly, unreservedly, through our sorrows and joys, our sufferings and our triumphs, our losses and our gains.

Then, in the end, sweet Mary Magdalene is rewarded for her love with a magnificent entrance into the heavenly gates, carefully holding her jar of fragrant oil, now standing tall, no longer kneeling in sorrow, blissfully entering into the eternal arms of her Savior.

St. Mary Magdalene by Christi Jentz

The beautiful painting above is an original creation of Christi Jentz and is available for purchase in small giclee (pronounced zhee-klay) reproductions and cardstock.  Please visit her fabulous and informative website,  Lumen Christi Art, for more details on how to order her artwork or to simply enjoy the art and background information that she offers.  You'll want to check back frequently to read her fascinating blog updates.   

St. Mary Magdalene

The feast of St. Mary Magdalene is one of my favorites.  I've always wanted to model my life after this beautiful and holy woman; that is, I want to love much.  I recently learned that during the course of the last seventy years, it was realized that the seven demons that Jesus cast out from St. Mary Magdalene was actually referring to His curing her depression and anxiety, not the prostitution that is usually attributed to her. As one who has deeply struggled with those same mental illnesses, the knowledge that we have this commonality makes me love her even more.

Here's a treat from my favorite local poet, Jessica Powers, aka Sr. Miriam of the Holy Spirit, OCD, in honor of this special Feast Day:

God is a Strange Lover

God is the strangest of all lovers;

His ways are past explaining.

He sets His heart on a soul:  He says to Himself, “Here will I rest my love.”

But he does not woo her with flowers or jewels or words that are set to music,

No names endearing, no kindled praise His heart, direction prove.

His jealousy is an infinite thing, He stalks the soul with sorrow;

He tramples the bloom; He blots the sun that could make her vision dim.

He robs and breaks and destroys-there is nothing at last but her own shame, her own affliction,

And then He comes and there is nothing in the vast world but Him and her love of Him.

Not till the great rebellions die and her will is safe in His hands forever

Does He open the door of light and His tenderness fall,

And then for what is seen in the soul’s virgin places,

For what is heard in the heart, there is no speech at all.

God is a strange lover; the story of His love is most surprising,

There is no proud queen in her cloth of gold; over and over again.

There is only, deep in the soul, a poor dishelved woman weeping….

For those who have need of a picture and words:  the Magdalen.

And something I've shared before from Fr. Gerald Fitzgerald, sP, the founder of the Handmaids of the Precious Blood, and my spiritual father:

To Saint Mary Magdalene

You claimed
the false
until you found
the True;
your beauty
wounded
until Beauty
wounded you,
and plunged your soul
into a spring so sweet
your tears
fell as chaste pearls
at Mercy's
feet.

Myrrh-Bearing Women

"On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb.  They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.  While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them.  In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?  He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee:  ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ”  Then they remembered his words."  ~Luke 24:1-8

Myrrh-Bearing Women by C.J.

 I have a friend who is an extremely talented artist. She uses her gift to prayerfully paint icons, and more than that, she shares her vast knowledge of prayerful art with me, increasing my appreciation for the gifts of beauty which are inspired by the very breath of God, the Holy Spirit. When she was working on the above icon, she brought it to my house and invited me to add gold to the halo of one of the three women standing outside of the tomb at the Resurrection of our Lord. I chose the woman that I thought would be Mary Magdalene.  She is depicted as the woman in red, representing her sin, covered by green representing her new life in Christ. I carefully applied the gold by first holding a prayer in my heart and then breathing upon the image. They say that every stroke and motion of icon painting is a prayer. So on that not so distant day I breathed a prayer to one of my favorite saints who always holds a favored place in my heart because she loved much and I long to emulate that quality in my own life. I want to cast my soul at the feet of our Lord and breathe continuous prayers of love to His Most Sacred Heart. I want to carry an alabaster jar of fragrant oil into the world and spread His love to others. I want to love much.

The following poem was written by Fr. Gerald Fitzgerald, sP, the founder of the Handmaids of the Precious Blood.  It's one of my favorites.  Wishing you a joyous Easter as we glory in our own redemption from our sins and cast our sorrow aside while rejoicing in the beauty of our own new life in our Risen Lord!

To Saint Mary Magdalene

You claimed
the false
until you found
the True;
your beauty
wounded
until Beauty
wounded you,
and plunged your soul
into a spring so sweet
your tears
fell as chaste pearls
at Mercy's
feet.

(a partial re-post from the archives)