1 Mary Magdalene: "We don't know where they put Him!"

A little personal Novena to Mary Magdelene: Day 1

Feast day is July 22. A Novena is a 9 day prayer before a Saint's feast day. 

Who is ready for a Novena! Do you feel a little overwhelmed at times? Yes? Climb in my novena canoe (it's summer after all) and lets do this Novena together. Mary Magdalne was proficient at being overwhelmed and will help us. But first, a little blog intro:

The weather is absolutely beautiful today. The sun is shining bright, our backyard has been something out of a fairy tale with bunnies hopping, deer prancing, and at night time the fireflies come out. They are all sparkling and spectacular.

Bambi

These beautiful creatures of nature all speak of the beauty of it's Creator: He is creative, loves beauty, made incredible things for us to live in harmony with and absolutely loves us by gifting us these little miracles.

 They see His love and trust completely in His providence. I'm happy to see the nature living in freedom and creativity.

Over the last few years, months and days there have been increasing stifling violence against the Catholic faith and the creativity and freedom to have that very faith. Yes, it puts a damper on things to think about it like a broken record. "Meh." we say, "I have my own problems, then there is the Coronavirus and world issues, who wants to think about the Catholic church getting a little mud thrown at it? Bunch of weirdos..." And we say nothing, and keep going or even sit back and wonder what the reaction will be this time and who will respond. But the reality is that violence against faith is violence against each one of us in our deepest nature. The birds were created to be birds. But each one of us is created by God in His actual image and are meant to love Him and each other. We are meant to be Jesus to each other, mirror Him to each other, yes we are meant to be that  good and sacrificial. Easy? Not at all. Each one of us is meant to live good and holy lives. There are sins of doing things that are wrong and then there are sins of omission which are not speaking when you should speak. It's being an accessory to a sin. We have to stop this garbage of complicity through silence and spread love through the purity of truth.

Mary Magdalene, one of the first disciples of Jesus, is one of my favorite saints.  I love her because she was passionate and filled with the drive to love. She is that woman who everyone put labels on and she broke each label with choosing faith. She was labeled a prostitute, labeled demonically possessed, labeled hopeless, labeled clingy, but she chose to have faith and that faith changed her and bounced off every label and every false identity. What false identity have we been given or accepted of ourselves? That isn't who you are.

This label, spray painted on this weekend, isn't who Mother Mary is.

I think in the current historical moment it is so important to look back at original saints and see how they experienced life in similar circumstances. This historical moment has happened already in history with churches burning, saint statues getting pulled down or decapitated and priests loosing courage.

What did Mary Magdalene, the first dramatic emotional saint, do?

She was terrified, freaked out, cried her eyes out, then ran to spread her love. She totally did. When she got to Jesus tomb it was empty and ran to Simon Peter and told him, "They have stolen our Lord and we don't know where they put Him!" Can you imagine being Mary Magdalene in that moment? Imagine, you get up at dawn and in the morning dusk go to see your best friends tomb who was just violently and publicly murdered and it is empty. That hits a little close to home these days...what did they do to the one we love...

Burned in Boston a few days ago.

Burned in Florida just yesterday.

Burned in California a few days ago.

"We don't know where they put Him" is a phrase I want to meditate on today. Where did they put Him is something we ask ourselves when we see churches burned, and the rage of destruction happening on places we consider to be Holy and Sacred. "I don't know where they put Him" is something I think of with people who are sick with anger and misplaced the true love of Christ that He puts in each one of us to accept. "Where did they put that love?"

Mary Magdalene. 1808 by Antonio Canova. Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia. Here, Mary Magdalene is depicted as penitent.

On the first day of this novena to Mary Magdalene, who herself had put Him away in her life and rejected who she was meant to be, I want to pray for all people who have the pain of striving to do things on their own, the grief of feeling alone in that moment or who accept the invitation of anger and rage to try to fix things that seem unfair.

Day One: "We don't know where they put Him!"

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

St Mary Magdalene, intercede for us.

Lord have mercy,

Christ have mercy,

Lord have mercy,

Christ hear us,

Christ graciously hear us,.

God the Father of heaven,

Have mercy on us.

God the Son, Redeemer of the World,

Have mercy on us.

God the Holy Spirit, Holy Trinity one God,

Have mercy on us.

Mary of Magdalene, woman at the tomb, You didn't know what or who awaited you but you felt confusion and doubt and loss. I pray today for all people who feel fear, anger, confusion doubt and loss with their lives. I pray for those whose feelings you felt and you understand so well. Please guide us through your life, and help us to be open to exchange our instinct to trust ourselves to an openness to trust our Creator who loves us so much and offers us true joy in each day. Help us to see the image of love in our own Heart and not an empty tomb to fill with anger, fear or anxiety.

Hail Mary full of grace. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art though among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory for ever.

All glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be a world without end. Amen.