We celebrate the feast of Mary Magdalene on 22 July. There are three figures in the new testament who often get conflated into one: Mary Magdalene, Mary of Bethany, the sister of Martha and the sinful woman who washes the feet of Jesus with her tears. We are really not sure if these are three, two or one person.
The readings for the feast of Mary Magdalene certainly concentrate on her role in St John’s Gospel as the first one to recognise and announce the Risen Jesus. She meets him in the garden and does not recognise him until he says her name “Mary” and she turns and says to him “Master” (Rabbi).
Because Mary is the first one to announce that Jesus was risen to the disciples and indeed to the apostles themselves, she is called “the apostle to the apostles”.
Pope Francis has raised her feast in status and has had a new Preface to the Eucharistic Prayer written for her feast. It is called the ‘Preface of the Apostle to the Apostles’.
This Preface reads as follows:
It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation
always and everywhere to proclaim you, Almighty Father,
whose mercy is no less than your justice,
and to do this through Jesus Christ our Lord.
In the garden he appeared to Mary Magdalene
who had loved him during his earthly life
who saw him die on the cross,
who sought him in the tomb,
who was the first to adore him when risen from the dead
and who is honoured with the office of apostle to the apostles.
And so, with all the angels and saints,
We praise and glorify you as we say: Holy, Holy, Holy….
(Unofficial Translation)
There are legends about Martha, Mary and Lazarus escaping from Palestine by boat and ending up at the mouth of the Rhone river in present-day France and beginning to evangelise that area. There is a basilica to Mary Magdalene in Vezeley in Burgundy. It was a great pilgrimage centre in the Middle Ages. St Bernard preached the second crusade from there. It is still renowned for its beauty.
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David Rush says:
Another very interesting article
Denise Mulcahy says:
Thank you Fr Frank for this reflection. I think the wording of the preface is really beautiful. I have not read it before. Mary Magdalen is significant to the FCJ Society because our foundress, who has Madeleine in her name, was enligthened one day in her journey of vocation when she suddenly proclaimed: ‘My name is Magdalen; I will follow my patron saint who so loved Jesus, her good Master, as to accompany him in his journeys and labours, ministering to him even at the foot of the Cross with the other holy women who did not, like the apostles, abandon him but proved to be his faithful companions.’ The preface complements this experience with its details!