Friday, April 13, 2007

St. Mary Magdalen

Found over at youngfogeys:


"Our Lord attended a banquet in Bethany, given by Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. The 12 apostles were there. In the course of the dinner, Mary Magdalene - if she be Magdalene - took perhaps what was the fruit of an evil life, namely some precious perfume, to give it to the Lord. In those days, women often carried precious nard in a bottle about the neck. If one of their beloved ones died, they would break the bottle over the corpse and then sprinkle the corpse with perfume and throw the remains of the bottle on the corpse. Mary Magdalene came to the feet of our Lord, for in those days they reclined at table. She did not do what you and I would do. She did not pour out the precious perfume drop by drop as if to indicate by the slowness of the giving the generosity of the gift. She broke the vessel and gave everything, for love knows no limits. Immediately the house was filled with perfume. It was almost as if, after the death of that perfume and the breaking of the bottle, there was a resurrection. Broken things are precious. We eat broken bread because we share in the death of our Lord and his broken life. Broken flowers give perfume. Broken incense is used in adoration. A broken ship saved Paul and many other passengers on the way to Rome. Sometimes the only way the good Lord can get into some hearts is to break them." ~Bishop Sheen

5 comments:

Mark said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Mark said...

You might like:

STATIONS OF THE MAGDALEN

I found your very nice blog from the comment you left at Carolina Canonball/Crescat blog. Nice work (comment & blog).

mark

The Crescat said...

very nice post & comment indeed. I like being given pause to ponder. ;-)

This is a very lovely post. Mary M. is my patron saint. The last line in the Sheen quote is very moving.

latinmass1983 said...

Hi Mark,

Great site and stations! I try to be very devout to St. Mary Magdalen,too.

Have you ever read the book titled "Mary Magdalen" by Father R. L. Bruckberger? It is a very, very good book on St. Mary Magdalen.

Fr. Bruckberger also has another book "The Story of Jesus Christ," which is even better, since it deals with Our Lord. But the book on St. Magdalen is very good and informative on her life.

If you have not read it, I would recommend that you get a copy of it.

Carolina, I would suggest the same to you, since she is your Patron Saint. This book does give the impression that our Lord had indeed "broken" her heart in order to get into it.

Mark said...

Thank you for the book recommend!