09/09/2024
An offering from me on opening night of the Mary Magdalene Pilgrimage:
In the name of Sophia, Shekinah, and Ruah ha-kodesh: Amen.
Beloved God, we thank You for giving us Mary Magdalene as an example of consecrated radiance. Help us to imitate the love of You she showed in telling others about Your actions within her so that they might befriend You as well.
Much-maligned Magdalene, fearful men have tried their best to obscure the power of your deeds and the fragrance of your testimony. But just as the egg in your hand transformed from white to crimson as you testified to Emperor Tiberius Caesar about the power of the Anointed’s resurrection, so we acknowledge your enduring triumph in the face of empire and other powers that seek to deface us today.
While atrophied religion flinches in fear from the tenderness that comes with heartfelt embracing, you touch joyously in anointing, allying with your Partner who says:
“When you drink from my mouth you will become like me; I will become like you, and the hidden things will be revealed to you.”
Please help me feel Life's kisses, O Mary, bringing my petitions and heart-desires before the throne of Resurrection so they rest on the Footstool of my days!
Bring my heart, my relationships, my community back from the dead, restoring the years the locusts have eaten!
Pray for me, that I may taste abundant Love each day in all her many guises, and be a conduit of touch-able blessing to others. Pray that I may do all I can to be a faithful companion to those Life has placed on my path.
Please also pray for (mention your intentions here).
(Kontakion IV)
The tempest of demonic rage assailed the temple of your soul with great force, O holy Mary, but was unable to shake it utterly, for you discovered liberation on the firm rock of the Faith of the Anointed; and standing thereon, O wise woman, you teach all to chant unto our All-good God the hymn:
Alleluia!
(Ikos IV)
Hearing, O divinely wise Mary, that rooting in the Way’s soil you found true gladness of heart, justice, peace and joy in Holy Spirit, we also seek to blossom in the Sun while sharing a plot in Eden. And to you, as co-heir to the Master Gardener, we exclaim:
Rejoice, you who love the heavenly sweetness of Divine fellowship;
Rejoice, you who find true life in the Vine!
Rejoice, you who by faith provide for us an image thereof;
Rejoice, you who now dwell in the joy of heaven forever!
Rejoice, you who ever-taste of the food of paradise;
Rejoice, you who kindle within your heart the fire of love for God!
Rejoice, faithful companion of Beloved Yeshua;
Rejoice, earnest intercessor for us before God!
Rejoice, O our helper amid tribulations; rejoice, O our humble and powerful teacher!
Rejoice, all-honored habitation of Holy Spirit;
Rejoice, flute whereby the music of God’s grace falls upon our ears!
Rejoice, O holy Mary Magdalene, equal of the apostles, who loved the sweetest Koinonos more than all good things!
Mary Magdalene, pray for us!
In the name of Sophia, Shekinah, and Ruah ha-kodesh:
What bound me is slain,
What encompassed me is vanquished.
Low craving is no match for deep Satisfaction;
Ignorance is outshone by Wisdom.
I have been freed from the analog;
I am liberated from the chains of time’s forgetfulness.
I dance into the season of the Great Aeon
And repose in Deep Silence’s embrace.
Amen.
(Day Four of the Magdalene Novena. Photo from our Pilgrimage altar.)
