Saint Mary Magdalen…… I can identify with St. Mary. She was a rich party girl and I was a rich arrogant party boy. She was under the control of seven demons, demigods that rendered her powerless. I too was powerless over small gods that were destroying me. My story is long but I remember when I was broken and cried out ‘Lord Help me’….
CS Lewis wrote in “Membership” (in the Body of Christ) this tribute to St. Mary Magdalen:
“It is nice to be still under the care of St. Mary Magdalen…The allegorical sense of her great action dawned on me the other day. The precious alabaster box which one must break over the Holy Feet is one’s heart. Easier said than done. And contents become perfume only when broken. While they are safe inside they are like sewage. All very alarming.”
Earlier I posted:
St. Mary Magdalen has always been a favorite biblical character of mine. She was one of Jesus’ inner circle and the first to see the Risen Lord. Her redemption from a ‘rich party woman’ (some say worse) with seven demon possessions to one closest to Christ gives hope to us all…I enjoy the group‘Cry Cry Cry’ so I share this….
(This I first saw during Lent. I reviewed it today and will soon be reading about the other Mary.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0OH4pIvXBQ
Hearing this song (below) in August (2019) I am reminded how St. Mary Magdalene knew this Holy Essence better than any of Jesus’ followers…enJOY!
(MacDonald like CS Lewis and myself see her like ourselves as a sinner. Mary upon being healed dedicates her life to serving her Lord!)
“We hear next, from St Luke, of certain women who followed him, having been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, amongst whom is mentioned “Mary, called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils.” No wonder a woman thus delivered should devote her restored self to the service of him who had recreated her. We hear nothing of the circumstances of the cure, only the result in her constant ministration. Hers is a curious instance of the worthlessness of what some think it a mark of high-mindedness to regard alone—the opinion, namely, of posterity. Without a fragment of evidence, this woman has been all but universally regarded as impure. But what a trifle to her! Down in this squabbling nursery of the race, the name of Mary Magdalene may be degraded even to a subject for pictorial sentimentalities; but the woman herself is with that Jesus who set her free. To the end of time they may call her what they please: to her it is worth but a smile of holy amusement. And just as worthy is the applause of posterity associated with a name. To God alone we live or die. “Let us fall, as, thank him, we must, into his hands. Let him judge us. Posterity may be wiser than we; but posterity is not our judge.”
Excerpt From Miracles of Our Lord by George MacDonald