Ordinary Time: July 22nd

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MASS READINGS

July 22, 2017 (Readings on USCCB website)

COLLECT PRAYER

O God, whose Only Begotten Son entrusted Mary Magdalene before all others with announcing the great joy of the Resurrection, grant, we pray, that through her intercession and example we may proclaim the living Christ and come to see him reigning in your glory. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.

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Recipes (9)

• Madeleines
• Magdalenas I
• Magdalenas II
• Magdalenenstriezeln
• Nun's Lemon Layer Cake
• Rindsbraten St. Magdalena Mit Kartoffelnudeln
• Scripture Cake I
• Scripture Cake II with translation
• Scripture Cake III with translation

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Activities (3)

• Family and Friends of Jesus Scrapbook Album
• Religion in the Home for Elementary School: July
• Religion in the Home for Preschool: July

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Prayers (2)

• Litany of Saint Mary Magdalene
• Novena to St. Anne

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Library (9)

• “Why Do You Seek the Living among the Dead”? | Pope Francis
• 01. Mystery of Woman | Cardinal Joseph Mindszenty
• Mary Magdalen, Apostle of Hope | Pope Francis
• The Dignity of Woman and Her Mission | Pope Saint John Paul II
• The First Liturgical Feast of Saint Mary Magdalene: Witness of Divine Mercy | Cardinal Robert Sarah
• The Resurrection and Divinity of Christ | Jeffrey A. Mirus Ph.D.
• They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they laid Him | Helen Hull Hitchcock
• Witnesses of Christ's Death and His Passage to a New Life | Pope Benedict XVI
• Women At the Service of the Gospel | Pope Benedict XVI

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Blog & Podcasts (6)

• Easter: Fifty Days of Rejoicing
• Elevating St. Mary Magdalene's Celebration
• Resurrection Theory I: Did the Disciples Steal the Body?
• Resurrection Theory III: Were the Disciples Seeing Things?
• St. Robert Southwell—Mary Magdalene’s Complaint at Christ’s Death
• The Tomb of Jesus and the Christ Who Saves

» Enjoy our Liturgical Seasons series of e-books!

Mary Magdalene wasted the great beauty that God had given her in a life of sin, but one day she saw Christ and was touched by grace. On the day of our Lord's crucifixion, she stood with the Mother of Jesus at the foot of the cross. At early dawn on the first Easter morning, Mary Magdalene and other women who had ministered to Jesus went to the Lord's sepulcher. Two angels said to them, "He is not here, but is risen....Go, tell his disciples." Mary Magdalene ran to tell the Apostles what she had seen and heard. Then Peter and John, hastening to the sepulcher, saw and believed.

St. Mary Magdalene
The feast of St. Mary Magdalene is considered one of the most mystical of feasts, and it is said that of all the songs of the saints, that of Mary Magdalene is the sweetest and strongest because her love was so great. That love was praised by Jesus Himself who said that because much was forgiven her, she loved much. Where she is buried, no one knows. Legend has her dying in Provence, France, in a cavern where she spent her last days, and her body resting in the chapel of St. Maximin in the Maritime Alps. Another has her buried in Ephesus where she went with St. John after the Resurrection. This latter view is more likely, and St. Willibald, the English pilgrim to the Holy Land in the eighth century, was shown her tomb there.

She was the first recorded witness to the resurrection of Jesus, His most ardent and loving follower. She had stood with Mary at the foot of the Cross on that brutal Good Friday afternoon and had been by the side of Mary during these difficult hours. On Easter morning, she went with the other women to the tomb and it was there, in the garden near the tomb, that Jesus appeared to her. It was she who brought the news of the Resurrection to the Apostles, and Peter and John raced to the tomb to see what had happened.

She was from Magadala, a small fishing town on the Sea of Galilee, between Capernaum and Tiberias. She was known to be a "great sinner," a woman of the streets who heard Jesus speak of the mercy and forgiveness of God and changed her life completely. Her matter-of-fact witness to the Resurrection moved Peter and John to go and see for themselves: "I have seen the Lord and these things he said to me." Jesus had chosen her to bring the news to them and she simply told them what had happened.

She has always been the example of great love and great forgiveness, one of those close to Jesus who grasped the truth of God's love for human beings and spent her life bearing witness to that love.

—Excerpted from The One Year Book of Saints by Rev. Clifford Stevens

Patron: Apothecaries; Casamicciola, Italy; contemplative life; contemplatives; converts; druggists; glove makers; hairdressers; hairstylists; penitent sinners; penitent women; people ridiculed for their piety; perfumeries; perfumers; pharmacists; reformed prostitutes; sexual temptation; tanners; women.

Symbols: Rich raiment; box of ointment; skull; book; vase of sweet spices; crucifix; open book; boat.

Things to Do:

• From the Catholic Culture library: Who Really Was Mary Magdalene? by Father William Saunders .

• Read Witnesses to Calvary: Reflections on the Seven Last Words of Jesus by Fr. Richard C. Antall is an interesting and thoughtful look at St. Mary Magdalene's place at the foot of the cross. He contrasts her deliverance from seven demons with the symmetry of the Seven Words.

• Read more about St. Mary Magdalene here and here.

• Read The First Liturgical Feast of Saint Mary Magdalene: Witness of Divine Mercy by Cardinal Sarah.