The patronal festival

Let us pray.

Almighty God,
whose Son called Mary Magdalene to be a witness of his resurrection:
mercifully grant that by your grace we may be forgiven and healed,
and may know you in the power of your Son’s risen life;
who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.

1 O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee.
2 My soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh also longeth after thee, in a barren and dry land where no water is.
3 Thus have I looked for thee in the sanctuary, that I might behold thy power and glory.
4 For thy loving-kindness is better than the life itself: my lips shall praise thee.
5 As long as I live will I magnify thee in this manner, and lift up my hands in thy Name.
6 My soul shall be satisfied, even as it were with marrow and fatness, when my mouth praiseth thee with joyful lips.
7 Have I not remembered thee in my bed, and thought upon thee when I was waking?
8 Because thou hast been my helper; therefore under the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice.
9 My soul hangeth upon thee; thy right hand hath upholden me.
10 These also that seek the hurt of my soul, they shall go under the earth.
11 Let them fall upon the edge of the sword, that they may be a portion for foxes.
12 But the King shall rejoice in God; all they also that swear by him shall be commended; for the mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped.

A reading from the second letter of Paul to the Corinthians.

The love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died. And he died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them. From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!

For the word of the Lord,
thanks be to God.

The Lord be with you.
And also with you.

A reading from the holy Gospel according to John.
Glory to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.’

But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’ She said to them, ‘They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.’ When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? For whom are you looking?’ Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabbouni!’ (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, ‘Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”’

Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

For the Gospel of the Lord,
praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

In the thinking of a few people St Mary Magdalene is the patron saint of Hairdressers.  This notion i/s tied to the traditional conviction that St Mary Magdalene was the woman who bathed Jesus’ feet with her tears than dried the feet with her hair.  Accordingly, St Mary Magdalene is often depicted as one with a luxurious head of hair usually red or auburn in colour.

Of course to treat Jesus in the way St Mary Magdalene is aid to have done was a very beautiful thing to have been able to do.

In the New Testament as we know it is difficult to work out which of the women we associate with St Mary Magdalene herself.  Pope Gregory the Great tried to rationalise the three contenders by stating assertively that St Mary Magdalene is the woman who was a penitent and bathed Jesus’ feet with her tears. He mag]de this pronouncement at the turn of the 5^th and 6^th Centuries.  Since then artists have nearly always shown St Mary Magdalene asa one with very well groomed hair.  Hence Hairdressers and Perfume Makers have adopted her as their Patron Saint.

It seems to be clear that St Mary Magdalene was not a prostitute.  Even if she had at one stage needed demons driven out of her that in itself does not mean that she was a prostitute..  Unfortunately, this association has stuck over many centuries, especially i/n popular devotions.

There is a myth or a legend that St Mary Magdalene went to France with her siblings in order to proclaim the Gospel there. She eventually, it is claimed, settled near Marseilles where she lived as a hermit.  By the time she died her clothes had deteriorated to rags which were falling off her. At the same time her hair continued to grow vigorously - so much so that it served to protect St Mary Magdalene’s modesty. Little wonder , then,  that this story reinforced her as Patron to Hairdressers.!

These days St Mary Magdalene is thought of as the first witness of Christ’s resurrection. While this takes us some distance from hairdressing it does draw us much closer to scriptural truth and some positive notion of her worth as our Patron. While this association of St Mary Magdalene and resurrection has yet to affect popular devotion I think that we as Anglicans will adopt the association sooner rather than later - scriptural as it is.

Certainly our Patron as the first apostle of the resurrection will be praying for us here as we, together make our way into the future.  As Patron she may pray that we all have hope and come to our church with confidence. Her prayers will wish us to pray hard for solutions to problems and for our financial situation to keep improving. It is true that prayer about all these matters, together with intense interest in whatever is happening here (even if we cannot be involved in other ways) will need to be a major part of our progress as a Parish.  St Mary Magdalene will surely be praying with us.

My Jesus, I believe that you are present in the most Blessed Sacrament. I love you above all things and I desire to receive you into my soul. Since I cannot now receive you sacramentally, come spiritually into my heart. I embrace you as if you were already there, and unite myself wholly to you. Never permit me to be separated from you. Amen.