Continuing on from last weeks Keeping It Catholic Monday post, we share the story of St. Martha which also happens to be the continuation of the story of St. Mary Magdalene.

The Liturgical Year
Time after Pentecost Vol. IV
By: Dom Gueranger
Imprimatur 1927

July 29 Saint Martha, Virgin

MAGDALENE this time was the first to meet our Lord. Scare a week had elapsed since her glorious passage, when she repaid her sister's former kind office, and came in her turn saying: 'The Beloved is here and calleth for thee.' And Jesus preventing her, appeared Himself and said: 'Come, my hostess; come from exile, thou shalt be crowned.' (RABAN. De vita B.M. Magd. et S. Marthae, xlvill). Hostess of the Lord, then , is to be Martha's title of nobility in heaven, as it was her priviledged name on earth.

    Into whatever city or town you shall enter, said the Man-God to His disciples, inquire who in it is worthy, and there abide. (St. Matt. x. 11.) Now St. Luke relates that as they went, our Lord himself entered into a certian town, and a certian woman named Martha received Him into her house. (St. Luke x. 38). How could we give greater praise to Magdalen's sister than by bringing together these two texts of the holy Gospel?

    This certian town, where she was found wrothy to give Jesus a lodging, this village, says St. Bernard, (BERN. Sermo 2 in Assump. Beatae Mariae Virginis.) is our lowly earth, hidden like an obscure borough in the immensity of our Lord's possessions. The Son of God had come down from heaven to seek the lost sheep; He had come into the world He had made, and the world knew Him not; Israel, His own people, had not given Him so much as a stone whereon to lay His head, and had left Him in His thirst to beg water from the Samaritan. We, the Gentiles, whom He was thus seeking amid contradictions and fatigues, out we not, like Him ,to show our gratitude to her who, bravingpresent unpopularity and future persectuion, paid our debt to Him.

    Glory, then, be to this daughter of Sion, of royal descent, who, faithful to the traditions of hospitatliy handed down from the patriarchs and early fathers, was blessed more than all of them in the exercise of this noble virtue! These ancestors of our faith, pilgrims themselves and without fixed habitation, knew more or less obscurely that the Desired of Israel and the Expectation of the nations was to appear as a wayfarer and a strangers on earth; and they honoured the future Saviour in the person of every stranger that presented himself at their tent door; just as we, their sons, in the faith of the same promises now accomplished, honour Christ in the guest whom His goodness sends us. This relation beween Him that was to come and the pilgrim seeking shelter made hospitatlity and the pilgram seeking shelter made hospitality the most honoured handmaid of divine charity. More that once did God show his approval by allowing angels to be entertained in human form. If such heavenly visituations were an honour of which our earth was not worthy, how much greater was Maratha's priviledge in rendering hospitatliy to the Lord of angels! If before the coming of Christ it was a great thing to honour Him in those who prefigured Him ,and if now to shelter and serve Him in His mystical members deserves eternal reward, how much greater and more meritorious was it to receive in person that Jesus, the very thought of whom gives to virtue its greatness and its merit. Again, as the Baptist excelled all the other prophets by having pointed out as present the Messias whom they announced as future, so Martha, by having ministered to the person of the Word made Flesh, ranks above all others who have ever exercised the works of mercy.

    While Magdalen, then, keeps her better part at our Lord's feet, we must not think that Martha's lot is to be despised. As in one body we have many members, but all the members have not the same office (Rom. xii. 4.), so each of us has a different work to perform in Christ, according to the grace we have received, whether it be to prophesy or to minister. And the apostle, explaining this diversity of vocations, says: I say, by the grace that is given me, to all that are among you, not to be more wise than it behoveth to be wise, but to be wise unto sobriety, and according as God hath divied to every one the measure of faith. (Rom. xii. 3.) How many losses in souls, how many shipwrecks even, might be prevented by discretion, the guardian of doctrine and the mother of virtues.

'Whoever,' says St. Gregory with his usual discernment, 'gives himself entirely to God, must take care not to pour himself out wholly in works, but must stretch forward also to the heights of contemplation. Neverthelss, it is here very important to notice that there is a great variety of spiritual temperaments. One who could give himself peacefully to the contemplation of God would be crushed by works and fall; another, who would be kept in a good life by the ordinary occuplations of men, would be mortally wounded by the sword of a contemplation above his powers: either for want of love to prevent repose from becoming torpor, or for want of fear to guard him against the illusions of pride or of the senses. He who would be perfect must, therefore, first accustom himself on the plain to the pracetice of the cirtues, in order to ascend more securley to the heights, leaving behind every impulse of the senses which can only distract the mind from its purpose, every image whose outline cannot adapt itself to the figurelss light he desires to behold. Action first, then, contemplation last. The Gospel praises Mary, but does not blame MArtha, because the merit of the active life is great, though that of contemplation is greater.' (Moral. in Job c 25 passim.)

If we would penetrate more deeply into the mystery of the two sisters, let us notice that, though the preference is given to Mary, neverthelss it is not in her house nor in that of their brother Lazarus, but in MArtha's house, that the Man-God takes up His abode with those He loves. Jesus, says St. John, loved Martha, and her sister Mary, and Lazarus. (St. John xi. 5) Lazarus, a figure of the penitents whom His all-powerful mercy daily calls from the death of sin to the divine life; Mary, giving herself up even in this life to the occupation of the next; and MArthya, who is here mentioned first as being the eldest, as first in order of time mystically, according to what St. Gregory says, and also as being the one upon whom the other two depend in that home of which she was the care.

Here we recognize a perfect type of the Church, wherein, with the devotedness of fraternal love, and under the ey of our heavenly Father, the active ministry takes the precedence, and holds the place of government over all who are drawn by grace to Jesus. We can understand the Son of God showing a preference for this blessed house; He was refreshed from the weariness of His journeys by the devoted hospitality He there received, but still more by the sight of so perfect an image of that Church for whose love He had come on earth.

Martha, then, understood by anticipation that he who holds the first place must be the servant, as the Son of Man came not to be ministered to, but to minister; and as, later on, the vicar of Jesus, the prince of prelates in the holy Church, was to call himself the servant of the servants of God. But in serving Jesus, as she served also with Him and for Him her brother and her sister, who can doubt that she had the greatest share in these promises of the Man-God: He that ministers to Me shall flollow Me, and where I am, there shall also My minster be, and My Father will honour him.

And that beautiful rule of ancient hospitatlity, which created a link like that of relationship between the host and the guest once received, could not have been passed over by our Emmanuel on this occasion, since the Evangelist says: As many as received Him, He gave them power to be made sons of God. (St. John i. 12.) And He Himself declares that whoever receives Him, receives also the Father who sent Him.

The peace promised to every house deemed worthy of receiving the apostolic messengers, that peace which cannot be without the spirit of adoption of sons, rested on Martha with surpassing fulness. The too human impetuousity she at first showed in her eager solicitude had given our Lord an opportunity of showing His divine jealousy for the perfection of a soul so devoted and so pure. The sacred nearness of the King of peace stripped her lively nature of the last remnants of restless anxiety; while her service grew even more actie and was ewell pleasing to Him ,her ardent faith in Christ, the Son of the living God, gave her the undertanding of the one thing necessary, the better part which was one day to be hers. What a master of the spiritual life Jesus here showed Himself to be; what a model of discreet firmness, of patient sweetness, of heavenly wisdom in leading souls to the higest summits!

As He had counselled His disciples to remain in the one house, the Man-God Himself, to the end of His earthly career, continually sought hospitatliy at Bethania; it was from thence He set out to redeem the world by His dolorious Passion; and when leaving this world, it was from Bethania that He ascended into heaven/ Then did this dewelling, this paradise on earth, which had given shelter to God Himself, to His Virigin Mother, to the whole college of apostles, seem too lonely to its inmates. Holy Church will tell us presently how the Spirit of Pentecost, in loving-kindness to us Gentiles, led into Gual this blessed family of our Lord's friends.

On the banks of the Thone, Martha was still the same: full of motherly compassion for every misery, spending herself in deeds of kindness. Always surrounded by the poor, says the ancient historian of the two sisters, she fed them with tender care, with food which heaven abundantly supplied to her charity, while she herself, the only one she forgot, was contented with herbs; and as in the glorious past she had served the Head of the Church in person, she now served Him in His members, and was full of loving-kindness to all. Meantime she delighted in practices of penance that would frighten us. Martyred thus a thousand times over, Martha with all the pwoers of her holy soul yearned for heaven. Her mind lost in God, she spent the whole nights absorbed in prayer. Ever prostrate, she adored Him reigning gloriously in heaven,  whom she had seen without glory in her own house. Often, too, she would travel through towns and villages, announcing to the people Christ the Saviour.

Avignon and other cities of the province of Vienne were thus eveangelized by her. She delivered Tarascon from the old serpent, who in the shape of a hideous monster, not content with tyrannizing over the souls of men, devoured even their bodies. It was here that Tarascon, in the midst of the community of virgins she had founded, that she heard our Lord inviting her to receive hospitatlity from Him in heaen, in return for that which she had given Him on earth. Here she still rests, protecting her people of Provence, and receiving strangers in memory of Jesus. The peace of the blessed, which seems to breath from her noble image, fills the heart of the pilgram as he kisses her apostolic feet; journey in this land of exile, he carries away with him, like a perfume of his fatherland, the rememberance of her simple, toughing epitaph: SOLLICITA NON TUBATUR - ever zealous, she is no longer troubled.

This weeks' Keeping It Catholic Monday is a day early, but such a great Saint deserves to have her day honored especially when there is so much misinformation spread around about her in our day and age. A great example for converts to the Faith and a great penitent for us all to use as an example of how to choose "the better part". Its long but wonderful, download it here to print and read.

The Liturgical Year- Vol 13
Time After Pentecost Book IV
By: Dom Gueranger, O.S.B.
Imprimatur 1927

July 22
Saint Mary Magdalen
'THREE saints,' said our Lord to St. Bridget of Sweden, 'have been more pleasing to me than all others: Mary my mother, John the Baptist, and Mary Magdalen. (Revelationes S. Birgittae, lib. IV., cap. 108). The Fathers tell us that Magdalen is a type of the Gentile Church, called from the depth of sin to perfect holiness; and, indeed, better than any other, she personifies both the wanderings and the love of the most illustrious characters of the law of grace, she has her antitype in past ages. Let us follow the history of this great penitent as traced by unanimous radiation: Magdalen's glory will not be thereby diminished.

When, before all ages, God decreed to manifest His glory, He willed to reign over a wold drawn from nothing; and as His goodness was equal to His power, He would have the triumph of supreme love to be the law of that kingdom, which the Gospel likens unto a king who made a marriage for his son (St. Matt. xxii 2).

Passing over the pure intelligences whose nine choirs are filled with divine light, the immortal Son of the King of ages looked down to the extreme limits of creation; there he beheld human nature, made, indeed, to know God, but acquiring that knowledge laboriously; its weakness would better show His divine condescension: with it, then, He chose to contract His alliance.

Man is flesh and blood: so the Son og God would be made Flesh; He would not have angels, but men for His brothers. He that in heaven is the Splendour of His Father, and on earth the most beautiful of the sons of men, would draw the human race with the cords of Adam (Osee xi. 4). In the very act of creation He sealed His espousals by raising man to the supernatural state of grace, and placing him in the paradise of expectation.

Alas! the human race knew not how to await her Bridegoom even in the shades of Eden. Cast out of the garden of delights, she prostituted to vain idols in their groves what was left her of her glory. For she had much beauty still, the gift of her Spouse, through she had profaned it: Thou wast perfect through my beauty, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord God (Ezech. xvi. 14).

God would not suffer His love to be defeated. Leaving humanity at large to walk in the ways of folly, He chose out a single people, sprung from a holy stock, to be the guardian of His promises. Coming forth from Egypt was consecrated to God and became His inheritance. In the person of Ballam, the former Bride saw Israel pass through the desert, and filled with admiration at the glory of the Lord dwelling with him in his tent, her heart for a moment beat with bridal love. I shall see Him, she cried in her transport, but not now: I shall behold Him, but not near (Num. xxiv. 17). From those wild heights the Star that was to rise out of Jacob, and predicted the ruin of the Hebrew people who had supplanted her for a time.

To soon was this sublime ecstasy followed by still more culpable wanderings! How long wilt thou be dissolute in deliciousness, O wandering daughter? Know thou, and see, that it is an evil and bitter thing for thee to have left the Lord thy God (Jerem. xxxi. 22 and ii. 19). But the ages are passing, the night will soon be over, and the day-star will arise, the sign of the Bridegroom gathering the nations. Let Him lead thee into the wilderness and there He will speak to thy heart. Thy rival knows not how to be a queen; the alliance of Sinai has produced but a slave. The Bridegroom still waits for His Bride.

At length the hour came: bending the heavens, He  was made sin (2 Cor. v 21) for sinful men; and hidden under the servile garb of mortals, He sat down to table in the house of the proud Pharisee. The haughty Synagogue, who would neither fast with Hon nor rejoice with Christ, was now to see God justifying the delays of His merciful love. 'Let not, like Pharisees,' says St. Ambrose, 'despise the counsels of God. The sons of Wisdom are singing: listen to their voices, attend to their dances; it is the hour of the nuptials. This sang the prophet when he said: Come from Libanus, my spouse, come from Libanus (Amb. in Luc).

And behold a woman that was in the city, a sinner, when she knew that He sat at meat in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box of ointment; and standing behind at His feet, she began to wash His feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head, and kissed His feet, and anointed them with the ointment (St. Luke vii 37,38). 'Who is this woman? Without doubt it is the Church,' answers St. Peter Chrysologus, 'the Church, weighed down and stained with sins committed in the city of this world. At the news that Christ appeared in Judea, that He is to be seen at the banquet of the Pasch, where He bestows His mysteries and reveals the divine Sacrament, and makes known the secret of salvation, suddenly she darts forward; despising the endavours of the Scribes to prevent her entrance, she confronts the princes of the Synagogue; burning with desire she penetrates into the sanctuary, where she finds Him whom she seeks, betrayed by Jewish perfidy even at the banquet of love; not the passion, nor the Cross, nor the tomb can check her faith, or prevent her from bringing her perfumes to Christ.' (Pet. Chrysol. Sermo xcv)

Who but the Church knows the secret of this perfume? asks Paulinus of Nola with Ambrose of Milan; the Church, whose numberless flowers have all aromas; the Church, who exhales before God a thousand sweet odours aroused by the breath of the Holy Spirit- viz. the virtues of nations and the prayers of the saints. Mingling the perfume of her conversion with her tears of repentance, she anoints the feet of her Lord, honouring in them His humanity. Her faith ,whereby she is justified, grows equally with her love: soon the Head of the Spouse - that is, His divinity - receives from her the homage of the full measure of pure and precious spikenard - to wit, consummate holiness, whose heroism goes so far s to break the vessel of mortal flesh by the martyrdom of love, if not by that of tortures.

Arrived at the height of the mystery, she forgets not even there those sacred feet, whose contact delivered her from the seven devils representing all vices; for to the heart of the Bride, as in the bosom of the Father, her Lord is still both God and Man. The Jew, who would not own Christ either for head or foundation, found no fragrant oil for His head, nor even water for His feet; she, on the contrary ,m pours  her priceless perfume over both. And while the sweet odour of her perfect  faith fills the earth, now become by the victory of that faith the house of the Lord, she continues to wipe her Master's feet with her beautiful hair - i.e., her countless good works and her ceaseless prayer. The growth of this mystical hair requires all her care here on earth; and in heaven its abundance and beauty will call forth the praise of Him who jealously counts, without losing one, all the works of His Church. Then from her own head, as from that of her Spouse, will the fragrant unction of the Holy Spirit overflow even to the skirt of her garment.

Thou despisest, O Pharisee, the poor woman weeping with love at the feet of thy divine Guest, whom that knowest not; but 'I would rather,' cries the solitary of Nola, 'be bound up in her hair at the feet of Christ, than be seated with thee near Christ, yet without Him.' ( Paulin. ep. xxiii 42) Happy sinner to be, both in her life of sin and that of grace, the figure of the Church, even so far as to have been foreseen and announced by the prophets. For such is the teaching of St. Jerome and St. Cyril of Alexandria; while Venerable Bede, gathering up, according to his wont, the traditions of his predecessors, does not hesitate to assert that 'what Magdalen once did, remains the type of what the whole Church does, and of what every perfect soul must ever do." ( Beda in xii Joann.

We can well understand the predilection of the Man-God for this soul, whose repentance from such a depth of misery manifested so fully, from the outset, the success of His mission, the defeat of Satan, and the triumph of divine love. While Israel was expecting from the Messias nought but perishable goods, when the very apostles, including John the beloved, were looking for honours and first places, she was the first to come to Jesus for Himself alone, and not for His gifts. Eager only for pardon and love, she chose for her portion those sacred feet, wearied in the search after the wandering sheep: here was the blessed altar whereon she offered to her divine Deliverer as many holocausts of herself says St. Gregory, as she had had vain objects of her complacency. Henceforth her goods and her person were at the disposal of Jesus; the rest  of her life was to be spent in sitting at His feet, contemplating the mysteries of HIs life, gathering up His every word, following His footsteps, as He preached the Kingdom of God. How swiftly, in the light of her humble confidence, did she outstrip the Synagogue and the very just themselves! The Pharisee might be indignant, her sister might complain, the apostles might murmur: Mary held her peace; but Jesus spoke for her, as if His Sacred Heart were hurt by the least word said against her. AT the death of Lazarus the Master had to call her from the mysterious repose wherein even then shew as seated; her presence at the tomb was of more avail than the whole college of apostles and crowd of Jews. One word from her, though already said by Martha who had arrived first, was more powerful than all the words of the latter; her tears made the Man-God weep, and drew from Him that groan which He uttered before recalling the dead man to life- that divine trouble of a God overcome by His creature. Oh truly, for others as well as for herself, for the world as well as for God Mary has chosen the better part, which shall not be taken from her. (St. Luke x. 42)

In all that we have said, we have but linked together the testimonies of a veneration universally consistent. But the homage of all the doctors together cannot compare with the honour which the Church pays to the humble Magdalen, when she applies to the Queen of heaven on her glorious Assumption day the Gospel words first uttered in praise of the justified sinner. Albert the Great (Albert. Magn. in vii Luc.) assures us that, in the world of grace as well as in the material creation, God has made two great lights - to wit, two Maries, the Mother of our Lord and the the sister of Lazarus: the greater, which is the Blessed Virgin, to rule the day of innocence; the lesser, which is Mary the penitent beneath the feet of that glorious Virgin, to rule the night by enlightening  repentant sinners. As the moon by its  phases points out the feast days on earth, so Magdalen in heaven gives the signal of joy to the angels of God over one sinner doing penance. Does she not also share with the Immaculate One the name of Mary, start of the sea, as the Churches of Gual sang in the Middle Ages, recalling how, through one was a Queen and the other a handmaid, both were causes of joy to the Church: the one being the gate of salvation, the other the messenger of the Resurrection? (Sequence Mane prima sabbati- Paschal Time Vol I p 287)

On that great Easter day, Magdalen, like a morning star, announced the rising of the Sun of Justice, who was never more to set. 'Woman,' said Jesus to her, 'why weepest thou? Thou art not mistaken." He seemed to say, 'It is, indeed, the Divine Gardener speaking to htee, the same that planted Eden in the beginning. But now dry thy tears; in this new garden, whose centre is an empty tomb, Paradise is restored; the angels no longer close the entrance; here is the Tree of Life, which has borne fruit these three days past. This fruit, which thou, O woman, art eager, as of old, to seize and taste, belongs to thee now by right; for thou art no longer Eve but Mary. If thou art bidden not to tought it yet, it is because, as thou wouldst not heretofore taste the fruit of death thyself alone, thou mayest not now enjoy the fruit of life till thou bring back him that was first lost through thee.' Thus by the wisdom and mercy of our God, woman is raised to a greater dignity than before the Fall. Magdalen, to whom woman is is indebted for this glorious revence, has hence obtained in the Church's litanies the place of honour above even the virgins; as John the Baptist precedes the whole arm of the saints on account of his privilege  of being the first witness to our salvation. The testimony of the penitent completes that of the Precursor: n the word of John the Church recognized the Lamb who taketh away the sins of the world; on the word of Magdalen she hails the Soouse triumphant over death (Sequesce of Easter day). MAnd, judging that by this last testimony Catholic belief is put in full possesion of the entire cycle of mysteries, she to-day intones the immortal symbol, which she deemed premature for the feast os Zachary's son.

O Mary! how great didst thou appear before heaven at that solemn moment when, before the world knew aught of the triumph of life, our Emmanuel the conqueror said to thee: Go My brethren, and say to them: I ascend to My Father and to your Father, to My God and to your God (St. John xx 17). Thou didst represent us Gentiles, who were not to obtain possession of our Lord by faith till after His ascension into heaven. These brethren, to whom the Man-God sent thee, were doubtless those privileged men whom He had called to know Him during His mortal life, and to whom thou, O apostle of the apostles, hadst to announce the mystery of the Pasch; and yet, in His loving mercy, the divine MAster intended to show Himself that same day to many of them; and both thou and they were soon to be witnesses of His triumphant Ascension. Is it not evident that thy mission, O Magdalen, though addressed to the immediate disciples of our Lord, was to extend much further both in space and time? As He entered into His glory, the Conqueror of death already beheld these brethren filling the whole earth. It is of them He had said in the psalm: I will declare thy name to My brethren: in the mist of the Church will I praise thee; in the midst of a people that shall be born which the Lord hath made. (Ps. xxi 23,32) It is of them and of us, the generation to come, to whom the Lord was to be declared, that He said to thee: Go to My brethren and say to them: I ascend to My Father and to your Father, to My God and your God. Thou didst come, and thou comest continually, fulfilling thy mission towards the disciples, and saying to them: I have seen the Lord, and these things He said to me. (St. John xx 18)

Thou camest, O Mary, when our West beheld thee, treading the rocks of Provence with thine apostolic feet, whose beauty Cyril of Alexandria admires. There seven times a day, raised on angels' wings towards thte Spouse, thou didst point out, more eloquently than any speech could do, the way He took, the way the Church must follow by her desires, until she is reunited with Him for ever. Thou didst prove that the apostolate in its highest reach does not depend on words. In heaven the SEraphim and the Cherubim and Thrones gaze unceasingly upon the Eternal Trintitym without so much as glancing at the world of nothingness; and nevertheless it is though them that pass the strength and light and love which the heavenly messengers in the lower hierarchies distribute to us on earth. Thus, O magdalen, through thou clingest ever to the sacred feet which are now not denied to thy love, and thy life is unreservedly absorbed with Christ in God, thou seemest more than any other to be always saying to us:

O thou, whose choice, so highly approved by our Lord, had revealed to the world the better part, obtain that that portion may be ever appreciated in the Church as the better - viz., that divine contemplation which begins here on earth the life of heaven, and which in its fruitful repose is the source of all the graces spread by the active ministry throughout the world. Death itself does not take away that portion, but assures its possession for ever, and makes it blossom into the full, direct vision. May he that has received it from the gratuitous goodness of God never strive to dispossess himself of it! 'Happy house,' says the devout St. Bernard, 'blessed assembly, where Martha complains of Mary! But how indignant we should be if Mary were jealous of Martha!' ( Bern .Sermo iii in Assumpt B.V.M.) And St. Jude tells us the awful judgment of the angels who kept not their principality, the familiar friends of God who forsook their own habitation. ( St. Jude 6) Keep up in religious families established by their fathers on heights that touch the clouds the sense of their inborn nobility; they are not made for the dust and noise of the plain: and did they come down to it, they would injure both the Church and themselves. By remaining what they are, they do not, any more than thou, O Magdalen, become indifferent to the lost sheep; but they take the surest of all means for purifying the earth and drawing souls to God.

From thy church at Vezelay thou didst look down one day upon a vast multitude eagerly receiving the cross; they were about to undertake that immortal Crusade, not the least glory whereof is to have supernaturalized the sentiments of honour in the hearts of those Christian warriors armed for the defense of the holy Sepulchre. A similar lesson was given to the world at the beginning of last century; Napoleon, intoxicated with power, would raise to himself and his army a Temple of glory; before the building was completed he was swpt away, and the temple was dedicated to thee. O Mary! bless this last homage of hy beloved France, whose people and princes have always surrounded with deepest veneration thy hallowed retreat at Sainte Baume, and thy church Saint Maximin, where rest thy precious relics. In return, teach them and teach us all, that the only true and lasting glory is to follow saying: Go my brethren, and say to them: I ascend to My Father, and to your Father, to My God and to your God!

During the difference seasons of the year Holy Church inserts in their proper places, as so many precious pearls, the various passages of the Gospel relating to St, Mary Magdalen; for the particulars of her life after the Ascension we are referred to the feast of her sister, St. Martha, which we shall keep in a week's time.

For those of you following with us on the Liturgical Year Bulletin Board, the new July 2012 pieces are up!

July is yet another busy month!

July 1st    Feast of the Most Precious Blood

July 2nd The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin

July 7th SS. Cyril and Methodius, Patrons of the Slavs

July 16th    Our Lady of Mt. Carmel

July 19th    St. Vincent De Paul

July 22nd   St. Mary Magdalen

July 25th   St. James the Apostle

July 26th  St. Anne Mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we will have a special feast day post (or two) for this special saint!

July 31st    St. Ignatius

This Monday's Keeping It Catholic Post has been put aside in honor and celebration of the great Paschal season. It its stead is the 50 Days of Easter celebration posts. May you have a most blessed and fruitful Paschal season!

First Fruits; a Series of Short Meditations
By: Sister Mary Philip
Imprimatur 1918

"Jesus saith to her, Mary. She, turning, saith to Him, Rabboni " {St John, xx.).

I.
"Mary stood without at the sepulcher weeping,. . . Jesus said to her: Woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou?" Mary Magdalen could not bear to leave the place where her Lord's Body had been laid ; she could not tear herself away, so she stayed behind the other holy women, and wept because, she said, "they have taken away my Lord and I know not where they have laid Him." Our Lord was her one Treasure, her Friend, her only Love. Therefore when "she sought Him and found Him not " she was sad and gave full vent to her grief. Our Lord knew this perfectly well, yet He asked her: "Why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou?" Our Lord also knows the cause of my grief, yet if he should ask me, "Why weepest thou?" what should I be obliged to answer? How often, if I spoke the truth, I should be obliged to say: Because I am disappointed in this or that worldly hope ; because I have been thwarted; because I have been treated with coldness. How rarely I could say: My Lord, I am grieving because of my sins and the sins of the world; because I have lost Thy friendship; because I no longer feel the sweetness of Thy presence; because Thy Church is being persecuted; because the souls Thou lovest are being lost for ever!

II
"She thinking it was the gardener. . . ." Our Lord takes many disguises. Mary Magdalen did not recognize either Our Lord's form or His voice. She took Him to be the gardener. How often do I meet Jesus in my daily life and know Him not? I meet Him in the poor, the children, the lonely, the suffering, and I know Him not and pass Him by. Yet He has distinctly said to me: " Whatsoever you do to one of these, My least, you do it to Me." To-day if I am given the opportunity, I will serve my Lord in the person of one of His suffering members.

III.
"Mary- Rabboni!" Our Lord called Magdalen by her name, the name she was best known by, the name she had heard so often before from His lips. She recognizes Him at once now, and falls at His feet. "Rabboni! Master, dear Master!" she cries, and she would have embraced Our Lord's feet had He not stayed her with the words,
" Do not touch Me . . . but go tell my brethren, and say to them : I ascend to My
Father and to your Father, to My God and to your God." If Our Lord calls me by my name, how shall I respond? He knows me personally and is quite familiar with all that concerns me. One day He will certainly call me out of this world, but daily, if I will, I can hear Him speaking to my heart and asking me to accomplish some work of love for Him. Rabboni, dear Master, I offer myself to Thee for whatever work Thou canst entrust to me. Let me only hear Thee call me by my name and I will joyfully answer: "Yea, Rabboni, speak! for Thy servant heareth."