Magdalene Novena: Day 7

Christ on the Cross with Mary Magdalene by Luca Signorelli (1450-1523)
Meditation:
Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene --John 19:25

There she stands now, together with the other women, including the Mother of the Lord. Through her own vocation and as a result of carrying her Child, his Mother knows that she must never stop accompanying her Son. She will always be the Son's Mother. Magdalene's case is quite different. There was no consultation and no step-by-step negotiation.

The paths of both women meet at the Cross. And what is humanly opaque in Magdalene's destiny -- things spread by way of rumor, things that many people can neither believe nor understand -- is deeply known by the Mother of the Lord as she stands there. She suffers, she suffers the most searing pain, but her suffering is secure within her consent, her surrender, her will to go with him.

If Magdalene alone had been placed in front of the Cross, she might not have been able to find in it the answer to her life's question: "Why and for what purpose has the Lord rescued me and called me to follow him?" The Cross might have been terrible, so meaningless to her, as to awaken in her a raging madness. But now she is not alone as she looks up tot he Lord who hangs before her; she can also look at his Mother, suffering beside her, and in her suffering, still uttering her yes of affirmation.

--Three Women and the Lord by Adrienne von Spyer

Saint Mary Magdalene,
woman of many sins, who by conversion
became the beloved of Jesus,
thank you for your witness
that Jesus forgives
through the miracle of love.

You, who already possess eternal happiness
in His glorious presence,
please intercede for me, so that some day
I may share in the same everlasting joy. Amen.

Our Father.
Hail Mary.
Glory Be.

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