#stmarymagdalene — Public Fediverse posts

Quote of the day, 7 April: Jessica Powers

Grace guards that moment when the spirit halts
to watch the Magdalen
in the mad turbulence that was her love.
Light hallows those who think about her when
she broke through crowds to the Master’s feet
or ran on Easter morning,
her hair wind-tumbled and her cloak awry.
What to her need were the restrictions of
earth’s vain formalities?
She sought, as love so often seeks and finds,
a Radiance that died or seemed to die.

One can surmise she went to Calvary
distraught and weeping, and with loud lament
clung to the cross and beat upon its wood
till Christ’s torn veins spread a soft covering
over her hair and face and colored gown.
She took her First Communion in His Blood.

O the Tumultuous Magdalen! But those
who come upon her in the hush of love
claim the last graces. A wild parakeet
ceded its being to a mourning dove,
as Bethany had prophesied. We give
to Old Provence that solitude’s location
where her love brooded, too contemplative
to lift the brief distraction of a wing.
There she became a living consecration
to one remembering.
Magdalen, first to drink the fountained Christ
Whose crimson-signing stills our creature stir,
is the Blood’s mystic. Was it not the weight
of the warm Blood that slowed and silenced her?

Sr. Miriam of the Holy Spirit, O.C.D. (Jessica Powers)

The Blood’s Mystic (1950)

Powers, J 1999, The Selected Poetry of Jessica Powers, Siegfried, R & Morneau, RF (eds.), ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: AI-generated image (Midjourney), Mary Magdalene Runs to the Tomb at Dawn, created in an impressionist style inspired by Richard Miller (educational use).

@simoninsuffolk.bsky.social

Here's St Catherine, second from left in a Gerard David painting from around 1510 in London's National Gallery. The two figures to the right of the Virgin and Child are St Barbara and St Mary Magdalene. The man on the left is the donor.

The Christ Child is putting a ring on St Catherine's finger to represent their Mystic Marriage.

There's so much more to this picture, but I'll confine myself to saying I love it.

#Art #GerardDavid #Painting #VirginAndChildWithSaintsAndDonor #StCatherine #StMaryTheVirgin #StBarbara #StMaryMagdalene #ChristChild #EarlyNetherlandish #NorthernRenaissance

@simoninsuffolk.bsky.social

Here's St Catherine, second from left in a Gerard David painting from around 1510 in London's National Gallery. The two figures to the right of the Virgin and Child are St Barbara and St Mary Magdalene. The man on the left is the donor.

The Christ Child is putting a ring on St Catherine's finger to represent their Mystic Marriage.

There's so much more to this picture, but I'll confine myself to saying I love it.

#Art #GerardDavid #Painting #VirginAndChildWithSaintsAndDonor #StCatherine #StMaryTheVirgin #StBarbara #StMaryMagdalene #ChristChild #EarlyNetherlandish #NorthernRenaissance

@simoninsuffolk.bsky.social

Here's St Catherine, second from left in a Gerard David painting from around 1510 in London's National Gallery. The two figures to the right of the Virgin and Child are St Barbara and St Mary Magdalene. The man on the left is the donor.

The Christ Child is putting a ring on St Catherine's finger to represent their Mystic Marriage.

There's so much more to this picture, but I'll confine myself to saying I love it.

#Art #GerardDavid #Painting #VirginAndChildWithSaintsAndDonor #StCatherine #StMaryTheVirgin #StBarbara #StMaryMagdalene #ChristChild #EarlyNetherlandish #NorthernRenaissance

@simoninsuffolk.bsky.social

Here's St Catherine, second from left in a Gerard David painting from around 1510 in London's National Gallery. The two figures to the right of the Virgin and Child are St Barbara and St Mary Magdalene. The man on the left is the donor.

The Christ Child is putting a ring on St Catherine's finger to represent their Mystic Marriage.

There's so much more to this picture, but I'll confine myself to saying I love it.

#Art #GerardDavid #Painting #VirginAndChildWithSaintsAndDonor #StCatherine #StMaryTheVirgin #StBarbara #StMaryMagdalene #ChristChild #EarlyNetherlandish #NorthernRenaissance

@simoninsuffolk.bsky.social

Here's St Catherine, second from left in a Gerard David painting from around 1510 in London's National Gallery. The two figures to the right of the Virgin and Child are St Barbara and St Mary Magdalene. The man on the left is the donor.

The Christ Child is putting a ring on St Catherine's finger to represent their Mystic Marriage.

There's so much more to this picture, but I'll confine myself to saying I love it.

#Art #GerardDavid #Painting #VirginAndChildWithSaintsAndDonor #StCatherine #StMaryTheVirgin #StBarbara #StMaryMagdalene #ChristChild #EarlyNetherlandish #NorthernRenaissance

While I was on earth, I took her for my friend; but now that I am in heaven, I have chosen you.

Diego de Yepes
Biography of St. Teresa (1615)

On the feast of St. Mary Magdalene the Lord again confirmed in me a favor He had granted me in Toledo, choosing me in the place of a certain person who was absent.

Spiritual Testimonies, 28
Monastery of the Incarnation, Avila, 22 July 1572

On the feast of St. Mary Magdalene while I was reflecting on the friendship with our Lord I’m obliged to maintain and also on the words He spoke to me about this saint [cf. Spiritual Testimonies, 28,] and having insistent desires to imitate her, the Lord granted me a great favor and told me that from now on I should try hard, that I was going to have to serve Him more than I did up to this point. This favor gave me the desire not to die so soon, that I might have time to be occupied in His service, and I was left with strong determination to suffer.

Spiritual Testimonies, 37
22 July (year and place uncertain)

Note: Translator and editor Kieran Kavanaugh, O.C.D. explains that Spiritual Testimonies, 28 is a probable reference to an event reported by Diego de Yepes in his life of St. Teresa (1615, Madrid). Fr. Kavanaugh writes: “One day in Toledo, Teresa was envying St. Mary Magdalene for the love our Lord had for her. The Lord then appeared to Teresa and said: ‘While I was on earth, I took her for my friend; but now that I am in heaven, I have chosen you.’ “

Teresa of Avila, St. 1985, The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila, translated from the Spanish by Kavanaugh, K; Rodriguez, O, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: Christ’s Appearance to Mary Magdalene after the Resurrection is an oil on canvas painting executed in 1835 by Alexander Andreyevich Ivanov (Russian, 1806–1858). It is part of the Russian Museum’s collection of 18th–19th c. paintings. Image credit: Russian Museum via Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain)

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/07/21/stj-testims28-37/

#Avila #chosen #FeastDay #FrKieranKavanaughOCD #God #JesusChrist #love #mysticalExperience #StMaryMagdalene #StTeresaOfAvila #ToledoSpain