Shalom

22 Jul Mon	16th Week in Ordinary Time St Mary Magdalen
	Sgs. 3:1-4a Ps. 63:2-6,8-9 Jn. 20:1-2,11-18

How To Pray With Shalom

Home Page of Shalom

Index of This Month

Mary Magdalen was the first person to see Jesus after His Resurrection, and was given the mission of announcing His Resurrection. Her role in the Resurrection account is often reflected upon, but little comment has been made on the breathtaking intensity of the love she bore her Lord. It is a love that brooks no separation from the loved one. In the Song of Songs, the maiden's dream expresses lyrically the sort of agonising search, a search originating in the heart, for a missing loved one.

This is what Mary Magdalen must have experienced: "I sought him whom my heart loves" (Sgs.3:1), and "I will seek him whom my heart loves" (3:2) and again "Have you seen him whom my heart loves" (3:3) and finally "I found him whom my heart loves" (3:4) - the poignancy in the repetitiveness of these sentiments echoes that expressed by Mary Magdalen in her distress: "They have taken my Lord away and I don't know where they have put Him" (Jn. 20:14) and again ". . . if you have taken Him away, tell me . . . remove Him." (Jn. 20:16). This inconsolable longing for the loved Lord who is missing is the most striking facet of Mary Magdalen's discipleship. Our frail love for God needs to be inspired and strengthened by imitating that of Mary Magdalen's.

Lord, grant us the grace to love You as intensely as Mary Magdalen did, and to be equally unwilling to be separated from Your love. Amen

DAILY OFFERING

Eternal Father, I offer You everything I do this day; my thoughts, words, joys and sufferings. Grant that, vivified by the Holy Spirit and united to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, my life this day may be of service to You and to others. I also pray that all those preparing for marriage discover in Sacrament the source of Christ's grace for living a fithful and fruitful love. Amen.

PRAYING WITH THE CHURCH

INTENTION
That artists may do all they can to help the men and women of today to discover the signs of God's providential love in creation.
Elaboration

- END -

P R A Y I N G W I T H T H E C H U R C H

INTENTION :	That artists may do all they can to help the men and women of today to discover the signs of God's providential love in creation.
The artist who can sculpt the stones of our heart to bring out the features of Christ is the Holy Spirit. However, he requires our responsiveness and docility. Conversion of heart is a work of an art jointly produced by the Spirit and our freedom. Artists, accustomed to shaping the most diverse materials according to the inspiration of their genius, know well the daily effort required to improve their life that resembles artistic work. Through his artistic creativity the artist accomplishes the task of shaping the "material" of his own humanity and then having dominion over the universe. There is a remarkable similarity between the art of forming oneself and that which takes place in the transformation of matter. God lets himself be glimpsed through the fascination of beauty. Artists can perceive a ray of supreme beauty among the many manifestations of the beautiful. It is then that art becomes a way to God and it spurs the artists to combine their creative talent with their commitment to a life of ever greater conformity to the divine law. Living profoundly their Christian faith, artists are encouraged to give birth to new "epiphanies" of the divine beauty reflected in creation.
- END -