THIS IS OFFERED AS A MEANS OF MAKING A SPIRITUAL STOCK-TAKE.
I HAVE SEEN "A Meditation for Mary Magdalene".
Mary was a devoted and radical follower of Jesus, healed from “seven demons”, according to Luke, and present at the burial of Jesus.
Mary was the first witness to the Resurrection, and the first person to preach the good news of Christ.
Here, I have speculated about the demons that may have haunted Mary
in the days before she met Jesus.
We’re all haunted by memory, experience, pain: we all carry and battle with our own demons.
I explore them here as constituent parts of who we are: the things we’ve heard, felt, loved, hated, feared, dismissed and clung to.
No judgement is intended, life is not black and white, and we are made up of a spectrum of experience, feelings and actions. As we grow in faith, we move beyond the superficiality of these to experience them more deeply and more wholly.
In doing so, perhaps we are liberated from our own demons.
Use this piece as a quiet pause, a deep breath,
a moment for your soul to listen and speak.
Think back and notice:
what memories what experiences what feelings have you bundled up and used to plug the empty spaces in your soul?
What have you heard About yourself? From whom? Did you believe it? (And should you believe it?)
What have you felt? And who made you feel it? And did it feel good? Or not?
What have you loved? And did you love as only you could? And was it deserving of your love?
What have you hated? Despised? Rejected? Could you instead embrace it as gift?
What have you feared? And what survival instinct Triggered your fear? In the bright light of day Is it really such a threat?
What have you dismissed? Written off before you gave it a chance? Is there still room for it in your future?
What have you clung to? What has carried you to this place, to this moment? And what will see you ahead,
and home?
Hold these things close and then see beyond them.
And perhaps, within the smiles, the agony, the undeserved gifts and the unresolved moments you might glimpse enough for just a second to say, with Mary Magdalene, “I have seen the Lord”.
From "Out of the Chancel" – The Blog of Jenny Bridgman
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