Newsletter #106
Dear Friends and Benefactors,
There is only one Saint in the Liturgical Calendar given the title “Penitent” – Saint Mary Magdalen. Her conversion story, along with an overview of the ‘planned-demic’ will be narrated in this mid-summer newsletter.
I. SAINT MARY MAGDALEN
The Church celebrates the Feast of Saint Mary Magdalen on July 22nd. In this attempt to give a picture of Mary Magdalen given by Msgr. John McMahon, it is understood that she is one person, not two or three, as has been suggested by modern Scripture scholars. Sacred Tradition through the years has identified three women as one, in the person of Mary Magdalen, and in the liturgy of the Latin Church it portrays this. The three who are assumed to be one and the same person are the sinner who anointed the feet of Christ in the house of Simon the Pharisee; the sister of Martha and Lazarus in Bethany; and finally, the person all the world knows as Mary Magdalen, who stood beneath the Cross of the dying Christ and was the first recorded witness of the Resurrection. For the singular grace of being the first to see the Risen Christ and to have been commanded by Him to announce His Resurrection to the disciples, the Church orders the Creed to be said on her Feast-day as in the Masses of the Apostles.
In this story of a public sinner becoming a saint, Our Blessed Lord shows Himself in a tender light and the beauty of His understanding and sympathetic character has never been seen in a more touching form than in His attitude towards this sinner.
This conversion contains a moral beauty, so winningly human yet so tenderly Divine, so utterly Christ-like in its pity and clemency that it not only proves the authenticity of the story itself, but even now, after two thousand years, it moves and melts our hearts.
WHO WAS MARY MAGDALEN?
At the southern end of the beautiful little plain of Genesareth was the small but fashionable town of Magdala. It was conveniently half-way between Capharnaum to the north and Tiberias to the south. From Capharnaum and its poor, hard-working fisher folk Magdala could obtain both provisions and domestic help. From Tiberias would come the leisured classes, Romans and Jews alike, who fancied a villa by the sea. Magdala was a gay town. The ordinary people of the country around and of the fishing villages did not give Magdala a good name.
Anyone coming on foot from Tiberias or south from Capharnaum had to pass through Magdala, for the only road clung to the side of the lake. It would, therefore, be a road well known to Christ, Who would often pass through this town of the rich and luxury class. As the Friend of sinners, it is likely enough that He often stopped there and was heard speaking by many.
Magdala enjoyed an air of religious broad-mindedness. Fashionable, luxurious, self-satisfied, and conscienceless, Magdala possessed what is called an open mind. It smiled at the crude fanaticism of the fishing villages and shrugged at the harsh intolerance of Jerusalem. Mary Magdalen, so called because she came from Magdala, was the daughter of one of the important Sadducean families, with a country house on the shores of the Sea of Galilee and a town residence at Bethany, near the gates of Jerusalem. Martha was her sister and Lazarus was her brother. Her family, fortunate and powerful, followed the fashions and tastes of the day and accepted the religious outlook of happy Magdala. Young Mary was brought up in Greek style. At the age of fourteen, already radiantly beautiful and completely developed, as women are in those lands, Mary lived like the spoiled daughter of a well-to-do family.
Saint Luke introduces Mary Magdalen to us as “a woman that was in the city, a sinner” (Luke 7:37), in the house of Simon the Pharisee. Later he mentions her again as one of the band of holy women who traveled about with Christ and His Apostles and ministered to their needs. Some of these had been cured by Christ of illnesses and others had been exorcized. Chief among the latter was Mary, “called Magdalen, out of whom seven devils were gone forth.” (Luke 8:2) People possessed by demons were not necessarily sinners, but there can hardly be a doubt that the Magdalen was a notorious sinner.
Saint Luke mentions “Joanna the wife of Chusa, Herod’s steward,” in the palace at Tiberias, not far from Magdala. He also names “Susanna and many others who ministered unto Him of their substance” (Luke 8:3). It is possible that these good women, the first Women’s Guild in the Church, may have spoken to Mary Magdalen of Jesus and brought her to hear Him speak, to witness His healing power, and to feel His sympathy with sinners and the afflicted. This would prepare her for her public act of reparation narrated by Saint Luke. (Luke 7:36-50).
THE DINNER OF SIMON THE PHARISEE
Saint Luke alone gives us the account of the dinner at the home of Simon the Pharisee. Saint Luke does not indicate the time or place. A Pharisee, named Simon, invited Jesus to a meal. A woman, known as a bad character, came into the room. She carried an alabaster box of ointment. She came behind Jesus Who was reclining on a couch, and began to bathe His feet with her tears and she wiped them by using her flowing hair as a towel. She kept kissing the sacred feet and she anointed them with the oil.
Simon looked on with horrified amazement, saying to himself that if Jesus really was a prophet, He would know that the woman was a public sinner. Jesus read the Pharisee’s thoughts and answered them kindly by speaking to Simon directly. Having invited Him to his home, Simon had shown scant respect, omitting all the courtesies given to a guest by eastern hospitality — water for the feet, the kiss of welcome, oil for the hair. Evidently, Simon thought that Jesus was unworthy of such a welcome. But the woman had made up for the bad manners of the host, by bathing His feet with tears and using her tresses as a towel; she had kissed and anointed His feet with an expensive, perfumed ointment. Evidently, she thought of her great debt for sin and she was confident that He would forgive that debt because of her great love. The Pharisee would not admit that he had committed grave sins and, because he had so little to be pardoned, loved Jesus but little, if at all. Then Jesus said to the woman, “Thy sins are forgiven thee.” Those at table began to ask themselves, “Who is this that even forgives sins?” Jesus finished His absolution with the words, “Go in peace.”
Those are the bare facts as narrated by Saint Luke. But we may in imagination fill in details that will bring the scene home to us.
Simon the Pharisee must have been a wealthy man, for the dinner was an elaborate one and the guests were the very important people of the town. Simon had heard many things about Jesus, all of them in His favor, and the latest news of His raising the widow’s son from death the other day at Naim, across the valley, convinced him that this Man was worth meeting, so let us have Him home to dinner. Of course, it must be remembered that He was only a carpenter from Nazareth, of all places. He was bound to be rough, uncouth in manners, and ill at ease in such high society. The invitation was sent, and Jesus accepted. Jesus was received politely by Simon, but he passed over the washing of the feet at the door, the formal embrace inside, and no oil was given for His hair. Of course, He was unaccustomed to these things and would not miss them. From the beginning, Jesus was put in His place by Simon and his guests. Jesus did not seem to notice the condescension. With the rest, He reclined in the place allotted to Him. He spoke when spoken to. The dinner was falling flat, and his friends were not having the interesting evening He promised them.
MARY’S DRAMATIC ENTRANCE
Suddenly, a strange thing happened. The dining hall was open on all sides and anyone could look in at the tables and guests. Suddenly, a woman stood on the verandah. She was modestly dressed, and her hair was long and flowing loose over her shoulders. Her face was beautiful yet strong and commanding. She was no ordinary woman. She was born to be great in either good or evil. She stood there unsmiling, scanning the guests, her eyes searching for someone.
She carried a little alabaster box, the well-known box of precious ointment.
As she stood there, the chatter was hushed. The guests nudged each other as if to ask, “Do you see what I see?” Lips were curled, eyebrows arched as they looked with scorn upon her for such an outrageous intrusion. She continued to search the faces until at length her eyes met those of Jesus. He did not repel her. Alone in that room He was calm, His glance was responsive, and spoke to her that He fully understood.
Instantly, she rushed across the room. Before a hand could restrain her, she was standing at the feet of Jesus, who was stretched out upon the couch. Then down upon her knees she went and, in a torrent, the tears began to flow. They fell on His feet and her eager hands seized them as she spread the water of her tears over them, washing away the dust that was there. As she stooped, her mass of hair fell forward. She wrapped His feet in it, wiped them with it, and kissed them. Then taking her alabaster box of ointment she crushed it between finger and thumb, and instantly the room was filled with the richest odor. She poured every drop of the ointment upon those precious feet; again, with caressing hands she spread it over them. Again, she kissed His feet, laid her head upon them, and let her flowing hair cover them like a veil.
All the time He reclined there and allowed it. He moved not a muscle, but let her have her way to the utmost. Quietly, He leaned against the cushion. He was grateful for this homage and His sympathy, pity, and love for this woman at His feet was felt by all.
No one could mistake who the woman was. She was known to every man present. In fact, some of them may have been her accomplices in sin.
Even in happy Magdala, she was notorious. Such a woman, the law declared, must be avoided, for it was a legal defilement to be touched by a notorious sinner. That she should intrude into this company was incredible. Further, that she should be received as Jesus received her was an insult to everyone present, and put this new prophet in a very unfavorable light. Were He what He professed to be, He would never allow this woman to touch Him. They had caught Him out at last. The guests had ample time for such thoughts as the scene before them was protracted and Jesus showed no sign of wishing it to end.
CHRIST TELLS A PARABLE
Jesus saw their thoughts clearly, but He deigned to help Simon, for Simon was not so prejudiced as the others. The anointing finished, Mary remained at His feet, content to remain there. She had not been rejected. She knew she was welcome and that was enough for her. Jesus had won the woman and, through this sinful woman, He might win Simon. He turned towards Simon and spoke with the voice of authority, yet His Words were gentle and winning.
“Simon, I have something to say to thee.” The rest of the company was ignored. Simon recognized the friendliness of His tone and words and, in like manner, replied, “Master, say it.” The guests grew silent, eager to hear His defense. Jesus knew that Simon was a wealthy man with the influence that money brings. Jesus spoke to this man in a language He would understand.
“A certain creditor had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence and the other fifty. And whereas they had not wherewith to pay, he forgave them both. Which therefore of the two loveth him most?”
A curious question surely to a business magnate, mixing up trade with love.
Simon was cautious in his reply. “I suppose that he to whom he forgave most.” Jesus took him up at once. “Thou hast judged rightly.”
Jesus had three things to do. First, He must show Simon how badly he failed as a host, yet He must do it with kindness. He must reinstate the sinner before Him, leaving no doubt in the minds of all that He knew what manner of woman she was. Third, He must defend His own sinless honor. How beautifully He did all three!
He pointed to the woman lying at His feet and invited the Pharisee to look upon her. “Dost thou see this woman? I entered into thy house: thou gavest Me no water for My feet. But she with tears hath washed My feet; and with her hairs hath wiped them. Thou gavest Me no kiss. But she, since she came in, hath not ceased to kiss My feet. My head with oil thou didst not anoint. But she with ointment hath anointed My feet.”
“Because she hath loved much.”
He paused to let the words sink in. Simon was rebuked, but not in anger, and the unfortunate woman at His feet was preferred before him. Simon admitted his error, took it well, and hung his head in acknowledgement. Jesus saw the sorrow in his heart and seized the opportunity to teach His lesson. The woman had made up for the neglect of the host, but she had done it because she loved Jesus. Sinner she had been but greater than her sin was her love. Because she loved more, she should be given more. She should receive the true reward of love, namely, to be forgiven all, she should be given love for love. Here is the truth that is at the root of Christianity, the personal love of Jesus Christ.
Again, He spoke, a little louder that everyone should hear Him. “Wherefore, I say to thee: Many sins are forgiven her, because she hath loved much. But to whom less is forgiven, He loveth less.”
He leaned forward to the woman lying at His feet. Hitherto not a word had He spoken to her, nor she to Him. Her actions were more expressive of her love than any words could be. Deeds, not words, prove the sincerity of love. He gave Himself to her as if she alone remained in the room. He spoke to her gently, almost in a whisper. But in the tense silence, His words carried throughout the room. In a few little words He lifted from her the whole of her weary burden.
“Thy sins are forgiven thee.”
The poor woman at His feet heard them and felt herself a new woman. She had not expected this. She had learned to love this Man and, now that she had shown it in public, she was content to go away and take her burden of sins with her. Slowly, she raised her head and looked up at Him, shaking the hanging hair from her eyes. His eyes were upon her — loving eyes, all- understanding eyes, all-assuring eyes, eyes whose forgiveness and forgetfulness could never be doubted. She saw it all written there. She saw more. This Man she had begun to love as never before was more than Man. He had forgiven her the sins of her life and her love for Him filled her with ecstasy. But He brought her back to life, as He wished to conclude the scene. With a confidence that their love would endure, He said, “Thy faith hath made thee safe. Go in peace.”
Instantly she rose from the ground. It was easy to go now. She walked through the room not seeing those present. Let them scorn her and draw aside their robes as she passed. Let them have their way; her heart was beyond it all. It had gone to Him, Who had made her His friend. The rest mattered nothing at all. The woman in the city, a sinner, was the happiest woman in the world.
MARY’S GREAT SPIRIT
It took a great soul, a heroic spirit, to do what Mary did that day in Simon’s house. It took courage to face Christ, knowing what she herself was. She knew Him to be God. She had heard and seen enough to convince her that He was no impostor but what He claimed to be, and she knew that He asserted His right to be acclaimed as the Messias and the Messias was God. Else, she would not have cared, or dared, to ask forgiveness of sin from Him. It did arouse the ire of the crowd that heard Christ speak her forgiveness that He should arrogate to Himself the pardoning power. Mary had no qualms about it at all. She took it for granted and why not? The Master that she saw at Naim raise the widow’s son to life could be no less than the God He claimed He was. So, to Him she must go and to Him she did go. But at what cost of self-conquest! She knew herself then and despised what she knew. She felt all the agony of self-reproach that the repentant sinner must always feel when he is driven to contrast his vileness with the perfect sanctity and holiness of the God he has offended. Mary felt all of that to the full. She loved now in a fashion that cast a revealing light on her former facile loves and showed her what they were in truth, as God saw them. She was horrified with herself and disgusted too, realizing that she was soiled and tainted mightily. So, her mind was made up and, as she walked towards Simon’s house, the thought that He might scorn her tormented her but failed to stop her walk. She answered Satan’s final argument by assuring herself that the Master could scarcely outdo in scorn what Mary already felt for herself. Then came a strange confidence that He would never spurn her.
Mary made her way to Christ and there, in the presence of all her little world, she made her great act of submission and humility. One thing and only one mattered — that she make public reparation for the sin she had done in public. She must show the world that Mary the sinner would be a sinner no more. She must show the world that Mary the penitent would not be the plaything of any man any longer but would be a repentant and humble follower of Our Savior Jesus Christ, Whose love for her was great and noble enough to pierce through the filth to find and rescue the real Mary Magdalen.
HER HEROIC COURAGE
This was just the beginning of her courage, however. It was just the first act of will that she would have to maintain during the rest of her life. It took great courage to face her own soul. It was all easy enough now when she was keyed up to her great profession of faith and gratitude in her repentance; that was once in the face of the world that knew her otherwise. But what about later during those long days and longer nights when she was alone with her conscience, alone with her memories? How they must have burned and seared; how those tears of repentance and regret must have scalded her!
As she looked into the past and saw her own soul as it had been, no measure of self-reproach would be too great. But she had only to recall, in that hour of direst need, the Sacred Face in which she had read pardon and tolerance and kindliness, and the sun shone again, and she knew that vile though she had been by her own action, she was worthy and fine once more through Christ’s. The past, lamentable as it had been, was forever past. Henceforth, she need only love — and that she did with all the intensity of her passionate soul. It solved all the problems, lent all the strength that was needed for those silent hours when Christ was not at hand to console and to reassure. It is no wonder she spent all possible minutes at His feet when He came to the home in Bethany. She had truly chosen the better part.
Another anxiety filled her heart. Would she compromise Christ before the public? After all, she knew her Jews. She knew, too, that no man dared accuse Christ of anything that involved His perfect purity of soul. Other things, yes, they presumed to charge Him with: He ate with sinners. He was a wine bibber, He stirred up rebellion, He refused to pay taxes, and a lot of other things they did say of Him, and some of the charges were believed. But lack of or failure in purity, well, that was just too absurd for even His enemies ever to attempt (or perhaps it was divine power that prevented them).
Yet, here He was, associating in friendship with a reformed courtesan. All well and good to pardon, certainly; that was what He came to do, to save sinners and reform them. But certainly, it was going to undreamed limits to make a friend of the erstwhile harlot, to frequent her home, to eat with her, to be beholden to her and her family for hospitality and service. What would the carping old world think of that, asked Mary’s reproachful heart? It was a painful consideration, but again, there was no room for doubt about the Master’s love for her, and that was the one thing that mattered. She loved and was loved in return and all the critics and the Pharisees could not change that one stupendous thing. Thus, far from her association with Him doing Him harm in the eyes of the people, it would but show them His great forbearance and tolerance in His forgiving the scarlet woman of the town.
THE SECOND ANOINTING BY MARY
Saint Augustine assures us that there were two anointings, one in the home of Simon the Pharisee and the other in the home of Simon the Leper, but there was only one woman, Mary Magdalen. Mary’s first anointing was a public act of repentance and sorrow, her second anointing was her parting act of love and gratitude before His death, which she felt was near at hand.
For this anointing Mary selected the best and richest spikenard, such as few possessed even in well-to-do Bethania. Its price was equal to a year’s wages for a laborer. It was made from a rare plant that grew in the Himalayas. It was kept in an alabaster box that it might not evaporate. To pour it out of the box, the box had to be broken.
Mary entered the banquet hall of Simon: she saw Jesus and ran towards Him as He reclined at table. She stood above Him, all eyes upon her. There was a deathly silence in the hall. Then came the sound of something breaking in her fingers, a little oil flowed out upon His hair, instantly the room was filled with a delicious aroma, one of the secrets of the East. Then, with the memory of that other banquet in her heart, she fell at His feet. That was her right place, and there she would stay. Tenderly, she grasped His feet and she anointed them, not with the tears of that day, but with the oil that still lingered in her hands, and lastly, as she had done then, now again, she loosened her hair and wrapped His feet in its folds.
The Gospel narrative says, “Mary therefore when He was at meat, took an alabaster box of precious ointment, a pound of right spikenard, of great price. And breaking the alabaster box, she poured it out upon His Head as He was at table and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the odor of the ointment.” Then one of His disciples, Judas Iscariot, he that was about to betray Him, enraged at such extravagance, protested and said, “Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence and given to the poor?”
The Evangelist significantly adds, “Now he said this, not because he cared for the poor but because he was a thief and having the purse carried the things that were put therein.”
Jesus, knowing well what Judas would do within a few days, dealt very gently with him, saying, “Let her alone. Why do you trouble this woman? For she hath wrought a good work upon me. For the poor you have always with you and, whensoever you will, you may do them good. But Me you have not always. She hath done what she could. For in pouring this ointment upon My Body she is come beforehand to anoint My Body for the burial.”
HER ACT OF LOVE AND GRATITUDE
Jesus concluded with this loving tribute to gratitude. “Amen, I say to you. Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, that also which she hath done shall be told for a memorial of her.”
Jesus was gentle with Judas. He would not blame him though He knew what another short week would reveal. What Mary had done, extravagant as it may seem to all present, she had done because she loved Him. Mary put no limits to her gifts. The Apostles may not have understood then, but one day they would, and then they would vie with one another in preserving her name and what she had done that day. Of all the men and women who came into His life, NONE should be better known to posterity, NONE should be more cherished, than MARY MAGDALEN!
THE TWO MARYS
Mary, the sinless Mother of God, followed the example of Her Divine Son by openly accepting Mary of Magdala as a sister. That Mary, His spotless Mother, should have opened her arms and her heart to the other Mary who had been so far from spotless made the Magdalen all the more grateful for Christ’s pardon. What a scene imagination can paint when first the Virgin Mother welcomed Mary Magdalen to her own company and that of her Divine Son! But the Mother of Christ did more than just deign to receive the reformed harlot. She made a companion and intimate of her, called her friend and sister, and loved her as such, just as Christ did. That association must have been humbling for Magdalen as she contrasted her past with that of the Great Mother of them all. It did not disturb her, however, but only made her love Him more.
There was room in the Sacred Heart for both Marys — the spotless and the reclaimed. Humbly grateful Mary Magdalen loved all the more.
The two Marys were together on Mount Calvary as on many another days. Their love of Him brought them to the place of crucifixion. There was no fear of any sort great enough to keep Mary Magdalen from the foot of the Cross that day. The One she loved, the only One she loved then, was dying; where else should one look for a lover like Mary Magdalen than just as close to the Cross as she could manage to get? Her passionate and emotional nature had not changed since she had given all her soul to Christ. It was passionate and emotional still; and so, there were storms of grief and passionate sorrow as she felt her heart turn to stone within her at the loss of her love.
Mary the Virgin, with her deeper and nobler soul, suffered even more but she suffered in silence the agony that won for her the title of Queen of Martyrs. The Magdalen could show her grief, and did not care about the howling, mocking, spitting mob that milled about the Cross as she clung to it in the agony of her grief! They meant less than nothing; death would have been a welcome relief; she longed to die with Christ, just as His Mother did, and was equally denied that relief.
“MARY!” … “RABBONI!”
Early on Easter morn, Mary and the other women came to anoint the Body. Upon finding the tomb empty, they returned to tell the Apostles. Saint Peter and Saint John came and went but Mary returned alone, unable to stay away from the tomb. There she stayed weeping her heart out at His loss. Someone approached her Whom she knew not, but took for the gardener. She made her pathetic plea to be shown where they had put the Body, and then Jesus, surely with a smile, said to her just one word, “Mary.” Something there was in the tone of that voice, or the look that accompanied it, that spoke to the inmost heart of the loving woman and she knew her Lord instantly. Impetuous and impulsive as always, she rushed to Him, only to hear Him speak, “Do not touch Me, for I am not yet ascended to My Father.” – as if to say “Do not keep clinging to Me for I am not going to run away.” It is with a loving smile that He restrains her, as He bade her to carry the news of His Resurrection to the Apostles in the city. What more He said to her was now treasured triumphantly in her heart of hearts, triumphant now though it had been down in the depths of grief a minute before.
“Mary!” “Rabboni!” The two salutations spoke volumes and, out of the interview, Mary garnered faith and trust and confidence to last her the rest of her years, the years she was to survive the Ascension, years she was to spend with her memories and her love, as she did penance for her sinful past, all now cancelled for the one supreme reason that she had loved much. She loved and, loving truly, loved on to the end, always the same impetuous, passionate, loving woman who once had been a harlot, but who had come to love not men, not even a man, but God Himself, and in that love found healing and salvation.
HER RICH REWARDS
How richly the Lord rewarded Mary Magdalen even in this life! Her public act of reparation in the house of Simon, her sincere repentance, and her great love won for her the companionship and friendship of Christ. Her home at Bethany became His home. Because of her, He raises Lazarus from the dead. She sits at His feet, her heart filled with love and gratitude, and He will not heed Martha’s complaint that she is idle. No, she has chosen the better part.
Mary, the spotless, opens her Immaculate Heart to Mary Magdalen and cherishes her as one of her closest friends. It is at Mary’s invitation that Mary Magdalen accompanies her to Calvary and remains with her to the bitter end. Returning from Calvary, Mary goes to Bethany to be with His dearest friends. The first recorded appearance of Christ after the Resurrection is to Mary Magdalen. He calls her by name and commands her to announce His Resurrection to the Apostles.
During the years that she lived after the Ascension, Mary Magdalen kept herself in the Presence of Jesus, Who filled her thoughts and gave her an inner peace of soul and joy in living that was better and more satisfying than her passing joys as a sinner.
HER LAST DAYS IN FRANCE
Mary Magdalen and her family were especially hated by the Pharisees because their home always had an open door for Christ and His disciples. After the miracle of Lazarus, their lives were in danger but were saved because of the family position and influence among the top Jewish aristocracy. We also get an impression of extreme prudence and reserve in discussions surrounding this family that was so dear to Jesus. The Evangelists Saint Matthew, Saint Mark, and Saint Luke scarcely mention it and are careful not to identify it. They allude to it as one might talk about people, who, under a totalitarian regime, are exposed to immediate reprisals. Saint John, who wrote after the fall of Jerusalem, does not seem at all bound by the same prudence. In his account of the banquet in the home of Simon the Leper at Bethania, Saint John mentions Mary Magdalen by name and also mentions Lazarus as one of the guests.
One day, sometime after the Ascension, the Jews laid hands upon the whole family in Bethania, loaded them on a ship without sail or rudder, and launched the ship at the mercy of wind and waves. The hand of God brought this ship to the shore of Provence, in Gaul. Lazarus founded the Church of Marseilles; Maximin, his brother, founded the church at Aix; Martha lived on the shores of the River Rhone; and Mary Magdalen’s life ended in the solitude of La Sainte Baume.
Mary Magdalen spent her days in a cavern on the side of the mountain. There, she hung a Cross, praying fervently for all sinners, feeding her soul on the memory of her Lord Whose feet she never left — still faithful and constant in penitent love.
There is a tradition that the angels who were her dear companions carried her to the summit of the mountain seven times a day to pray. On the last day of her earthly life, she went down towards the plain. Maximin came to meet her and gave her Christ’s Body in the Eucharist. She was released from the prison of the body and admitted at last to embrace His feet in everlasting glory. Her body awaits its glorious resurrection in the crypt of the church that today bears the name of Saint Maximin.
THE STATIONS OF THE CROSS
Let us invite Mary Magdalen to make the Stations of the Cross with us, helping us to see all that happened through her eyes. We shall learn from her on the Way of the Cross two great lessons — how He hates sin and how He loves the repentant sinner. The Way of the Cross is the price of sin.
If sin costs so much, surely it is the greatest evil man can commit. What must have been Mary Magdalen’s thoughts as the soldiers dragged the cloak, stuck to His Wounds, off His Body! That, with the scourging, is the terrible payment for the sins of the flesh. What an embarrassment it must have been to Mary Magdalen to see the Son of God exposed to that mocking rabble! The nails that pierced His feet and hands must have brought home to Mary how her own feet had walked in sin and her hands had been so polluted with lust. On Calvary, she knelt at His feet pouring forth her tears of love and sorrow. She saw His broken Body laid in His Mother’s lap, emptied of Blood. It lay there desecrated, mauled, cut and torn — the pale victim of sin. No wonder her eyes are streaming when she remembers her sins.
Then, the width and depth and height of His love comes to her. If He had not loved so much, He could not have suffered so much. She recalls His own words, “Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
Let us ask Saint Mary Magdalen to share her love with us, and to convince us that love is the best reparation for sin. “Many sins are forgiven her because she hath loved much.”
Let us also remember – NOT to brag to others about our own past sins when talking to others about our past life!
II. THE FAKE PANDEMIC
If anyone is still confused about what has been happening since the announcement of the Corona-virus a few years ago, then examine this recent analysis made by Kelleigh Nelson concerning this man-made pandemic – highlighting the main points of Vera Sharav’s “Never Again is Now Global”.
NOTABLE QUOTES
- Humans are now hackable animals. You know, the whole idea that humans have this soul or spirit and they have free will. So, whatever I choose, whether in the election, or whether in the supermarket, this is my free will. That’s over – free will. Unfortunately, ‘free will’ isn’t a scientific reality. It is a myth inherited from Christian theology. – (Yuval Noah Harari)
- There will be, in the next generation or so, a pharmacological method of making people love their servitude, and producing dictatorship without tears, so to speak, producing a kind of painless concentration camp for entire societies, so that people will in fact have their liberties taken away from them, but will rather enjoy it because they will be distracted from any desire to rebel by propaganda or brainwashing, or brainwashing enhanced by pharmacological methods. And this seems to be the final revolution. – (Aldous Huxley, Tavistock Group, California Medical School, 1961)
- The elderly are useless eaters. – (Henry Kissinger, quoted in the book, ‘The Final Days’)
WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM
Klaus Schwab’s World Economic Forum (WEF) is picking up where Hitler left off. Schwab was directly involved with the new worldwide Holocaust called Sars-CoV-2 and the bioweapon shots killing multiple millions around the globe.
New leadership for the world is planned via the WEF. It is leadership Klaus has trained to do his bidding who are systematically placed all over the world in every developed country, including the United States. Schwab’s Hitlerian puppets are virtually in all political offices around the planet, and they have infiltrated the media, businesses, corporations, finance, health, everything.
There will be nowhere to hide in this coming global antichrist kingdom, with a cashless society of digital currency and surveillance by the World Health Organization.
But the Lord tells us in Proverbs 1:33, “But he that shall hear me, shall rest without terror, and shall enjoy abundance, without fear of evils.”
THE SERPENT
In Part 3 of “Never Again is Now Global”, by Vera Sharav, Dr. Zev Zelenko stated, “As you know, I have been thrust into the front of confronting the essence of evil. If you total up all these degenerates, they will approximate what that serpent is; Bill Gates, Anthony Fauci, Klaus Schwab, Yuval Harari, Albert Bourla, Rochelle Walenski, Sir Evelyn Rothschild, David René de Rothschild, Queen Elizabeth, and King Charles. It is a concept, not a particular person, and I want to decapitate that concept.”
He continued, “During Hitler’s reign of terror, the Ukrainians taught the Nazis how to kill the Russian Jews. That is a very important point. So now when I hear all this war with Ukraine and Russia, everyone’s pro-Ukraine and they have the Azov Battalion (Nazis) and they’re literally castrating the Russian soldiers. This is a population that at the drop of a hat would jump at an opportunity to do this again. I have no doubt. I was there, I saw the hatred in their eyes.”
WORLDWIDE AGENCIES
Global uniform agencies like the World Health Organization, the United Nations, the World Economic Forum, the Bilderbergers, the Council on Foreign Relations, etc., these oligarchs manage to include heads of state and wealthy men like Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Fauci and others. Behind these groups are others who are hidden behind the curtain. These are the people we are fighting and all of them are unelected. They are absolutely intent on demolishing freedom and liberty in any form.
“Like Nazis,” said Vera Sharav, “the mindset is guided by eugenics which is an elitist hierarchical ideology that divides humanity into segments, inferior and superior. The truth is eugenics has continued to affect many societies including so-called democracies. There are individuals who hold this kind of ideology, just like a religion. They regard some human beings as inferior and therefore, expendable. They establish policies that do just that. The elite children do not participate.
“Just as it is not unique to Germany, in fact, eugenics was first promoted by the British (Sir Francis Galton 1892-1911). It was really given a push by the Robber Barons in the United States. Germany imported the eugenics agenda and the how-to, the practical way from the United States (Kaiser Wilhelm Institute). It is an extraordinary evil ideology.
“It looks at human beings as flies, as specks, and at this point they want to transform the human species into transhumanists (partly robot and technology and partly blood and sweat). But really…something they can totally control. Biotechnology and surveillance technology, when the two get together, that’s lethal. That leads to genocide.”
EARLY EUGENICS
In 1927, the Rockefeller Foundation provided funds to construct the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics in Berlin, which came under the directorship of the appropriately named Eugen Fischer. Adolf Hitler read Fischer’s textbook Principles of Human Heredity and Race Hygiene while in prison at Landsberg and used eugenical notions to support the ideal of a pure “Aryan” society in his manifesto, (My Struggle) ‘Mein Kampf’.
DR. FAUCI AND GoF
Mrs. Sharav states, “Millions upon millions of dollars were delegated, by Dr. Anthony Fauci, to laboratories who were doing illegal biowarfare research under the euphemism, ‘Gain of Function Research,’ which is biowarfare research. It is illegal by international law, but it is not being abided by.”
Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) rejected the proposal because the work was too close to violating the gain-of-function (GoF) moratorium, despite what Peter Daszak says in the proposal (that the work would not). As is known, Dr. Fauci with NIAID did not reject the proposal. The work took place at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) and at several sites in the US, identified in detail in the proposal.
Vera said, “The evidence from the Wuhan Lab in China is totally sufficient to show that it emanated there within the context of GoF Research. It was in the planning stage for a long time, and then it happened. The two go together. “
THE COVER-UP
Major Joseph Murphy, USMC wrote for DARPA the following:
“A technological challenge as difficult as inoculating bats in China would be tried at DARPA first. The massive, “Manhattan Project” – level of information suppression executed by the government and the Trusted News Initiative indicates that it would be covered-up if something bad happened. The lab-leak hypothesis and squabbling between Senator Paul and Dr. Fauci indicated that the cover up was more localized. Further, an actual cover-up would be more disciplined with its paperwork. I presumed that unclassified files would be concealed on a higher network and found them where I expected them to be. I understood what they were and their content, pushed the files off-site and compiled this report.
“Sars-CoV-2 is an American-created recombinant bat vaccine, or its precursor virus. It was created by an EcoHealth Alliance program at the WIV. (EcoHealth Alliance is an American company headed by Dr. Peter Daszak.) The details of this program have been concealed since the pandemic began. They can be found in the EcoHealth Alliance proposal to the DARPA PREEMPT program Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) HR00118S0017, dated March 2018, a document not yet publicly disclosed.”
KNOWN CURES WERE NOT REVEALED TO THE PUBLIC - Ivermectin (identified as curative in April 2020) works throughout all phases of illness because it both inhibits viral replication and modulates the immune response.
- Of note, chloroquine phosphate (Hydroxychloroquine, identified April 2020 as curative) is identified in the proposal as a SARSr-CoV inhibitor, as is interferon (identified May 2020 as curative).
Those cures were kept from every American.
BILL GATES
Vera Sharav mentioned the tax-exempt foundations starting with Bill Gates, originally the head of Microsoft, who became a “philanthropist.” His Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is tax-exempt as is the CDC, NIH, United Nations, the World Health Organization, the Rockefeller Foundation. Bill Gates is an absolute eugenicist, his father was as well; he was on the board of Planned Parenthood.
In 2020 Bill Gates said, “Seven billion people need to be vaccinated.” Dr. Zelenko asks the rhetorical question, “Why would I take a vaccine for my health from someone who is financing and advocating the reduction of the world population.
SCHWAB
In 2016, Klaus Schwab said something incredibly strange. He said that within ten years, like 2026, every human being will be tagged with a digital identifier. First of all, why? Second, how do you get seven billion people to do anything willingly?
Answer: Isolation and repetition of stimuli. Totalitarians have followed this rule. They know they can condition their political victims if they keep them in isolation.
DR. VLADIMIR (ZEV) ZELENKO (1973-2022)
Dr. Zelenko believes he could take someone to a morgue and rub their faces on young people who have died from taking this vaccine, and they will still not come to a reasonable conclusion.
He explains that there was academic malfeasance, media complicity – politicians then took all this false narrative and propaganda and issued policies of absolute totalitarian tyranny, and then industry was there to pass. Who has the muscle, the power, the influence in all those different sectors to be able to coordinate them in a way to pull this off? Note well that there is a common denominator if people look carefully enough.
BLACKROCK AND VANGUARD
They will find out that 70% of corporate wealth is managed by two companies, BlackRock and Vanguard. They are a monopoly because they invest in each other. Let us simplify. They own Pepsi, they own Coke. They own CNN, they own Fox. Through endowments they own media and academia and they are the industry. Let us challenge the people to break the veil of the BlackRock/Vanguard monopoly and you will get closer to the real conspirators.
NAZIS AGAIN
The Nazis claimed their class of German Aryans were the superhumans and Jews, Slavs, Gypsies, handicapped people, etc. were the subhuman and were meant to be vaporized. It did not work out as the Nazis desired, but the concept did not go away, it just went dormant for a few decades and now it is resurfaced. Dr. Zelenko does not call this anti-Semitic, but rather he calls it demonic, it is the distillation product of evil. He said the New World Order is not some evolution in humanity, it is a devolution back to paganism and idolatry and child sacrifice. “There’s nothing new here, they just use a new branding method. They’re returning to the paganism of yesteryear. “
He said it is just resurfaced now with these degenerates who have revealed themselves and are ready to pounce. Klaus Schwab’s top advisor, Yuval Noah Harari is called “the prophet” by Schwab, Gates, Zuckerberg, and Obama, who praised him as his favorite author in an interview on CNN. Harari has the ears of the most powerful people on the planet. Harari says, “Humans are hackable animals and if you can hack an animal, you can engineer it with intelligent design.” But not some divine intelligent design, but by human intelligent design; we are now gods.
Zelenko tells us, “Harari states that there is no such thing as “free will,” there is no such thing as a soul, and COVID 19 marks a point in history when digital 24/7 surveillance went under the skin. This is their stated agenda.
“The essence of evil is something very interesting. It does not hide its intentions. It says it outright. People just do not listen.”
YUVAL NOAH HARARI
Harari gave a speech at Davos in 2020 entitled, How to Survive the 21st Century. Here is part of what he said:
“When everybody has to wear a biometric bracelet which constantly monitors your blood pressure, your heart rate, your brain activity twenty-four hours a day, you listen to a speech on the radio by the great leader, and they know what you actually feel. You can clap your hands and smile, but if you’re angry, they know you’ll be in the gulag tomorrow morning.
“And what will happen to politics in your country when somebody in San Francisco or Beijing knows the entire medical and personal history of every politician, every judge and every journalist in your country, including all their sexual escapades, all their mental weaknesses, and all their corrupt dealings? Will it still be an independent country or will it become a data colony? When you have enough data, you don’t need to send soldiers in order to control a country.
“Many tyrants and governments wanted to do it, but nobody understood biology well enough, and nobody had enough computer powering data to hack millions of people. Neither the Gestapo nor the KGB could, but soon at least some corporations and governments will be able to systematically hack all the people. We are no longer mysterious souls. We are now hackable animals; that’s what we are. If this power falls into the hands of a 21st Century Stalin, the result will be the worst totalitarian regime in human history, and we’ve already had a number of applicants for the job. Global problems demand global solutions. Good nationalists must also be good globalists.”
THE NEW FASCISM
Dr. Zelenko ends Part 3 of “Never Again is Now Global” by telling us about the real tyranny we are facing.
“I have a 20-year patent trail and a 20-year peer review paper trail starting from 1998 to present day about how COVID-19 is a manmade destruction. There is one name associated with every stage of development and that is Ralph Baric from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He was funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in his research.
“In 1998-1999, he perfected a technology called cross-species transmissibility. In other words, taking the virus of one species, manipulating it and having it be able to infect another species. There are peer review papers on that. In 2002, he was able to take a coronavirus and change its payload to destroy human lung tissue and there’s a patent associated. But they did not manipulate a coronavirus infecting human beings yet, which they could have. They did two parts of the bomb, but they didn’t complete the bomb. You have to ask yourselves why. In 2015, Dr. Ralph Baric and Dr. Shi Zhengli in Wuhan, by then, GoF research, which is a cynical term, which means to take a benign virus and convert it into weapons of mass murder, that is what GoF research is, was outlawed in America so they got it outsourced to China and funded by the NIH.
“In 2015, Dr. Ralph Baric and Zhengli published a paper that explained that they were able to take a bat coronavirus and make it infectious to human beings. The bomb was completed. The question is why now. Something happened in between.
In March 2020, Dr. Zelenko used a paper written in 2010 by Dr. Roger Seheult on zinc ionophores being used to stop RNA viruses. He used this paper to build the foundation for his coronavirus treatment protocol. What Dr. Zelenko did not know was that the original paper was written by Dr. Ralph Baric that zinc ionophores can stop the replication of these viruses in cell culture.
These drugs promoted by Dr. Zelenko and others were attacked and marginalized to vilify their use and to lessen the chances of survival from this man-made virus.
NEW FASCISM
Klaus Schwab has dedicated his life to this new Hitlerian agenda for the world. His own words confirm his technocratic fascist vision is also a twisted transhumanist one which will merge humans with machines in “curious mixes of digital and analog life” which will infect our bodies with “Smart Dust” with which the police will apparently be able to read our brains. - Already, an Airforce AI drone went rogue and killed its human operator.
- Obama urges Biden to declare a national emergency and use its powers to eradicate all independent media online ahead of the 2024 election. He wants full-blown government censorship.
- Ireland to slaughter 200,000 cows for Climate Change lies.
This new fascism is being advanced as global governance, biosecurity, the New Normal, the New Deal for Nature, and the Fourth Industrial Revolution by Schwab and his demonic minions. It is a worldwide Holocaust and Schwab is “the spider on the giant web.”
SOLUTION
Only the Blessed Virgin Mary can stop this evil with the Triumph of her Immaculate Heart, since at Fatima, God has revealed to us that He wants Our Lady to save the world. Let us persevere in our genuine devotion to her Immaculate Heart and in praying at least 5 decades of the Holy Rosary every day.
AVE MARIA!
Father Joseph Poisson
Featured Sermon
Given By His Excellency Bishop Pfeiffer
Consecration of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel to Immaculate Heart of Mary
http://ourladyofmountcarmelusa.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Consecration-to-Immaculate-Heart-by-Our-Lady-of-Mt.-Carmel-SSPX-Marian-Corps.pdf