Word in the Hand

Magdalen Lament I am sick. Not the sick of an excited, shrieking, palm filled road Not the sick of what happens next? Not the sick of too much food, too much wine. Not the sick of too little sleep. This is the sick I felt lost in the market-place This is the sick I felt sold into slavery This is the sick I felt at a child born dead This is the sick I felt when the demons laughed and the men spat at me This is the sick of fear drenched, screaming desolation. He is gone. The one who knew me, The one who saved me, The one who loved me. Oily clouds draw a veil over the night sky Moon and stars refuse to look upon those That condemned the Brightest One. His light no longer in this world. Eclipsed by the blackness of men’s hearts, The blindness of their eyes, The shadows of their ambition. He is gone. But I have a star, Fallen from his mouth. A promise to return. I fear I misheard, A demon awakened at his going Taunts me with my loss. For where are the others? I have a star, And by its li...

She awoke from a curse of sleep; uncertain that she was truly awake or  dreaming of a 'might have been' the demons had denied her. Keeping her eyes closed she waited for the shudder of reality and the shrill laughter that meant she was still forsaken. The world remained but still she did not open her eyes - she had become used to the dark - casting her senses out she felt the warmth of the evening sun weighing down the air in the room; a stillness that suggested a closed door, a curtained window. Voices in the next room; friendly voices sounding back and forth. The tinny clatter of bells and the grumbling of chickens signalled that she was near the back of the house - a storeroom or a workshop perhaps?  She opened her eyes. The curtain she had rightly imagined,  did not completely shut out the light; feather scraps and dust motes danced in the gentle rays of a setting sun. The light was good enough to see that she was, indeed, in a storeroom of sorts - ...

The calling of Mary Magdalen ‘Mary’ I know that sound A stranger’s name Do you not see? Goodness gone Devoured Nameless ‘Go now’ Speaking – not to me. Eyes flash Claws bury into flesh Adamant A surge of rage And then, Gone. ‘Will you come?’ Foolish question. The light is not for me Dark space Unknowing, unknown A leper’s curse upon it I know my place. ‘I have called you’ A silhouette stands Against my soul’s daybreak Shadows scoured by sunlight ‘Did you not hear me, Mary? I have called you by your name You are mine.’ The 'Why' of Mary Magdalen She awoke from a curse of sleep; uncertain that she was truly awake or  dreaming of a 'might have been' the demons had denied her. Keeping her eyes closed she waited for the shudder of reality and the shrill laughter that meant she was still forsaken. The world remained but still she did not open her eyes - she had become used to the dark - casting her...

The Feast of Mary Magdalen Gospel Matthew 13:18-23  Jesus said to his disciples, ‘You are to hear the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom without understanding, the evil one comes and carries off what was sown in his heart: this is the man who received the seed on the edge of the path. The one who received it on patches of rock is the man who hears the word and welcomes it at once with joy. But he has no root in him, he does not last; let some trial come, or some persecution on account of the word, and he falls away at once. The one who received the seed in thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this world and the lure of riches choke the word and so he produces nothing. And the one who received the seed in rich soil is the man who hears the word and understands it; he is the one who yields a harvest and produces now a hundredfold, now sixty, now thirty.’ Matthew expects Jesus' explanation to make everything plain...and simple....

Gospel John 20:11-18  Mary stayed outside near the tomb, weeping. Then, still weeping, she stooped to look inside, and saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had been, one at the head, the other at the feet. They said, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’ ‘They have taken my Lord away’ she replied ‘and I don’t know where they have put him.’ As she said this she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, though she did not recognise him. Jesus said, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?’ Supposing him to be the gardener, she said, ‘Sir, if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and remove him.’ Jesus said, ‘Mary!’ She knew him then and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabbuni!’ – which means Master. Jesus said to her, ‘Do not cling to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go and find the brothers, and tell them: I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ So Mary of Magdala w...

Once there was only one feast day for Mary – New Years Day- The Day for Peace in acknowledgement of the arrival of the Prince of Peace. In the Roman Catholic Church today, Mary the Mother of God has 19 Feast Days, the month of May, October dedicated to the Rosary and all the Saturdays in the year for Marian devotion. No wonder that Catholics are considered as much Marian as they are Christian. What is it about Mary?   The Assumption is one of Mary’s great feasts and celebrates the love and continuing faith of the family that she was asked to care for. Because, despite the glorious imagination of the Renaissance artists there were no eyewitnesses to the Assumption; no sightings of angels, no rolling clouds of white or trumpets of gold - there was no proof. It is the apostolic tradition that tells us what happened; in fact we have the tardy and still doubtful Thomas to thank. Tradition tells that the Holy Spirit had gathered the apostles together for Mary’s burial but th...

Magdalen Lament I am sick. Not the sick of an excited, shrieking, palm filled road Not the sick of what happens next? Not the sick of too much food, too much wine. Not the sick of too little sleep. This is the sick I felt lost in the market-place This is the sick I felt sold into slavery This is the sick I felt at a child born dead This is the sick I felt when the demons laughed and the men spat at me This is the sick of fear drenched, screaming desolation. He is gone. The one who knew me, The one who saved me, The one who loved me. Oily clouds draw a veil over the night sky Moon and stars refuse to look upon those That condemned the Brightest One. His light no longer in this world. Eclipsed by the blackness of men’s hearts, The blindness of their eyes, The shadows of their ambition. He is gone. But I have a star, Fallen from his mouth. A promise to return. I fear I misheard, A demon awakened at his going Taunts me with my loss. For where are the others? I have a star, And by its light...

Here I am Lord, Listening Speak to me within my heart and soul. I am listening. John 20:14 Who are you looking for? Reflection How strange to be the only one here who mourns. Is it so easy to forget? Is our own safety so much more important? Those that said they would die with him – hiding behind shutters in darkened rooms. No matter, the whole world is dark to me now and I sit with just words of hope. The guards have left for their beds; they have had no need of their swords. But see; the stone rolled away. Will they have taken him? Will there be further humiliation to prove that we cannot stand against the Roman Empire? But where, where has he gone? A shadow crosses my eye line; perhaps one of the others, perhaps a gardener. Perhaps not a gentleman – to ask so starkly ‘Who are you looking for?’ But he may be my only hope, so I reply and then - he speaks my name. Master, Rabbi, Lord, friend, my life, my heart – it is him – how could I not have seen, not recognised? But not him – or r...

Gospel John 3:1-8 There was one of the Pharisees called Nicodemus, a leading Jew, who came to Jesus by night and said, ‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who comes from God; for no one could perform the signs that you do unless God were with him.’ Jesus answered: ‘I tell you most solemnly, unless a man is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ Nicodemus said, ‘How can a grown man be born? Can he go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?’ Jesus replied: ‘I tell you most solemnly, unless a man is born through water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God: what is born of the flesh is flesh; what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be surprised when I say: You must be born from above. The wind blows wherever it pleases; you hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. That is how it is with all who are born of the Spirit.’ And here is a Before the Resurrection, Resurrection story. The Lord telling us what happens w...