FEAST OF MARY MAGDALENE

Noli Me Tangere (1524), by Hans Holbein the Younger

Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene

But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him." When she had said this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? For whom are you looking?" Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away." Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rabbouni!" (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, "Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'”

John 20:11-17

Why did Jesus tell Mary not to touch him? In my search for an answer, I found this article in The Smithsonian Magazine, titled "Who Was Mary Magdalene?" by James Carroll, who writes a regular column in The Boston Globe.

The multiplicity of the Marys by itself was enough to mix things up—as were the various accounts of anointing, which in one place is the act of a loose-haired prostitute, in another of a modest stranger preparing Jesus for the tomb, and in yet another of a beloved friend named Mary. Women who weep, albeit in a range of circumstances, emerged as a motif. As with every narrative, erotic details loomed large, especially because Jesus’ attitude toward women with sexual histories was one of the things that set him apart from other teachers of the time. Not only was Jesus remembered as treating women with respect, as equals in his circle; not only did he refuse to reduce them to their sexuality; Jesus was expressly portrayed as a man who loved women, and whom women loved.

The climax of that theme takes place in the garden of the tomb, with that one word of address, “Mary!” It was enough to make her recognize him, and her response is clear from what he says then: “Do not cling to me.” Whatever it was before, bodily expression between Jesus and Mary of Magdala must be different now.

After his Resurrection, Jesus has a body. He is the same Jesus, but, at the same time, he is different, and his physical relationship with his disciples had to be different.

Carroll's entire piece is worth reading as a counter-story to the nonsense floating around about Mary Magdalene.

Reposted from Easter of 2007 late on the Magdalen's feast day.

NADA TE TURBE

Nada Te Turbe

Nada te turbe
Nada te espante
Quien a Dios tiene nada le falta
Solo Dios basta
Todo se pasa
Dios no se muda
La paciencia todo lo alcanza

Let nothing disturb you,
nothing afright you.
Whom God possesses
in nothing is wanting.
Alone God suffices.
All things are passing.
God never ceases.
Patient endurance attains all things.

Spanish lyrics from Margaret and English lyrics from Paul the BB.

Reposted from two years ago, because it's so beautiful.

TROPICAL STORM BONNIE - NOT PRETTY PICTURES

From 5 or 6 days out, it's not possible to predict the path, the intensity, nor the size of a tropical storm or hurricane, but the maps give me the heebie-jeebies. Upon landfall Bonnie will be barely a hurricane of the predictions are correct. But there's the oil. Drilling on the relief well, the only permanent solution to the oil well gusher, has rightly been suspended because of concern about the weather. There are worst-case scenarios and best-case scenarios, but I do not see a good outcome. But perhaps I have a pinched imagination.

Click on the maps for the larger view.



Tracking


5 day forecast


Computer models


Ensemble models

The maps are from Weather Underground, my favorite source for tropical weather watches.

PLEASE PRAY FOR KIRSTIN AND FRAN

Our friends Kirstin and Fran need our prayers. I don't have time to give details, because I'm hurrying off to New Orleans to take my grandchildren to spend the night with their aunt and cousins, but I wanted to post a quick reminder about the needs of our friends. The details are at their blogs.

GOLF PARTNERS

Sam is 90 years old. He's played golf every day since his retirement 35 years ago. But one day he arrives home looking downcast. "That's it," he tells his wife, "I'm giving up golf. My eyesight has become so bad that once I hit the ball I can't see where it went."

His wife sympathizes and makes him a nice cup of tea. As they sit down she says, "Why don't you take your old pal Steve, and give it one more try?"

"That's no good" sighs Sam, "Steve's a hundred and three. He can't help."

"He may be a hundred and three", says Sam's wife, "but his eyesight is perfect."

So the next day Sam heads off to the golf course with Steve. He tees up, takes a mighty swing, and squints down the fairway.

He turns to Steve and says, "Did you see the ball?"

"Of course I did!" replied Steve. "I have perfect eyesight".

"Where did it go?" says Sam.



"I don't remember."


Don't blame me. Blame Paul (A.).

I may have posted the joke before, but, if I did, I don't remember

PS: Have I told you that Paul (A.)'s wife is a lovely woman?

FEAST OF ALBERT JOHN LUTHULI

Albert John Lutuli (commonly spelled Luthuli), also known by his Zulu name "Mvumbi" (c. 1898 – 21 July 1967), was a South African teacher and politician. Lutuli was elected president of the African National Congress (ANC), at the time an umbrella organisation that led opposition to the white minority government in South Africa. He was awarded the 1960 Nobel Peace Prize for his role in the non-violent struggle against apartheid.

James Kiefer at The Lectionary

Readings:

Psalm 122
Numbers 20:9-11
Ephesians 2:12-17
John 16:25-33

PRAYER

Eternal God, we thank you for the witness of Chief Luthuli, Nobel Laureate for Peace, who was sustained by his Christian faith as he led the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. Strengthen us, after his example, to make no peace with oppression and to witness boldly for our Deliverer, Jesus Christ; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

I was much struck by the words in the prayer "Strengthen us, after his example, to make no peace with oppression...."

MAKE NO PEACE WITH OPPRESSION!

Wherever we find it....

Against whomever....

MAKE NO PEACE WITH OPPRESSION!

CONSTANCE MCMILLEN - "IT'S WORTH IT...."

From CNN:

A school district in Mississippi has agreed to pay a recent high school graduate $35,000 in damages and adopt a policy prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation, according to a statement released Tuesday by the American Civil Liberties Union.

The settlement comes after the ACLU sued the school district in Fulton, Mississippi, on behalf of Constance McMillen, a lesbian teen who was told by Itawamba Agricultural High School officials she and her girlfriend would be ejected if they attended the school-sponsored prom.

The agreement, which was filed Tuesday, ends the lawsuit.
"I'm so glad this is all over. I won't ever get my prom back, but it's worth it if it changes things at my school," McMillen said in a statement released Tuesday.

No student should be put through the cruelty that Constance endured, and, as a result of the lawsuit and settlement, no student in a public school in Itawamba Country should have to in the future. Thank you, Constance for standing against bigotry and fighting the good fight.

My other posts on Constance are here and here.

NOT TONIGHT, DARLING

The cartoon is naughty English humor, and I take no responsibility for it. The cartoon passed my LOL test, so what could I do? Don't blame me. Blame MadPriest.

I'd guess the cartoon works as a stand-alone, but if not, then click the link above for the story.

NOS AMIS DE PARIS

 

Yesterday, our friends from Paris visited. In truth, our friends live in the burbs of Paris, but "friends from Paris" has a nicer ring to it, don't you think? Le Papa, in the rear center of the picture, worked with Grandpère for a number of years at Nicholls State University. Then he married his lovely French wife, on the right in the photo, and they moved to France and had two good-looking half-French and half-American children. Both youngsters speak very good English.

 

There we are, all together, in the Chinese restaurant here in Thibodaux, where we had lunch before our friends left town. A good time was had by all.

Le Papa says he reads my blog about once a week, but he doesn't read, as he put it, "all the religious stuff". Perhaps, he chooses the better part.

OVER 50 AND LAUGHING OUT LOUD

FOR A GOOD LAUGH......This is for the over 50 generation:

I thought about the 30 year business I ran with 1800 employees, all without a Blackberry that played music, took videos, pictures and communicated with Facebook and Twitter.

I signed up under duress for Twitter and Facebook, so my seven kids, their spouses, 13 grandkids and 2 great grand kids could communicate with me in the modern way. I figured I could handle something as simple as Twitter with only 140 characters of space.

That was before one of my grandkids hooked me up for Tweeter, Tweetree, Twhirl, Twitterfon, Tweetie and Twittererific Tweetdeck, Twitpix and something that sends every message to my cell phone and every other program within the texting world.

My phone was beeping every three minutes with the details of everything except the bowel movements of the entire next generation. I am not ready to live like this. I keep my cell phone in the garage in my golf bag.

The kids bought me a GPS for my last birthday because they say I get lost every now and then going over to the grocery store or library. I keep that in a box under my tool bench with the Blue tooth [it's red] phone I am supposed to use when I drive. I wore it once and was standing in line at Barnes and Noble talking to my wife as everyone in the nearest 50 yards was glaring at me. Seems I have to take my hearing aid out to use it, and I got a little loud.

I mean the GPS looked pretty smart on my dash board, but the lady inside was the most annoying, rudest person I had run into in a long time. Every 10 minutes, she would sarcastically say, "Re-calc-ul-ating". You would think that she could be nicer. It was like she could barely tolerate me. She would let go with a deep sigh and then tell me to make a U-turn at the next light. Then when I would make a right turn instead, it was not good.

When I get really lost now, I call my wife and tell her the name of the cross streets and while she is starting to develop the same tone as Gypsy, the GPS lady, at least she loves me.

To be perfectly frank, I am still trying to learn how to use the cordless phones in our house. We have had them for 4 years, but I still haven't figured out how I can lose three phones all at once and have to run around digging under chair cushions and checking bathrooms and the dirty laundry baskets when the phone rings.

The world is just getting too complex for me. They even mess me up every time I go to the grocery store. You would think they could settle on something themselves but this sudden "Paper or Plastic?" every time I check out just knocks me for a loop. I bought some of those cloth reusable bags to avoid looking confused, but I never remember to take them in with me.

Now I toss it back to them. When they ask me, "Paper or Plastic?" I just say, "Doesn't matter to me. I am bi-sacksual." Then it's their turn to stare at me with a blank look.

I was recently asked if I tweet. I answered, No, but I do toot a lot."

Thanks to Suzanne