Homily on the Holy and Equal to the Apostles Myrrhbearer Mary Magdalene (St. John of Kronstadt)

 

Homily on the Holy and Equal to the Apostles Myrrhbearer Mary Magdalene and the Name Day of the Most Pious Empress Maria Alexandrovna and the Most Pious Tsarevna Maria Feodorovna

By St. John of Kronstadt

"Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?" (John 20:15).

Blessed tears, blessed seeking! Mary Magdalene weeps for the Lord who died for us, for they have taken the Lord from the tomb, and she does not know where they have laid Him. She searches for the Lord or His most pure Body, in order to express due reverence and love to the Body of the Life-giver – to anoint it with fragrant ointment, even though it itself is more fragrant than all scents, though the deceased Himself grants fragrance to all earthly existence. I repeat: blessed tears, blessed seeking! Oh, if only we would weep for the Lord in such a manner when, due to our sins, He is taken away from us – from our hearts – we should weep for our sins, due to which our Most Holy Lord Jesus Christ is removed from our souls, for He cannot tolerate the slightest darkness and impurity of sin in His animated temple, that is, in a Christian. Oh, if only we sought Him with such diligence, with such fervor and love, as Mary Magdalene did! Such tears, such searching would be the most fragrant ointment for our Lord and Savior, and although we do not possess material myrrh, nonetheless we would resemble the Myrrhbearers, bearing spiritual myrrh in our hearts, by which I mean – faith, diligence, and love for Christ, as well as diligence towards our own salvation.

July: Day 22: Teaching 1: Saint Mary Magdalene, Equal to the Apostles

July: Day 22: Teaching 1:
Saint Mary Magdalene, Equal to the Apostles
 
(The Aspects of Her Life That We Can and Must Emulate)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. The Holy Myrrhbearer and Equal to the Apostles Mary Magdalene, whose memory is celebrated today, is called "Myrrhbearer" because she was among the women who came to the tomb of Jesus Christ to anoint His most pure body with myrrh, "Equal to the Apostles" because she, like the Apostles, preached the name of Christ and His teaching, and "Magdalene" because of her place of birth in the city of Magdala. She was deeply grateful to Jesus Christ for healing her from demonic possession. She was one of the women who followed Jesus Christ during His ministry to the human race, and loved Him so much that she was not afraid to stand at the cross with the Mother of God during the crucifixion of the Lord. After the Resurrection of the Lord, she and the other women went to the tomb to anoint His body with precious myrrh. For this reason the Lord rewarded her by appearing to her before everyone else after His Resurrection, though after the Mother of God, and commanded her to tell His disciples about His resurrection.

Saint Hieronymos of Simonopetra and the Miraculous Left Hand of Saint Mary Magdalene

 

There are many letters in the archive of the Monastery of Simonopetra of Mount Athos, where metropolises and communities of Macedonia and Asia Minor beg the fathers to come with the sacred relic of the incorrupt left hand of Saint Magdalene.

There are also many letters of thanks that mention miracles of the Saint.

After conducting a sanctification of the waters and doing a procession with the sacred relic, the locusts disappeared from the fields.

In these missions, the sacred relic was often accompanied by our Holy Father Hieronymos Simonopetritis.

Paschal Pastoral Encyclical 2000 (Metr. Hierotheos of Nafpaktos)

My beloved brethren,

The Orthodox Church is and is called the Church of the Resurrection, because it is closely connected with the Cross and the Resurrection of Christ. The Resurrection is a historical event, which is confirmed by the testimonies of various historians, but mainly by the testimonies of eyewitnesses and people who sacrificed their own lives because of this event. The Apostles and the Myrrhbearing women saw Christ, heard Him and some of them touched Him. And, of course, they then gave their personal testimony about Him.

Christ after His Resurrection did not appear to His crucifiers and enemies to miraculously confirm His value. He could have done this to prove His divinity. But Christ has no need of worldly means to prevail. Christ appeared to His Disciples and the Myrrhbearing women, because they had properly prepared to see Him and thus this vision became life for them. According to the teaching of the holy Fathers of the Church, the vision of God and the presence of the Risen Christ is reached by the person who has previously been purified and illumined by the Grace of God, because he is able to withstand the sight of His great light.