SUNDAY, JULY 23, 2017 — The FEAST of SAINT MARY MAGDALEN, APOSTLE
The Feast of Saint Mary Magdalen, Apostle to the Apostles
July 22nd celebrates the Feast of Saint Mary Magdalen, Apostle of the Apostles, and Patron our our Parish.

Here are the words Pope Francis used to describe Saint Mary Magdalen ...
Today we meet her who, according to the Gospels, was the first to see Jesus Risen: Mary Magdalene.  The Sabbath rest had just ended.  On the day of the Passion there was no time to complete the funeral rites; therefore, on that dawn full of sadness, the women went to Jesus’ tomb with perfumed unguents.  The first to arrive was she, Mary of Magdala, one of the disciples that had accompanied Jesus from Galilee, putting themselves at the service of the nascent Church.  Reflected in her path to the sepulcher is the fidelity of so many women who are devoted for years to the paths of cemeteries, in memory of someone who is no longer.  The most genuine bonds are not broken not even by death: one continues to love even if the beloved person has gone forever.

The Gospel (Cf. John 20:1-2.11-18) describes Magdalene, making it evident immediately that she was not a woman of easy enthusiasms.  In fact, after the first visit to the sepulcher, she returned disappointed to the place where the disciples were hiding; she said that the stone was moved from the entrance to the sepulcher, and her first theory is the simplest that can be formulated: someone must have stolen Jesus’ body.  Thus, the first announcement that Mary brings is not that of the Resurrection, but of a robbery that unknowns perpetrated, while the whole of Jerusalem was asleep.

Then the Gospels tell of a second trip of Magdalene to Jesus’ sepulcher.  She was headstrong!  She went, she returned . . . because she was not convinced!  This time her step is slow, very heavy.  Mary suffers doubly: first of all because of Jesus’ Death, and then because of the inexplicable disappearance of His body.

It is while she is kneeling close to the tomb, with her eyes filled with tears, that God surprises her in the most unexpected way.  The evangelist John stresses how persistent her blindness was: she is not aware of the presence of two Angels who question her, and does not even get suspicious seeing the man behind her, that she thinks is the guardian of the garden.  And instead she discovers the most overwhelming event of human history, when she is finally called by her name: “Mary!” (v. 6).

How lovely it is to think that the first apparition of the Risen One — according to the Gospels — happened in such a personal way!  That there is Someone who knows us, who sees our suffering and disappointment, and who is moved for us, and calls us by name.  It is a law that we find engraved in many pages of the Gospel.  There are so many persons that seek God around Jesus, but the most prodigious reality is that, long before, it is first of all God who is concerned for our life, who wants to uplift it, and to do this He calls us by name, recognizing each one’s personal face.  Every man is a story of love that God writes on this earth.  Every one of us is a story of God’s love.  God calls every one of us by our name: He knows us by name, He looks at us, He waits for us, He forgives us,  He has patience with us.  Is this true or is it not true?  Every one of us has this experience.

And Jesus calls her: “Mary!”: the revolution of her life, the revolution destined to transform the existence of every man and woman, begins with a name that echoes in the garden of the empty sepulcher.  The Gospel describes for us Mary’s happiness: Jesus’ Resurrection is not a joy given in dribs and drabs but a cascade that assails the whole of life.  Christian existence is not woven of soft happiness, but of waves that overwhelm everything.  You also try to think at this moment, with the baggage of disappointments and defeats that each one bears in the heart, that there is a God close to us who calls us by name and says to us: “Rise, stop crying, because I have come to free you!”  This is beautiful.

Jesus is not one who adapts Himself to the world, tolerating that in it death, sadness, hatred, the moral destruction of persons should endure … Our God is not inert, But our God – I permit myself the word – is a dreamer: He dreams of the transformation of the world, and He realized it in the mystery of the Resurrection.

Mary wanted to embrace her Lord, but He is now oriented to the celestial Father, while she is sent to bring the announcement to brothers.  And so that woman, who before encountering Jesus was at the mercy of the Evil One (Cf. Luke 8:2), has now become apostle of the new and greatest hope.  May her intercession help us also to live this experience: in the hour of weeping and in the hour of abandonment, to listen to the Risen Jesus who calls us by name and, with a heart full of joy, go to announce: “I have seen the Lord!” (v. 18).  I have changed my life because I saw the Lord!  Now I am different from before, I am another person.  I have changed because I saw the Lord.  This is our strength and this is our hope.  Thank you.
Church Picnic
Please join us at Noon today, Sunday, July 23rd for our Church Picnic and Food With Friends Volunteers Thank You Gathering at our Church and on the Parish Green.  Special Thank You to all the FWF Volunteers who work every month to make this Ministry so incredibly impactful for our community.  Thank you for everyone who helped make this Gathering a success.
Food With Friends - Meeting
Date:  
Time:  
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Agenda:  		 Tuesday, July 25th
6:00 pm ET
All Saint Episcopal Church, Hall
9 Old Locust Ave
Fallsington, PA 19054
Planning Meeting for the Meal on Tuesday, August 8th
Food Pantry
We continue to collect can goods and other non-perishable items for the Food Pantry located at
      Harvest Ministries — Cornwells Heights United Methodist Church
      2284 Bristol Pike
      Bensalem, PA 19020
      215.639.0436

Hours: Tuesday, Thursday and Friday @ 9am - 12pm

Thank you for your continued generous support of this amazing Ministry.  Feeding the needs of hungry families here in our own community.  God Bless you for your amazing Giving Hearts.



Bow Wow Wow Ministry
We continue to collect gently used linens, sheets, blankets, and bath towels to donate to local area animal shelters.  We ask you to continue your incredible generocity.

Your wonderful generocity helps provide vulnerable animals with comfort when they most need it.  Thank you from all the little ones that cannot say it for themselves.
Readings for Next Week
   July 30th – 17th Sunday of the Year
    First Reading   1 Kings 3, 5, 7-12 God gives Solomon a choice of gifts. Solomon asks God for "an understanding mind," so that he could always do what was just and best for his subjects. God rewards him with the gift of wisdom making him the wisest man that ever lived.
Responsorial Psalm   Psalm 119 Lord, I love your commands.
Second Reading   Romans 8: 28-30 The graciousness and mercy of God at work in calling men to himself, justifying them, and glorifying them as well. The point of the reading is the eternal mystery of the ineffable love of God for man, even before man existed.
Gospel   Matthew 13: 44-46   All Christians are called on to imitate the two wise men, and surrender all their earthly possessions if necessary in order to gain eternal life.  Does this "giving all" mean that we are all expected to abandon the world and take on the religious vows of poverty, chastity and obedience?  There are many who do just this.  But it is not the only way, nor the normal way, to purchase the eternal treasure.  Heaven is within the reach of all, who follow the ordinary vocations of life and partake of this world's joys and pleasures within the framework of God's commandments, but never lose sight of the goal toward which they are moving.