Below are the highlights from some of our 325 celebrations that took place this year. If you would like to share your celebration, please email Emily at magdala@futurechurch.org
We will do our best to post as many highlights from celebrations as possible.
Photos with captions are most appreciated!
The Women’s Concerns Committee at the Catholic Church of the Epiphany in Louisville, KY, celebrated their 12th annual service to honor St. Mary of Magdala. Sr. Miriam Corcoran, SCN, was the homilist and her subject was “Friendship”. She spoke of the friendship of Jesus and Mary Magdalen, and urged us all to see that friendship as one we should emulate. About 100 people were in attendance. Highlights of the service were a dramatic reading of the story of Ruth and Naomi (who were friends, as well as family), and an interpretive dance done to the song “Sarah’s Song of Blessing”. After the service, all were invited to sign a postcard asking the Vatican to reopen the permanent diaconate to women. 80 persons, men and women, signed the cards, which will be mailed en masse to the Vatican later this year.
In the photos, Sr. Corcoran is the elderly women in the center of the two co-presiders (she’s in her 80′s and a spitfire). The co-presiders are Karen Bryant and Cathy Shoemaker. The lector (carrying the Inclusive Bible) is Melissa Richards-Person. The other photo shows two participants exchanging friendship bracelets, part of the service.
We had evening prayer using the resources you kindly provided. I sent an Evening Prayer format to some of our communities. I did a short input and Morning Prayer on St Mary Magdala for the community radio.
#1 is Joan Brausch as presider, #2 is the congregation in the chapel, #3 is Julie reading and a photo of the icon painted by one of the attendees, #4 is a shot of the handouts including the wristbands from the California Magdala group (bless their hearts for thinking of this!)
Judy Lee presided and highlighted the children, having them give readings. 12 regular CTAers and 33 homeless/poor attended.
Pictures 1-3 are during liturgy and 4th picture is dinner after liturgy. CTA members brought and served dinner.
For our first celebration, a few members of our parish women’s group met for discussion of the life of Mary of Magdala, then a prayer service adapted from your website. Most had never heard that Mary of Magdala was NOT a repentant prostitute.
Our Mary Magdalene celebration was sensational. I sort of felt like a bystander as I watched it unfold. We honored six Orders of Sisters who work in and around Kansas City, and at least 60 of them attended. My friend Elizabeth Donnelly, pictured, gave the homily (she is an ordained minister in the Church of Spirituality and Health while remaining a praticing Catholic.) It was fabulous. Then we surprised her with the Mary Magdalene award, while most of her seven children cheered. Great day! Thanks for providing the raw material and the inspiration.
We were pleasantly surprised, when the priest started Mass today with a very good summary of the information about First Millennium women deacons by Hans Wijngaards, which I had sent him. His comment: ‘I had never known all that!’ We sang two hymns I wrote myself and I spoke a homily
The five pics are as follows:
1. Michael Clarke presenting the second reading.
2. Joan Horgan, last year’s Homilist, blessing Suzanne O’Connor prior to the Gospel and Homily.
3. & 4. Suzanne O’Connor delivering the Homily.
5. People are invited to bring significant items for display. They write on a card how this item has great significance to them in connection to Mary Magdalene or as women in the Church.
The Mary of Magdala event in Rochester Hills, Michigan was held at St. John Fisher Chapel in Auburn Hills. We had 46 in attendance and our mass featured a reflection offered by Sr. Mary Ann Dixon, O.P. (via Skype) from Phoenix, AZ. It was followed by a reception and all guests left with a clearer picture of the true identity of Mary of Magdala and an understanding of how that identity was altered by the church.
Jeannine Daly
We had a Mass in a small parish 100 mi. from Fairbanks. Our presider was a priest who is a member of CTA Alaska. The liturgy was
prepared by a lay women adapting materials from FutureChurch. We had a shared, very powerful and moving homily celebrating the women who have gone before us and inspire us. We ended with all present blessing a bowl of water and blessing and sending each other forth to spread the good news. We stayed for dinner and made the long drive back to Fairbanks late in the evening. We
have been blessed with many strong, faithful women who support each other in the struggle to be Church and to remain in the Church. We are all members of Call to Action Alaska.
Our celebration of St. Mary of Magdala was one of the monthly meeting programs of a group of women who had made At Home Retreats with me in the past 20 years. We met on the 29th, because more ladies could come that day. We had lunch first, everyone contributing something to the meal. Then we used the material from “Celebrating Women Witnesses”: A Prayer service for the feast of St. Mary of Magdala: Apostle of the Apostle. Lively discussion followed.
The Canticle, home of the Sisters of St. Francis, Clinton, Iowa, immediately following the prayer/communion service celebrating the Feast of Mary of Magdala, on Friday, July 22, 2011.
Pictured, (left to right) are: Hilary Mullany OSF, who took the part of Mary of Magdala; Barbara Rosener OSF, Fort Dodge, Ia.; Carmel Jacobs OSF, Phoenix, Ariz.; Pauline Logsdon OSF, Clinton; Mary Lou Carlson OSF, Escondido, Calif., author and leader of the service; Donna Burke OSF, Jesup, Ia.; and LaVern Olberding OSF, San Diego, Calif.
We enjoyed a mass celebrated in one of our beloved parishioner’s home. Must have been seventy plus laywomen and men participating the glory of the Word and Eucharist celebrated in such a warm, beautiful environment. St. Mary Magdala was given her earned respect from all at the mass and marvelous meal after ward. We hope to continue this manner of respecting this saint, the woman loved-he appeared to her first after the Resurrection.
Tom Umlauf
Our celebration was small this year but powerful as always. With only 7 women in attendance we had plenty of time for prayer and ritual as well as conversation and fun! Thank you for the great resources!
Attached is a picture-though it is not very artful and doesn’t show any of our Mary of Magdala “decor”, it is a picture of 7 women who love one another and who come together to pray and to learn from one another.
Feast of Mary of Magdala Celebration – July 22, 2011 – St. Francis de Sales Parish Community, Abingdon, MD.
“I’ve heard five great homilies in my life. Two were at St. Michael’s the other three were here tonight. So said a woman who just happened to wander in from a nearby WeightWatchers meeting to Cleveland FutureChurch’s July 20, St. Mary of Magdala celebration at the Independence Civic Center.
Over 100 people gathered to hear three women preach the homilies they would love to preach at Mass if only they were permitted. And so, at least temporarily this celebration succeeded in “Ending the Silencing of Catholic Women,” the them of this year’s special celebrations.
The National Catholic Reporter covered the Cleveland celebration which appeared on its website on St. Mary of Magdala’s actual feast day of July 22.
Follow this link to view the NCR article: http://ncronline.org/news/women/futurechurch-celebrates-feast-st-mary-magdala
Follow this link to view our three Homilies, Presider and Litany of our celebration: http://www.youtube.com/user/FutureChurch1?feature=mhee
We held a service at our home (Vancouver Catholic Worker) on July 22, 2011 and 10 people attended. We used the prayer service but included elements to honour the people of the unceded First Nations territory in which we live.
About 10 women gathered in Manhattan, KS for a ceremony in honor of Mary Magdalen. We had readings, prayer, and song. We also had an anointing/commissioning for our ministries. These ministries included service to our families,our leadership and committee work in our communities and/or church, volunteer services for the poor, advocacy for justice through letters to the editor/bishops, and liturgical ministries.
We held our 8th annual Mary Magdala Celebration in Sedona on July 23rd. We had 210 women. It’s a multi-faith celebration and our theme was The Messages of Mary Magdalene for Women Today — Margaret Starbird was our keynote and she spoke of some of the attributes of Mary Magdalene including Courage, Faithfulness, Compassion, Joy, Hope, Authenticity. We then had women from the area speak about how those attributes have worked in their lives and spiritual journeys — we had one woman speak on each attributes. Each speaker was then followed by a member of our Sacred Dance Guild and the dancer gave expression thru dance of the attirbute and involved the audience int he movement. This was a new highlight this year and it was wonderful. More info at http://www.marymagdalacelebrationsedona.com.
We held a bilingual service and reception on the eve of the feast day (July 21). 50+ people attended. It was our first celebration.
Location: St. Rosalie’s Parish, Hampton Bays NY