Wednesday, July 22, 2026

Saint Mary Magdalene - Feast

John 20:1-2,11-18

Listen to the whole reading — MP3

First reading

Song of Solomon 3:1-4

By night on my bed, I sought him whom my soul loves. I sought him, but I didn’t find him. I will get up now, and go about the city; in the streets and in the squares I will seek him whom my soul loves. I sought him, but I didn’t find him. The watchmen who go about the city found me; “Have you seen him whom my soul loves?” I had scarcely passed from them, when I found him whom my soul loves. I held him, and would not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother’s house, into the room of her who conceived me.

Responsorial psalm

Psalms 63:1,2-3,4-5,7-8

So I have seen you in the sanctuary, watching your power and your glory. Because your loving kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise you. So I will bless you while I live. I will lift up my hands in your name. My soul shall be satisfied as with the richest food. My mouth shall praise you with joyful lips, when I remember you on my bed, and think about you in the night watches. My soul stays close to you. Your right hand holds me up. But those who seek my soul, to destroy it, shall go into the lower parts of the earth.

Gospel

John 20:1-2,11-18

Now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene went early, while it was still dark, to the tomb, and saw the stone taken away from the tomb. Therefore she ran and came to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have laid him!” But Mary was standing outside at the tomb weeping. So, as she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb, and she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head, and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. They told her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I don’t know where they have laid him.” When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, and didn’t know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?” She, supposing him to be the gardener, 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, “Rabboni!” which is to say, “Teacher!” Jesus said to her, “Don’t hold me, for I haven’t yet ascended to my Father; but go to my brothers, and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that he had said these things to her.

Lectio

There is a thread of holy restlessness running through these readings, a love that will not rest until it finds its beloved. The bride in the Song of Solomon rises in the dark, searching the streets and squares, asking everyone she meets the same aching question. Mary Magdalene does the same — she comes to the tomb "while it was still dark," and when she finds it empty her grief becomes a kind of pilgrimage of love. "They have taken away my Lord, and I don't know where they have laid him." She is the bride of the Song, weeping in the garden, refusing to leave until she has held him whom her soul loves.

And here is the tender mystery: she does not recognize him until he speaks her name. All her seeking, all her tears, all her readiness to carry his body away herself — none of it opened her eyes. What opened them was being known. "Mary." One word, her own name, and the gardener becomes the Risen Lord. The Psalmist understood this too: the soul that thinks of God "in the night watches," that clings to him, discovers it was being held all along by a right hand stronger than its own grief.

Yet love that finds the Beloved is not allowed to clutch him. "Do not hold me," Jesus says — not as rejection but as commission. The same love that sought him in the dark is now sent out into the light to tell the brothers. To have truly met the Risen One is to be unable to keep him to oneself.

Where in your life right now are you searching in the dark, asking everyone but Christ himself "where have they laid him" — and might he be standing nearer than you think, waiting to call you by name?

Is there something you have found and are clinging to — a consolation, a relationship, a version of God you are comfortable with — that the Lord is gently asking you to release so that you can be sent to others?

Saint of the day

St. Mary Magdalene - Feast

Ora reads this aloud, every morning, free. Ora