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Today was the last day of our journey. Visiting the shrines of Mary Magdalene in La Sainte Baume (the holy grotto) a 1.25 mile, 820 feet, climb. Then to St. Maximine to visit the reliquary with the remains of The Apostle to the Apostles: Mary Magdalene.
Please remember us in your prayers as tomorrow many will be journeying back home.
Will be creating a slide show and descriptions of what we saw later on.
THEY HAVE TAKEN AWAY MY LORD
(Mary Magdalene)
by Janet Morley in “All Desires Known”
It was unfinished. We stayed there, fixed, until the end, women waiting for the body that we loved; and then it was unfinished. There was no time to cherish, cleanse, anoint; no time to handle him with love, no farewell. Since then, my hands have waited, aching to touch even his deadness, smoothe oil into bruises that no longer hurt, offer his silent flesh my finished act of love. I came early, as the darkness lifted, to find the grave ripped open and his body gone; container of my grief smashed, looted, leaving my hands still empty. I turned on the man who came: ‘They have taken away my Lord –where is his corpse? Where is the body that is mine to greet? He is not gone I am not ready yet, I am not finished –I cannot let him go I am not whole.’ And then he spoke, no corpse, and breathed, and offered me my name. My hands rushed to grasp him; to hold and hug and grip his body close; to give myself again, to cling to him, and lose my self in love. ‘Don’t touch me now.’ I stopped, and waited, my rejected passion hovering between us like some dying thing. I, Mary, stood and grieved, and then departed. I have a gospel to proclaim.
John 20.1–18 Mary Magdalene at the tomb
The Episcopal Diocese of Olympia
A Christian mother of four who has been held in solitary confinement on death row since 2010 after being convicted of blasphemy has been acquitted by Pakistan’s Supreme Court. Asia Bibi was detained after a row with her co-workers in June 2009. She had drunk a glass of water but her co-workers said that, by drinking from a cup meant for Muslims, she had made it ritually unclean. They demanded she convert to Islam but she refused. It is alleged that she then made offensive remarks about the Islamic prophet Muhammad during an altercation.Egypt attack: Gunmen kill seven Coptic Christians in bus ambush
theguardian.com
Local Islamic State affiliate claims responsibility for attack on three buses carrying Christian pilgrims