Over the next few days we celebrate a number of Saints. Saints are those wonderful people who often have a very colourful history. The Church in her wisdom holds a few of them up to help us in our journey as we continue forward to join them when we reach our final destination.
We must never undervalue the experience of the saints. All the problems anyone has ever faced and will ever face over the course of their lifetime have already been encountered by many of these great men and women. The problems and the solutions have been recorded on the pages of the history books written about the cloud of witnesses who have walked this path before us.
To really help us understand the issues we are facing we need to read these books to see how those who preceded us learnt how to handle the challenges we currently endure. If we cannot find the answer to our problems in Scripture, then we need to find a Saint who struggled with the same difficulties that we have in our lives, befriend them, and ask them to journey with us and pray for us.
We often believe that the saints never put a foot wrong. So often they are depicted as if they were pious, prayerful people who never doubted their faith, and never made any kind of mistake. They wouldn't dream of committing adultery, or murder. Never swore, certainly never took any kinds of illegal substance and definitely weren't promiscuous in any way. Sadly, or maybe not, the history of the church is made up of men and women who failed to live up to the ideals placed before them. But, who, when their lives were transformed by grace managed to turn everything around and walk with Christ.
For instance today we celebrate the feast of Mary Magdalene. Now there was a women with a shady reputation. But she brings us so much hope. When she, through the movement of grace was able to see her life for what it was, she was able to open herself up to Christ and be forgiven. She then went on to become one of his greatest friends.
There are many things that Mary can teach us. Firstly, It was she who waited at the tomb when all the others had left and was rewarded by being the first person to see the risen Lord. Sometimes we need to wait upon The Lord, and for us, like Mary Magdelene it can be distressing but we are promised in Scripture that if "we seek" we will find and the door will be opened to us. We must never give up hope and continually search for the one "whom our hearts love."
Secondly her desire to be with The Lord was strong. When she encountered Jesus in the garden and failed to recognize him, in response to his question "woman why are you weeping" she replies "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take Him away." We need that same desire. We need to seek out The Lord and spend time with him alone so that he can deepen our desire for him. I think sometimes we get caught up in the distress of the moment and we fail to see God or to seek him, asking for a solution to our problems. I know I am guilty of this, so often we fail to put God in the first place. How many times do we seek solutions everywhere before finally deciding to pray about a situation?
Thirdly, how must Mary have felt when he called her by name. In reading Johns account you get the feeling there was surprise in her voice as she turned and said "Rabbuni," almost a disbelief, a questioning. And are we not often the same? Do we believe in our hearts that The Lord has called us by name. I once had a very strong experience of this. I was participating in a guided prayer week and one of our sessions was to take a piece of Scripture and really enter in to the scene. This particular passage was when Jesus was healing the blind man by putting mud on his eyes. We were asked to imagine ourselves sitting on the side of the road watching these events unfold. I found this all very difficult and struggled to enter into the story. But, when we were asked to imagine Jesus turning to us and speaking our name everything changed and I entered into that moment. As soon as I heard my name called I immediately raised my hand over my face and said" depart from me Lord, as I am a sinful woman." We then went on and had a brief encounter. This has always stayed with me and years later I remember it vividly. We too need to hear The Lord call us by name, for when we do we are set free to love Him and those who he sends into our lives.
Fourthly we need to tell those around us about The Lord, surely Mary was the very first Evangelist. After encountering the risen Lord she ran to tell the others the great news "The Lord is risen." When we experience the risen Lord don't we want to do the same thing? And when we meet someone who has really met The Lord and feels they have been set free their joy is palpable and they cannot contain it. Fear stops most of us in our tracks from sharing our experiences. But if The Lord has touched our hearts we must share our stories and help build each other up in faith. It's how it was in the early church maybe it's time we practiced this once again.
So on this feast day let us really celebrate and believe in our hearts that The Lord has called us by name and set us free and let us go out with joy in our hearts.
Traditionally on this day you can eat some lovely sweet "Madeline" cakes. These cakes are usually made in a specially shaped baking mold. However, if you don't have one use a cupcake tin instead.
You need:
2 eggs,
100g/ 3 1/2oz sugar
100g/ 3 1/2oz plain flour
1 lemon, juice and zest
3/4 tsp baking powder
100g/3 1/2oz butter, melted and cooled slightly, plus some extra for greasing.
Preheat your oven to 200c/400f/Gas 6. if using a Madeline tray grace with some of the melted butter.
whisk eggs and sugar in a bowl until frothy. Carefully whisk in remaining ingredients. Leave to rest for 20-30 minutes before pouring into the Madeline tray.
Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until the mixture has risen a little in the middle and is fully cooked through. They should be a lovely, light golden colour. Transfer the madeleines to a wire rack and enjoy while still warm.
Photo courtesy of Pinterest
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