Wednesday
Breakfast at the hostellerie restaurant and then drive to the Basilique Sainte-Marie-Madeleine at St.-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume for 11 am Mass presided by Fr. Florian Racine. the pastor and also founder of Missionaries of the Most Holy Eucharist. We’ll have lunch with those attending Adoratio2014 and then return to the basilique at 3 pm for the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. After the Chaplet there will be a special teaching on Divine Mercy and Healing by Sr. Briege McKenna (from Ireland). Fr. David Nugent, a Missionary of the Most Holy Eucharist will teach Divine Mercy and the Sacrament of Confession and Sr. Briege McKenna will lead a Prayer for Priests. We will have dinner with the Adoratio2014 group and after dinner enjoy an Evening of Mercy by Sr. Briege McKenna. Then we will drive back to the hostellerie.
EUCHARISTIC ADORATION AT THE SCHOOL OF MARY MAGDALENE
EXPOSITION OF THE BLESSED SACRAMENT
SISTER BRIEGE MCKENNA
Novena to Saint Mary Magdalene—Day 5
Opening Prayer—Saint Mary Magdalene, you who were pardoned by Jesus, you who greatly loved; show us the way to true conversion and purity of heart. With love you followed Jesus to serve him; teach us to freely offer our lives for our brothers and sisters. You stood at the cross of Jesus with Mary and John. Obtain the grace of faith and hope in our sufferings. On Easter morning, you received from Jesus the mission of announcing the resurrection to His disciples. Help me to believe that life is stronger than death, that love triumphs over all. Dearest Saint Mary Magdalene, please intercede on behalf of my special intention (recite your special intention here). Through your intercession, I trust in the Lord, AMEN.
Gospel of Matthew 26:6-16—Jesus Anointed at Bethany
6 And when Jesus was in Bethania, in the house of Simon the leper, 7 There came to him a woman having an alabaster box of precious ointment, and poured it on his head as he was at table. 8 And the disciples seeing it, had indignation, saying: To what purpose is this waste? 9 For this might have been sold for much, and given to the poor. 10 And Jesus knowing it, said to them: Why do you trouble this woman? for she hath wrought a good work upon me. 11 For the poor you have always with you: but me you have not always. 12 For she in pouring this ointment upon my body, hath done it for my burial. 13 Amen I say to you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, that also which she hath done, shall be told for a memory of her.
Judas Agrees to Betray Jesus
14 Then went one of the twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, to the chief priests, 15 And said to them: What will you give me, and I will deliver him unto you? But they appointed him thirty pieces of silver. 16 And from thenceforth he sought opportunity to betray him.
Gospel of Mark 14:1-10—Jesus Anointed at Bethany
1 Now the feast of the pasch, and of the Azymes was after two days; and the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might by some wile lay hold on him, and kill him. 2 But they said: Not on the festival day, lest there should be a tumult among the people. 3 And when he was in Bethania, in the house of Simon the leper, and was at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of precious spikenard: and breaking the alabaster box, she poured it out upon his head. 4 Now there were some that had indignation within themselves, and said: Why was this waste of the ointment made? 5 For this ointment might have been sold for more than three hundred pence, and given to the poor. And they murmured against her. 6 But Jesus said: Let her alone, why do you molest her? She hath wrought a good work upon me. 7 For the poor you have always with you: and whensoever you will, you may do them good: but me you have not always. 8 She hath done what she could: she is come beforehand to anoint my body for burial. 9 Amen, I say to you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, that also which she hath done, shall be told for a memorial of her. 10 And Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went to the chief priests, to betray him to them.
THE ANOINTING OF JESUS AT BETHANY
Gospel of John 12:1-8—Jesus Anointed at Bethany
1 Jesus therefore, six days before the pasch, came to Bethania, where Lazarus had been dead, whom Jesus raised to life. 2 And they made him a supper there: and Martha served: but Lazarus was one of them that were at table with him. 3 Mary therefore took a pound of ointment of right spikenard, of great price, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment. 4 Then one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, he that was about to betray him, said: 5 Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor? 6 Now he said this, not because he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and having the purse, carried the things that were put therein. 7 Jesus therefore said: Let her alone, that she may keep it against the day of my burial. 8 For the poor you have always with you; but me you have not always.
Novena Prayer Day 5—Lazarus is alive and celebrating with those assembled at table. Martha is serving and Mary, no longer crying, pours her perfume not only on Christ’s feet but also on his head. Judas objects to “the waste,” when the precious oil could have been sold and the money given to the poor. Jesus defends Mary’s action. Inspired but without fully knowing, Mary has just accomplished in a prophetic manner one of the rites of Christ’s burial, and his preparation for Easter. She brought precious perfume as did the Magi at the manger who offered gold to the king of kings, frankincense to the God-made-man, and myrrh to the crucified. “The house was filled with the odor of perfume”: the Universal Church, filled with the fragrance of Christ, celebrates this royal anointing to the end of time. All of life and faith is in this passage. There is family life around the table; there is service, devotion, commitment, love. There is prophetic ritual and personal prayer. There is also jealousy, deceit, betrayal; and there is redemption. Sometimes we forget that faith exists in everyday life. We forget that we cannot bracket faith as our culture demands. Faith is alive when it shapes and forms everything we do in family, community, church.
Closing Prayer—O Lord, our God, you who inspired Saint Mary Magdalene to pour expensive perfume onto the body of your Son as a preview of his burial; grant to us, by her prayer and example, to seek only to please you and to pour the fragrance of Christ upon those around us. He who lives and reigns for ever and ever, AMEN.
