It is to be noted that St. Mary Magdalene was the first recorded witness of the Resurrection of the Saviour in the Holy Gospels. She attained to this great grace by persevering in prayerful and selfless penance and charity at the foot of the Cross, under the tutelage and mediation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, with whom she valiantly stood on that first Good Friday together with the beloved Apostle and Evangelist St. John and the other holy women.

The faithful of times past did not overlook the admirable design of Providence that decreed that the great Immaculate Virgin, Mother of the Word Incarnate, and the great Penitent of the Gospels should share the same name. Hence, in the Dominican Breviary we find the following Responsory:

℟. Let us praise the work of God in Mary, Mother and Virgin, but also in Mary, sinner but penitent: * This Mary is given as a mirror of innocency, whilst this Mary is given as an example of penitence. ℣. That we may confess to Thy holy Name, and may glory in Thy praise, * That Mary is given as a mirror of innocency, whilst this Mary is given as an example of penitence.

The conversion of the holy Magdalene is depicted in a curious and dramatic manner in the Premonstratensian Breviary:

℟. The Leviathan’s jaw hath been pierced through as a ring, through whose aperture thou hast been drawn away, O Mary: do thou therefore help us, that, having fallen therein in sinning, we may merit to be drawn away from thence in imitating thee * Repenting. ℣. May the Divine Mercy, with thee interceding for us, may not only forbid us to go into the Leviathan’s mouth, but also may grant us to return from its mouth * Repenting.

The holy Magdalene's conversion is here vividly depicted as a rescue from the belly of the monstrous Leviathan, an allusion to the following passage of Holy Writ: "Canst thou draw out the Leviathan with a hook, and with a rope shalt thou tie his tongue? Shalt thou put a ring in his nostrils, or bore through his jaw with a buckle?" (Job ch. xl., 20, 21). Rev. Father Gregory Martin, in a marginal note to this passage in the Douay Old Testament, explains that the Leviathan is a “huge great fish, perhaps the whale, exceeding man’s power to be managed, yet it is subject, as also the devil signified thereby, to God’s power and providence.” In the Prophecy of Isaias, the Incarnate Word is foreshown as a mighty Conqueror who shall slay the monster: "In that day our Lord will visit with His sore, and great, and strong sword upon Leviathan and the serpent, the bar, and upon Leviathan the crooked serpent, and shall kill the whale that is in the sea" (ch. xxvii., 1).

Thus, in the Premonstratensian Responsory cited above, St. Mary Magdalene is represented as having been rescued from the wounded Leviathan, that is to say, from the devil overcome by Christ, the Divine Victor risen gloriously from the dead. The Responsory also reminds us that we are ever in danger of being devoured by the monster on account of fallen nature, but if we imitate the holy Magdalene's penitence and charity, we too may be freed from the Leviathan, "who as a roaring lion goeth about, seeking whom he may devour" (I S. Peter ch., v. 8). But this is a gratuitous gift of God's infinite clemency, and it behooves us to seek such a grace by prayer, particularly in imploring the holy Penitent's intercession.

The infernal Leviathan can only swallow us up if we surrender ourselves to it, in the horrible magnitude of our malice and turpitude. Yet we too, if we should ever have the misfortune to lose Our Lord by our unhappy fault, can find Him yet again by penance and charity in this life, and by final perseverance we can find Him once more in that perpetual and unspeakable vision that constitutes the eternal bliss of the Angels and the elect. Hence the beautiful collect to be found in the Dominican and Norbertine Breviaries for St. Mary Magdalene's Office:

Grant unto us, O most clement Father, that as blessed Mary Magdalene in loving our Lord Jesus Christ above all things hath obtained the forgiveness of all her sins, so also before Thy mercy may she beseech for us everlasting beatitude. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

Let us not forget to utter a prayer to the great Penitent who merited the grace of beholding the Risen Lord before the other disciples and before the Apostles themselves. Whilst they doubted and fled in the Garden, and all but one stood by the Cross, never did she abandon her beloved Jesus. Like the Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph seeking anxiously and joyously finding the Divine Infant at Jerusalem, she too sought Our Lord on that sacred Easter morning and found Him to her great joy.




Sources:

Breviarium juxta ritum Sacri Ordinis Prædicatorum ad normam Bullæ Divino afflatu et Motu Proprio Abhinc duos annos felicis recordationis Pii Papæ X reformatum; Apostolica autoritate approbatum atque Reverendissimi Patris Fratris Ludovici Theissling ejudem Ordinis Magistri Generalis jussu editum (The Breviary according to the Rite of the Sacred Order of Preachers, Reformed according to the Normative of the Bull “Divino afflatu” and the Motu Proprio “Abhinc duos annos” of Pope Pius X, of Happy Memory; Approved by Apostolic Authority; and Published by Order of the Most Reverend Father, Friar Louis Theissling, Master-General of the Same Order). Rome: Typis Richardi Garroni, 1924.

Breviarium Præmonstratense juxta Bullam Divino afflatu et approbante Pio Papa XI editum jussu et auctoritate Illustrissimi ac Reverendissimi Domini Abbatis Generalis Gummari Crets, Sacrae Theologiae Doctor et Magister, et Capituli Generalis anni 1927; ac de novo editum et recognitum jussu et auctoritate Illustrissimi ac Reverendissimi Domini Abbatis Generalis Huberti Noots, Sacrae Theologiae Doctor (The Premonstratensian Breviary Published by Order and Authority of the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Lord Abbot-General Gummarus Crets, Master and Doctor of Sacred Theology, and that of the General Chapter of the Year 1927, according to the Bull “Divino afflatus” and with Pope Pius XI Approving; and Newly Revised and Published by Order and Authority of the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Lord Abbot-General Hubert Noots, Doctor of Sacred Theology). Mechlin, Belgium: H. Dessain, 1953.

"Yet we too, if we should ever have the misfortune to lose Our Lord by our unhappy fault, can find Him yet again by penance and charity in this life, and by final perseverance we can find Him once more in that perpetual and unspeakable vision that constitutes the eternal bliss of the Angels and the elect"

:-)

Happy Feast Day!


Prayer to St. Mary Magdalene and Our Lord
by Saint Anselm

St. Mary Magdalene, thou didst come with springing tears to the spring of mercy, Christ; from Him thy burning thirst was abundantly refreshed, through Him thy sins were forgiven; by Him thy bitter sorrow was consoled.

My dearest lady, well thou knowest by thine own life how a sinful soul can be reconciled with its creator, what counsel a soul in misery needs, what medicine will restore the sick to health.

It is enough for us to understand, dear friend of God, to whom were many sins forgiven, because she loved much.

Most blessed lady, I who am the most evil and sinful of men do not recall thy sins as a reproach, but call upon the boundless mercy by which they were blotted out.

This is my reassurance, so that I do not despair; this is my longing, so that I shall not perish.

I say this of myself, miserably cast down into the depths of vice, bowed down with the weight of crimes, thrust down by my own hand into a dark prison of sins, wrapped round with the shadows of darkness.

Therefore, since thou art now with the chosen because thou art beloved and are beloved because thou art chosen of God, I, in my misery, pray to thee in bliss; in my darkness, I ask for light; in my sins, redemption; impure, I ask for purity.
     
Recall in loving kindness what thou used to be, how much thou didst need mercy, and seek for me that same forgiving love that thou didst receive when thou wert wanting it. Ask urgently that I may have the love that pierces the heart; tears that are humble; desire for the homeland of Heaven; impatience with this earthly exile; searing repentance; and a dread of torments in eternity.

Turn to my good that ready access that thou once didst have and still doth have to the spring of mercy.

Draw me to Him where I may wash away my sins; bring me to Him Who can slake my thirst; pour over me those waters that will make my dry places fresh. Thou wilt not find it hard to gain all thou doth desire from so loving and so kind a Lord, Who is alive and reigns and is thy friend.


For who can tell, beloved and blest of God, with what kind familiarity and familiar kindness He Himself didst reply on thy behalf to the calumnies of those who were against thee? How He didst defend thee, when the proud Pharisee was indignant, how He didst excuse thee, when thy sister didst complain, how highly He didst praise thy deed, when Judas didst begrudge it.

And, more than all this, what can I say, how can I find words to tell, about the burning love with which thou didst seek Him, weeping at the sepulchre, and wept for Him in thy seeking?

How He cameth, who can say how or with what kindness, to comfort thee, and madest thee burn with love still more; how He didst hide from thee when thou didst want to see Him, and showed Himself when thou didst not think to see Him; how He was there all the time thou didst seek Him, and how He didst seek thee when, seeking Him, thou didst weep.

But Thou, most holy Lord, why didst Thou ask her why she weeps?

Surely Thou canst see her heart, the dear life of her soul, is cruelly slain.

O love to be wondered at;
O evil to be shuddered at;

Thou didst hang on the wood, pierced by iron nails, stretched out like a thief for the mockery of wicked men; and yet, 'Woman,' Thou didst say, 'why art thou weeping?' She had not been able to prevent them from killing Thee, but at least she longed to keep Thy Body for a while with ointments lest it decay.

No longer able to speak with Thee living, at least she could mourn for Thee dead. So, near to death and hating her own life, she repeats in broken tones the words of life which she had heard from the living.

And now, besides all this, even the Body which she was glad, in a way, to have kept, she believes to have gone.
And can Thou asketh her, 'Woman, why art thou weeping?'
Had she not reason to weep?
For she had seen with her own eyes---if she could bear to look---what cruel men cruelly did to Thee; and now all that was left of Thee from their hands she thinks she has lost.
All hope of Thee has fled, for now she has not even Thy lifeless Body to remind her of Thee.

And someone asks, 'Who art thou looking for? Why art thou weeping?'

Thou, her sole joy, should be the last thus to increase her sorrow. But Thou knowest it all well, and thus Thou didst wish it to be, for only in such broken words and sighs can she convey a cause of grief as great as hers. The love Thou hast inspired Thou didst not ignore.
         
And indeed Thou knowest her well, the gardener, Who planted her soul in His garden. What Thou plantest, I think Thou doth also water.

Does Thou water, I wonder, or does Thou test her?
In fact, Thou art both watering and putting to the test.
But now, good Lord, gentle Master, look upon Thy faithful servant and disciple, so lately redeemed by Thy Blood, and see how she burneth with anxiety, desiring Thee, searching all round, questioning, and what she longest for is nowhere found.

Nothing she seest canst satisfy her, since Thou Whom alone she wouldst behold, she seest not.
What then?

How long will my Lord leave His beloved to suffer thus?
Have Thou put off compassion now Thou hast put on incorruption? Did Thou let go of goodness when Thou didst lay hold of immortality?
Let it not be so, Lord.

Thou will not despise us mortals now Thou hast made Thyself immortal, for Thou didst make Thyself a mortal in order to give us immortality.

And so it is; for love's sake He canst not bear her grief for long or go on hiding Himself. For the sweetness of love He showeth Himself Who would not for the bitterness of tears.
The Lord calls His servant by the name she hast often heard and the servant doth know the voice of her own Lord.

I think, or rather I am sure, that she responded to the gentle tone with which He wat accustomed to call, 'Mary'. What joy filled that voice, so gentle and full of love.
He could not have put it more simply and clearly:

'I know who thou art and what thou wanteth; behold Me; do not weep, behold Me; I am He Whom Thou seekest.'

At once the tears are changed; I do not believe that they stopped at once, but where once they were wrung from a heart broken and self-tormenting they flow now from a heart exulting. How different is, 'Master!' from 'If thou hast taken Him away, tell me'; and, 'They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him,' has a very different sound from, 'I have seen the Lord, and He hast spoken to me.'

But how should I, in misery and without love, dare to describe the love of God and the blessed friend of God? Such a flavour of goodness will make my heart sick if it has in itself nothing of that same virtue.

But in truth, Thou Who art very truth, Thou knowest me well and canst testify that I write this for the love of Thy love, my Lord, my most dear Jesus.

I want Thy love to burn in me as Thou commandest so that I may desire to love Thee alone and sacrifice to Thee a troubled spirit, 'a broken and a contrite heart'.

Give me, O Lord, in this exile, the bread of tears and sorrow for which I hunger more than for any choice delights.

Hear me, for Thy love, and for the dear merits of Thy beloved Mary, and Thy blessed Mother, the greater Mary.

Redeemer, my good Jesus, do not despise the prayers of one who hast sinned against Thee but strengthen the efforts of a weakling that loves Thee.

Shakest my heart out of its indolence, Lord, and in the ardour of Thy love bringest me to the everlasting sight of Thy glory where with the Father and the Holy Spirit Thou livest and reignest, God, for ever. Amen.

 If baptism washes away all sins and their penalties, then why should have St. Mary Magdalen commited herself to life long penance? She was baptized after her repentance and washing the feet of Jesus. wasn't she?

Can't penances can be applied to the sins of others.