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15 August – The Dormition of The Blessed Virgin Mary

 

15 August – Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary
This is the day when Christians throughout the world celebrate the life of Mary the Mother of Jesus – the Theotokos[1].  Today’s festival is referred to as the Dormition or Assumption of Mary.  The mosaic shows her having ‘fallen asleep’ – which means she died.  Her Son, Jesus Christ is depicted as holding her soul, which will be taken by him up into heaven[2]. 
The bible says very little about the life of Mary.  The references to Mary in the New Testament are those parts of her life which are also about the life of Jesus.   The table at the end gives all the references to Mary in the New Testament. 
The Hebrew Scriptures seem to predict that Jesus, also known as Immanuel[3], will be born of a virgin.  This is not to suggest that Mary the Mother of Jesus was perpetually a virgin as some of the bible references above seem to suggest that Jesus had siblings[4]. 
‘Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel[5]’
‘Hippolytus of Thebes[6], a 7th- or 8th-century author, claims in his partially preserved chronology to the New Testament that Mary lived for 11 years after the death of Jesus, dying in AD 41’.   
In Turkey there is a tradition that Mary the Mother of Jesus came to live with the Apostle John in Ephesus and that she lived in a house in the hills near Ephesus that is called ‘Meryemana’.  The site of the house was revealed in a dream to Catherine Emmerich (1775-1824) who was an invalid German nun who never left her native land.  From her description the Lazarist Fathers in Izmir managed to locate an old stone dwelling in the hills above Ephesus.  There is no proof that this structure dates from the first century when Mary the Mother of Jesus might have lived in Asia Minor.   The House of the Virgin has been designated a place of pilgrimage by the Roman Catholic Church and is visited by many Turkish and foreign visitors each year.  Mary is called Meryem by Muslims and is part of their tradition as well.  The tradition that Mary the Mother of Jesus lived in Ephesus is not in the Bible but probably arose because the Apostle John[7]was given the charge by Jesus, as he died on the cross to look after Mary, his mother[8].   Because John the Apostle travelled to Ephesus it is assumed that Mary the Mother of Jesus would have come as well and possibly also in the company of Mary of Magdalene. 
Even if Mary the Mother of Jesus never came to Asia Minor she is represented in many of the ancient churches that are found in modern day Turkey.   One of the pictures that I am including with this account is a selection of mosaic pictures of Mary that are to be found in Istanbul.  Kariye Museum, Istanbul has a wonderful mosaic series on the Life Cycle of the Blessed Virgin[9] that illustrates the life of Mary from conception to the birth of Jesus.  The mosaics are based on the Apocryphal Gospel of St James[10]. 
Mary is most closely associated with ‘The Magnificat’ the proclamation that Mary is said to have made when she met Elizabeth, her cousin[11].   And Mary said:
“My soul magnifies the Lord,
            and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
        for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
        for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
        His mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
        He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
        He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
        he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.
        He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy,
        according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants forever.” [12]
The Magnificat is said or sung at Evening prayer in many Christian traditions.  It is a song of praise, hope and redemption that has a vibrancy and relevance to all of us no matter what our age, gender or historic period we live in.  Mary was a woman of courage to have said yes when the angel announced to her that she was to bear the Messiah and give birth even though she was unmarried and a virgin[13].  She was a woman who committed her life to serving her God[14].    Through the faithful commitment of Mary, who was a young girl when she became pregnant with Jesus, came forth a new expression and understanding of the love of God for all nations, not just Israel.  The Christian faith is a door way to all to come to know the living God in their lives.  To receive and believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the chosen one of God, for all peoples.   
Collect for 15 August.
Almighty God,
who looked upon the lowliness of the Blessed Virgin Mary
and chose her to be the mother of your only Son:
grant that we who are redeemed by his blood
may share with her in the glory of your eternal kingdom;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.  Amen
Mary’s life
Matthew
Mark
Luke
John
Genealogy
1:26
Annunciation
1:26-38
Meeting Elisabeth
1:39-56
Birth of Jesus
1:18-2:23
2:1-40
Rev 12
Jesus’ presentation in the Temple
1:22-38
Mary troubled
1:48
Mary tries to rescue Jesus
12:46-49
3:31-35
8:19-21
13:54-58
6:3
Woman blesses Mary
11:27-28
Mary at the cross
27:55-56
15:40-41
23:49
19:25-27
Mary at the Burial
27:61
15:47
23:55
Resurrection
28:1
16:1
24:1-12, 36-49
Ascension
24:50-53
Pentecost
Acts 1:14

[1] Theotokos means God Bearer although some translate it as Mother of God. 
[2]There are some who would say that she didn’t die but she was taken up to heaven on the point of death or before death. 
[3]Immanuel means ‘God with us’ – an indication of the incarnation.
[4] Matt 13:55-56
[5] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. 1989 (Is 7:14). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.
[7]Also referred to as John the Theologian
[8]See John 19:25-27
[10]Also known as the Protoevangelium.  This document can be found on the internet and is as least as old as the second century. 
[11]Luke 1:39-56
[12] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. 1989 (Lk 1:46–55). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.
[13]Luke 1:26-38. 
[14]Luke 1:38
[15]Only Mary Magdalene is mentioned as having gone to the tomb but she could have been with other women, not alone as John’s gospel seems to suggest. 

 

 

Copyright © 2018 Rev Ros Wilkinson

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5th August – St Nonna

St Nonna is celebrated on 5 August.  She lived in Cappadocia from 305 to 374.  She was the wife of a Bishop of Nazianzus.  Her husband and son were both called Gregory.  Gregory the son is the Cappadocian Father who is referred to as St Gregory of Nazianzus or St Gregory the Theologian, he and St Nonna are depicted in the icon to the right.  Nazianzus[1]was an ancient town and the home to this famous family.   St Nonna’s husband, known as Gregory of Nazianzus the elder wasn’t a Christian when they married.  He was known as a member of the Jewish-Pagan sect called Hypsistarians.  Tradition suggests that through the prayers and witness to the gospel of his wife, Nonna, Gregory the Elder[2]became a Christian in 325.  He was ordained and eventually became the Bishop of Nazianzus.   His son Gregory worked with his father as a priest and was later appointed Patriarch of Constantinople[3].

The Royal Martyr Empress Alexandra,[4]also a saint and the mother of saints, makes the following comment about motherhood in her spiritual journal:
“No work any man can do for Christ is more important than what he can and should do in his own home.  Men have their part – a serious and important part – yet the mother is the real homemaker.  It is her sweet life that gives the home its atmosphere.  It is through her love that God comes first to her children. 
The rabbis used to say: ‘God could not be everywhere and therefore He made mothers.’  The thought is very beautiful.
Mother-love is God’s love revealed in an incarnation which comes so close to the life of infancy that it wraps it about in divine tenderness and broods over it in divine yearning.  Some good mothers live for their children most devotedly, but think only of, or chiefly of, earthly things. They watch over them tenderly in sickness. They toil and deny themselves in order to have their children clothed in a fitting way…But they do not give such thought to their children’s spiritual education. They do not teach them about the Will of God. There are homes in which children grow up without ever hearing a prayer from their fathers or mothers, or receiving any instruction whatever concerning spiritual matters.
On the other hand, there are homes where the fires always burn brightly on the altar, where loving words are spoken continuously for Christ, where children are taught in their earliest years that God loves them, and where they learn to pray with their first lispings.  Far down into the years the memory of these holy moments will abide, proving a light in darkness, an inspiration in discouragement, a secret of victory in hard struggle, an angel of God to keep from sin in fierce temptation.”
St Nonna seems to have been one of those mothers who was faithful in taking care of the physical and spiritual needs of her children.  St Gregory of Nazianzus testifies to his mother’s faithfulness in the following tribute to his parents:
“My father was in truth a second Abraham and was a man of the highest virtue. . . My mother was a worthy companion for such a man and her qualities were as great as his.  She came from a pious family, but was even more pious than they.  Though in her body she was but a woman, in her spirit she was above all men. . . Her mouth knew nothing but the truth, but in her modesty she was silent about those deeds which brought her glory.  She was guided by the fear of God. . .”[5]
This is the second Cappadocian family where the men have paid tribute to their indebtedness to the women in their family.  The other is St Gregory of Nyssa gave tribute to his sister Macrina in his ‘Life of Macrina’.[6] 

 

[1]Also known as Arianzus.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazianzus
[2]276 to 374
[3] In 379
[4] Quoted from: http://www.orthodox.net/menaion-august/05-nonna-wife-gregory-nanzianzen-mother-gregory-theologian.html
[5]Quoted from Benedictines, Delaney, Encyclopedia on https://web.archive.org/web/20070206180426/http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0805.htm
[6]See the section on St Macrina (19 July).

 

Copyright © 2018 Rev Ros Wilkinson

 

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22 July – Mary Magdalene

 

Mary Magdalene is celebrated on 22 (or 23[1]) July she is one of the women who accompanied Jesus[2] as he travelled around teaching and healing.   She was known as a woman ‘from whom seven demons had gone out’.  We don’t know any more of her story – but presumably there had been an event in her life similar to the healing of the Gerasene Demoniac[3].  Maybe Mary Magdalene’s experience wasn’t as dramatic but none the less remarkable and for that reason Luke identified her by her experience of cleansing from demonic activity.
 
This Mary is always referred to as Mary Magdalene (or Mary of Magdala) because she is thought to come from the town of Magdala, a city on the Western shore of the Lake of Galilee.  Her hometown of Magdala was characterized as “…a prosperous and somewhat infamous fishing village on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee, four miles north of Tiberias”[4]  
 
Mary of Magdala[5] is also mentioned in the New Testament as being in the group of women who stood near the cross when Jesus was crucified.  When Jesus was buried in a nearby tomb Mary Magdalene and some other women followed to see where Jesus was laid.  Jesus was buried on the night before the Jewish sabbath (day of rest) started so Jesus had to be hastily put in a tomb and the plan was for the women to return on the morning after the Sabbath to anoint his dead body with spices as was the Jewish custom.  Mary Magdalene was one of the group of women[6]who went back to the burial place on the third day, when she and her companions found that Jesus wasn’t in the tomb that he had been buried in.    
 
Noli Ne Tangere (Don’t touch me) by Titian
John’s gospel makes a strong case for Mary being the first person to see the risen Jesus and who was instructed by Jesus to go and tell the disciples, the men, that Jesus was risen from the dead.  An Apostle is one who has seen the risen Lord Jesus and secondly has received a divine call or commission to proclaim the Christian message.  Under this definition Mary Magdalene qualifies as an Apostle because she saw the risen Lord Jesus[7]and was commissioned by Jesus to go and tell the disciples (later also referred to as Apostles) that Jesus had risen from the dead.  In recognition of this Mary Magdalene is given the title of Apostle to the Apostles. 
 
Not all authorities accept that Mary Magdalene came to Turkey.  One Greek Orthodox Church website[8]accepts that she could have come to Ephesus with John the Apostles, who is referred to as ‘John the Theologian’.  John was probably buried in what is now known as Selçuk, near Ephesus.  As Jesus was dying on the cross in Jerusalem the Apostle John was given care of Mary the Mother of Jesus by her son with his dying words.  It wouldn’t be surprising for Mary Magdalene who had been part of the group supporting Jesus to have formed a deep bond with the Apostle John and Mary the mother of Jesus, so that when they travelled to Ephesus she came too.  Tradition suggests that Mary Magdalene was buried in a burial chamber that is now part of the ruined church built to commemorate the seven sleepers of Ephesus.  In one side chapel that is part of this complex there is a fresco of Mary Magdalene, lending some weight to the tradition that she may well have come to Ephesus with John the Apostle and Mary the Mother of Jesus. 
 
Mary of Magdala and other women were at the foot of the cross as Jesus was crucified.  Those who were at the crucifixion, followed the burial party and later returned to the tomb were loyal followers of Jesus.   They could well have put themselves in danger by so closely associating themselves with a man who had been crucified by the Roman governors and soldiers.   Mary of Magdalene is mentioned as being part of each group of women who were present at the crucifixion, burial and resurrection.  She alone stayed weeping at the tomb and as a result met the risen Jesus, was a witness to the Christ and was then charged by Jesus to teach the faithful followers about his resurrection.  She is considered pure at heart and having spiritual maturity.  Mary is an “excellent woman”[9]according to Claudia Setzer.  She is an apostle.  Most importantly, she is the first apostle.  She is the one who had courage and devotion to announce the resurrection first in her role as the Apostle to the Apostles. 
 
The Collect for Mary Magdalene’s day:
Almighty God,
whose Son restored Mary Magdalene
to health of body and mind
and called her to be a witness to his resurrection:
forgive our sins and heal us by your grace,
that we may serve you in the power of his risen life;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.  Amen. 

 

[1] When the 22 July is a Sunday Mary Magdalene can be celebrated on 23rd July. 
[2] The twelve were with him, 2 as well as some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, 3 and Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their resources. Luke 8:1-3
[3] Mark 5:1-20.
[4] Fallon, J E, “St Mary Magdalene” New Catholic Encyclopedia.  Ed. Berard L Marthaler.  2nd ed Vol 9, Washington DC, Thomson-Gale P.285 (Quoted in Tolbert, Blair. “Mary Magdalene: Apostle to the Apostles P1.
[5] Matt 27:55-56; Mark 15:40-41; Luke 23:49; John 19:25.
[6] Matt 28:1-10; Mark 16:1-8;  Luke:23:55 – 24:12;  John 20:1-18.
[7] John 20:17-18.
[9] Claudia Setzer Excellent Woman: Female Witness to the Resurrection” Journal of Biblical Literature.  116.2 (Summer 1997): P.259

Copyright © 2018 Rev Ros Wilkinson

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