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| The Penitent Magdalen, ca. 1640, by Georges de la Tour (1593-1652) |
Beáta Maríæ Magdaléna, quǽsumus, Dómine, suffrágiis adjuvémur: cujus précibus exorátus, quatriduánum fratrem Lázarum vivum ab inferis resuscitásti: Qui vivis et regnas, cum Deo Patre in unitáte Spíritus Sancti, Deus, per ómnia sǽcula sæculórum.*Since my reversion, few saints have remained as constant a companion as Santa Maria Maddalena. Whenever I think of her, I am reminded that every Christian must one day pass through a wilderness of his own.
It is not only her unwavering love for Christ that draws me to her, but what she has come to symbolize: the quiet work of God’s grace in the soul. In her, we are reminded that true transformation is born not of noise, distraction, or ceaseless activity, but of silence, prayer, and fidelity to God.
Her wilderness was more than a refuge; it was an inner desert. There, stripped of vanity and distraction, we encounter ourselves as we truly are. The interior life is not an escape from the world, but a place where we are quietly prepared to return to it rightly ordered.
Ernst Jünger wrote of the “forest passage” as an inward withdrawal from the pressures to conform in modern society. Christianity has long known a far older passage. There, freedom is found not merely in resisting the spirit of the age, but in surrendering oneself to the transforming power of God’s grace.
In a world that prizes constant motion and endless distraction, the Maddalena remains a quiet rebuke. She reminds us that the deepest battles are fought in the hidden places of the heart, and that the wilderness within is where the soul is gradually conformed to Christ.
~ By Giovanni di Napoli, July 21st, Feast Day of San Lorenzo of Brindisi
* May we be assisted, O Lord, we beseech Thee, by the intercession of blessed Mary Magdalen, for whom, moved by her prayers, Thou didst bring back her brother Lazarus, then dead for four days, alive from the grave. Who livest and reignest with God the Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end. Amen.
