Theme:
We should clothe ourselves with the perfect Human, acquire it for ourselves as he commanded us, and announce the Good News. (Gospel of Mary 10:11-13)
Presider 1: Today we celebrate the feast of Mary Magdalene, first apostle. The lost gospel of Mary Magdalene, buried deep in the Egyptian desert in the fourth century by monks who were ordered by an edict to destroy all copies, was discovered in January 1896 at a market in Cairo by a German scholar named Carl Reinhardt. Written in Coptic on ancient papyrus, it reveals powerful teachings about a radical love at the heart of Christianity. Her gospel says that we are not sinful, nor should we feel ashamed for being human, but rather that we are a holy mix of a self that struggles and triumphs and a soul that is limitless- rooted in infinite love. There is no spiritual authority outside of us that is greater than the presence of God within us.
Welcome and Gathering
Presider 2: Welcome to our Zoom liturgy at Mary Mother of Jesus, an inclusive Catholic Community where all are welcome.
-We invite you to pray the liturgy and respond where it says “All.”
-Please have bread and wine/juice nearby as we pray our Eucharistic prayer.
Gathering Song: Women of the Church by Carey Landry, Video by Mary Theresa Streck
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-H1vOQDFEc
WOMEN OF THE CHURCH by Carey Landry
Refrain
Women of the Church, how rich is your legacy!
Women of the Church, how great is your faith!
Women of the Church, wellsprings of integrity,
Lead us in the ways of Peace!
1. Women at the foot of the Cross,
Fearless and truly faithful friends,
First ones to see the Risen One of Life
And the first to tell good news.
2. Companions and disciples of Jesus,
chosen and called by name,
witnesses of wisdom, weavers of the Word,
lead us in the ways of Truth!
© 2005, 2010, 2011, Carey Landry. Published by OCP. All rights reserved.
Opening Prayer
Presider 1: Like Mary Magdalene, we rejoice that our spiritual power to live the Gospel is rooted in the presence of Spirit within each and all of us. Like Mary MagdaleneAll: Amen
Communal Reconciliation Rite
Presider 1: We pause now to remember the times we have let false messages about our unworthiness cloud our vision of the infinite depth of love within us. Now imagine the imperfections, chaos and messes of your life illuminated by a love within you that is healing and transforming you as you evolve and grow in awareness of your divinity and humanity.
(Pause briefly. Then extend arm over your heart)
All: I love you, I forgive you, I am sorry, I thank you.
Opening Prayer:
Holy One,
you called Mary Magdalene
in the garden of Resurrection
to be the first preacher of your Good News.
You entrusted her —
not with silence,
but with proclamation,
not with shame,
but with sacred authority..
May we, like Mary,
stand in the face of disbelief
and still speak love.
May we trust the voice of the Spirit
more than the voices of fear.
May we rise from all that has tried to bury us
systems of oppression,
structures of exclusion,
walls built by those afraid of your freedom.
With Mary,
we say “Yes” to the call
to proclaim, to lead, to bless, to build
a Church where all are welcome
and no one is left behind.
With Mary, we rejoice that our oneness with Christ frees us from rules, projections and expectations that limit our ability be a radiant reflection of the Holy One’s love and compassion.
With Mary, we walk with Christ to love asChrist .
Amen.
Liturgy of the Word
Our First Reading is from Mary Magdalene Revealed
Mary Magdalene’s gospel starts with missing pages. These are the word we can’t get back , this is the wisdom, the voice of Christ from the heart of a woman, that was torn out and most likely destroyed before the rest of her gospel was buried. There was something so incendiary in these first six pages that her gospel starts on page 7.
The point of Mary’ s gospel is not to suggest that we need to become someone else, someone “better.”
It’s about acquiring a vision that allows us to see what has always been here, within you. It’ about the quality and intensity of our existence. It’s about the possibility of actually being present, instead of being caught without even realizing it in the endless stories the ego tell; from the second we wake up, dividing us from what’s already here, dividing us from each other and ourselves, dividing us from what we consider good, or god. It’s about really waking up to the fact that our system of understanding the world is no longer serving us.
It’s more of a series of perpetual moments when you remember that you don’t have to feel separate from love-if you don’t want to. Even in the midst of the worst of what we say to ourselves, even when someone we love most in the world can't see us at all, we can practice a way that humbles us, that disrupts the ego's grasp , and let us return again, with ease (even eventually, with levity) to love... And in that moment of recognition, this is when we save ourselves from the self that was never real to begin. This is where we see with the eye of the heart. ( These are the sacred words of Meggan Watterson, in the Introduction to Mary Magdalene Revealed and we affirm them by saying, xv, xvi
Responsorial: Psalm 119
Our response is:
All: I radiate your love within me.
Breathe on me, O breath of Inspiration, in the silence of my tranquil heart, infill me with your wisdom. O that I might radiate the compassion and peace, truth and beauty of the Beloved!
All: I radiate your love within me.
Direct my steps, Oh Holy One, that I may humbly walk with you. The witness of your Life is my model; therefore, my soul yearns for You. The unfolding of your Way gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple.
All: I radiate your love within me.
My mouth pours forth praise continually, for I am ever grateful for your Promises, You come to me and are gracious to me, as You are to all who open their heart’s door.
All: I radiate your love within me.
Guide my steps according to your Wisdom, and show me how to lovingly co-create with You. Let me not be lured by the world’s values, that I may walk the path of wholeness.
All: May I radiate your love within me.
(Adaptation by Nan Merrill, Praying the Psalms; An Invitation to Wholeness)
Our Second Reading is a Letter to the Romans (8:26-27)
All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult time of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it not only around us; it’s within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We’re also feeling the birth pangs and enlarged in the waiting. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.
Meanwhile the moment we get tired in the waiting God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. God’s Spirit does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. She knows us far better than we know ourselves; knows our pregnant condition and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.
These are sacred words of Paul, apostle to the Gentiles, and we affirm them by saying:
All: Amen.
Alleluia: Jan Phillips
Gospel:
A Reading from the Gospel of Mary Magdalene (4:3-7)
Be on your guard so that no one deceives you by saying,
look over here!” or “Look over there!” For the child of true Humanity exist within you. Follow it!
Those who search for it will find it.
These are the sacred words of the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, apostle to the apostles and we affirm them by saying
All: Amen
Homily Starter for the Feast of Mary Magdalene: Apostle to the Apostles
July 22 – Celebrating the Gospel and Witness of Mary Magdalene
Beloved community, on this Feast of Mary Magdalene, we gather to honor a woman whose voice still echoes with courage, wisdom, and radical love. Mary of Magdala was not only a faithful disciple of Jesus — she was the first apostle, the first to proclaim the Resurrection, the first to be sent forth with the Good News. That’s why the early Church called her apostola apostolorum — apostle to the apostles.
In this liturgy honoring Mary Magdalene we focus not only on her role in the canonical Gospels but also on her lost Gospel — the Gospel of Mary, unearthed in the sands of Egypt, silenced for centuries, yet pulsing with spiritual insight for our time.
As Karen King, Harvard scholar and translator of the Gospel of Mary, reminds us, this text reveals a vibrant early Christianity where women’s voices and visions mattered. The gospel portrays Mary as a teacher of wisdom, a bearer of inner revelation, and a spiritual authority whose leadership came directly from her experience of Christ — not from institutional permission.
Three ancient manuscripts of the Gospel of Mary survive, but all are incomplete. The first six pages are missing — and four more in the middle. One has to wonder: what was so threatening, so revolutionary, that those pages were torn out?
Let us consider what did survive.
Mary’s gospel offers four profoundly liberating teachings:
1. We are not inherently sinful. Mary’s Jesus rejects the doctrine of original sin. Instead, he calls us to awaken to the goodness that already lives within us — the divine spark waiting to be rekindled
Salvation is transformation.
Rather than focusing on external rituals or punishments, Mary’s gospel teaches that salvation is an inner journey — a turning toward the love within that heals, integrates, and makes us whole.
3. We are called to become “the child of true humanity.”
This phrase invites us to fully embrace our human and divine nature — to become who we truly are in the image of God.
4. The Spirit speaks from within.
No external authority — no bishop, no pope — can override the authentic voice of the Spirit alive in our hearts.
These teachings challenged the patriarchal structures forming in the 2nd–4th centuries — when church leadership was aligning with empire, and women’s leadership was being erased.
Mary Magdalene is a radiant reflection of the feminine face of God,”whose legacy continues to inspire a Church rising from the margins. In my book Praying with Women of the Bible, I wrote the following spiritual dialogue with Mary which I invite you now to close your eyes and engage Mary Magdalene in a prayer:
“Imagine Mary Magdalene standing today in St. Peter’s Basilica. What would she say about women’s leadership? About exclusion at the altar? About the Spirit’s call and presence in inclusive spiritual communities?”
I imagine Mary standing tall in the center of the Vatican, proclaiming:
“The Risen One chose me to proclaim life, not to be silenced. The Spirit that called me calls women still. You cannot suppress what God has anointed.”
I would thank her — not only for her steadfast witness in the face of disbelief and dismissal — but for lighting a path for us: a path of courage, compassion, and communion. She shows us what it means to be a Spirit-led Church — where gender does not determine authority, and where each voice is cherished as part of the Body of Christ.
Joan Chittister names Mary Magdalene a model for every woman called to leadership:
“She calls all of us to faith and fortitude, to unity and universalism, to a Christianity that rises above sexism, a religion that transcends the idolatry of maleness, and a commitment to the things of God that surpasses every system.” (A Passion for Life, p. 46)
On this day, we honor Mary Magdalene not as a figure of the past, but as a living presence in the movement for a renewed Church — a Church where the gifts of women are embraced. A Church where every baptized person is recognized as a full participant in Christ’s mission.
Let us remember that Mary’s gospel survived not by chance, but by grace. Hidden, buried, preserved in fragments — it waits now to be received and lived.
As we continue our celebration this week, may we open ourselves to the Spirit speaking through Mary’s voice, through our own voices, through the voices of all who have been silenced — and may we rise together, apostles of a new day in inclusive communities around the world.
Amen.
Community Sharing: What did you hear in our readings today?
Communal Statement of Faith
All: (Presider 2) We believe in one God, a divine mystery beyond all definition and rational understanding, the heart of all that has ever existed, that exists now, or that ever will exist.
We believe in Jesus, messenger of God's Word, bringer of God's healing, heart of God's compassion, bright star in the firmament of God's prophets, mystics, and saints.
We believe that we are called to follow Jesus as a vehicle of God's love, a source of God's wisdom and truth, and an instrument of God's peace in the world.
We believe that God's kin-dom is here and now, stretched out all around us for those with eyes to see it, hearts to receive it, and hands to make it happen.
Prayers of and for the Community
Presider 1: We now remember all those who are suffering especially from oppression in our country especially migrants who are facing deportation and separation from their families. Our response is: All: Your Love calls us to action.
Presider 2: For all those suffering from violence, discrimination and hatred, we pray…
All: Your Love accompanies us.
Presider 1: For all those suffering the rages of war in Ukraine, Russia and the Middle East.
All: Your Love comforts and challenges us.
Presider 2: That the Federal and State governments will work together for justice and the upholding of the human rights of all, we pray.. All: Your Love empowers us.
Presider 1: We pray for our MMOJ intentions. (Joan shares)
For what else should we pray?
Presider 2: Holy Mystery we respond to the needs of our sisters and brothers in loving prayer and solidarity. Amen
Preparation Of The Gifts
Presider 1: Blessed are You, Holy One, through Your divine providence we have this bread, to share, the Bread of Life.
All: Blessed are You, Holy One, forever.
Presider 2: Blessed are You, O Loving One through Your divine providence we have this wine to share, our spiritual drink.
All: Blessed are, You, Holy One, forever.
Presider 1: Nurturing One, we are united in this sacrament by the love of Christ, whose presence we are as we proclaim the liberating power of your Spirit Sophia, in our humanity and divinity, calling us to build the unity of Love in a more compassionate and just world. All: Amen.
Eucharistic Prayer
Presider 2: Your Spirit, who raised Jesus from the dead, is rising up in all who work for humanity’s healing and well-being especially now during this Covid pandemic and systemic racism. With thankful hearts, in the company of all holy women and men, your liberating Spirit rises up within us, works through us and we sing:
All: Holy, Holy, Holy (adapted from Holy, Holy, Holy by Karen Drucker)
https://youtu.be/orKBBIj5LZA
We are Holy, Holy, Holy…3x , You are Holy, Holy, Holy, I am Holy, Holy, Holy, We are Holy, Holy, Holy
Presider 1: O Heart of Love, Your Spirit moved through Mary Magdalene as she taught us that we are unified and undivided in continuous communion with you. Your Spirit moves through our humanity and our divinity. Your Spirit moves through the love within us, expanding out in widening circles to embrace all people and creation in our evolving universe.
Please extend Your hands in blessing.
All: (Presider 2) Pour out Your Spirit Sophia anew upon this bread and wine and upon us as we become more deeply the Christ Presence in our world.
All (Presider 1): On the night before he died, Jesus came to table with his family and the women and men he loved. Jesus took bread blessed and broke it, saying, “Take, eat, this is my body. Do this in memory of me.” (pause)
All (Presider 2) : After supper, Jesus poured a cup of wine and shared it with his friends, saying,
“This is the cup of the covenant of my love. As often as You drink of it, remember me.”
Presider 2: Let us proclaim the mystery of faith:
All: Christ has died in all those who have passed away from the Coronavirus and from police brutality.
Christ is rising in all those working for the well-being of humanity; searching for a vaccine, treatments and dismantling institutional racism and sexism.
Christ comes each day in our ministry, prayers and actions for a renewed world with justice and equality for all.
Presider 1: Embracing Presence, we remember all the companions who have gone before us: Mary, Mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene and all holy women and men who are rising up in loving service to heal our world. We pause now to remember our personal communion of saints.
(pause)
(Presiders hold bread and wine)
All: Presider 2: For it is through living as Jesus lived, and loving as he loved, that we awaken to Your Spirit empowering us to work for justice and equality for all citizens in our country and for the life of your planet Earth. All: AMEN.
The Prayer of Jesus
Presider 1: Let us pray as Jesus taught us. “Our Father and Mother…”
Sign of Peace: Peace is flowing like a River by Carey Laundry
Presider 2: Jesus said to his disciples, “My peace I leave You. My peace I give You.”
(Let us place our hands in front of us, palms up, as we sing, “Peace is flowing like a river…” you may change “captives” to “peoples”)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YRM-eHgXCY
Peace is flowing like a river, flowing out of you and me. Flowing out into the desert, setting all the people free. Love is flowing like a river, flowing out of you and me. Flowing out into the desert, setting all the captives free. Healing's flowing like a river, flowing out of you and me. Flowing out into the desert, setting all the people free. Alleluia
Communion
Presider 1: Please join in praying the Litany for the Breaking of the Bread All:
All: Holy One, You call us to speak truth to power; we will do so.
Holy One, You call us to live the Gospel of healing and justice; we will do so. Holy One, You call us to be Your presence in the world; we will do so.
Presider 2: This is the bread of life and the cup of blessing. Blessed are we who are called to Christ’s table. All: We are the Body and Blood of Christ for the world.
Pease receive/share Eucharist now.
Communion Song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SR5k0UC9Vg
Come Be Beside Us
© Jan Phillips
Come Be Beside Us by Jan Phillips
Come be beside us.
Come be around us.
Come be within us.
Come be among us.
Presider 1: Thanksgiving: Please unmute yourself if you have a thanksgiving to share.
Concluding Rite
Presider 2: The Holy One is within You. As you go forth to continue your ministry for justice and equality, and peace for all life and earth itself, may you be a radiant reflection of Christ in our world. All: And also within You.
Presider 1: Please extend Your hands as we pray our final blessing.
All:
Blessing: Apostolic Courage with Mary Magdalene
Presider 1 and All:
Mary of Magdala,
First Apostle,
Teacher of Wisdom,
Bearer of Resurrection —
Walk with us now as we go forth to serve our sisters and brothers. .
May your courage embolden our witness.
May your love deepen our compassion.
May your joy give us strength in the struggle.
Presider 2 and All:
And may the God who called you —
the Christ who rose to meet you —
the Spirit who spoke through you —
bless us,
send us,
and rise within us as we go forth to celebrate the Love that is within us
now and always.
In the name of the Source of Life,
Jesus, our brother
and the Spirit who liberates.
Amen.
Closing Song:
Recessional: Women Spirit Rising by Karen Drucker and Video by Mary Theresa Streck
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT4S7aNHzQA
If you would like to add your prayer request to our MMOJ Community Prayers book,
Please send an email to Joan Meehan jmeehan515@aol.com
If you would like to invite another person to attend our liturgy please refer them to
Marymotherofjesus.net
where the day’s liturgy is found. Zoom instructions are also included there.
Liturgy adapted from Mary Magdalene Liturgy written by Bridget Mary Meehan
