On the occasion of the Feast Day of St. Mary Magdalene, this evening at 19.00 Fr. Gianfranco Lunardon will preside over the Holy Mass at the Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Rome.

Afterwards there will be a brief reflection by Fr. Gianfraco Lunardon, the Secretary General of the Order.

‘St. Mary Magdalene prays with us, a saint who embodies three figures of the gospels: the forgiven sinner, Mary of Magdala and the sister of Lazarus. A symbol of the tenderness of Christ, Mary Magdalene is prayed to as the patron saint of compassion.

Today we commemorate with joy the presence of Mary of Magdala, the first witness of the Risen Christ. In reality, because of a small historical confusion, the three Marys cited in the gospels: the prostitute who became a disciple, Mary the sister of Lazarus and Mary of Magdala, ended up by becoming one person. It is of little importance: we know of her all-consuming love for her Teacher, her profound weeping at the sepulchre, and the anxiety of the announcement. Mary Magdalene thus became in the history of the Church the

“L’abbraccio di Giuda” Affreschi di Giotto – Cappella degli Scrovegni (Padova)

image of the tenderness of God, of His infinite mercy, of He who made a prostitute the first and most credible of the women missionaries.

We will never finish praising and thanking the Lord for His tenderness because the Lord is so splendidly different from that ghost that we make of Him, that severe and gruff God who inhabits ours fears and our unconscious…Nobody is lost, never, for God.

May it be Mary Magdalene, the disciple of the compassionate and the merciful one, the recipient of the immensely respectful and sweet look of the Lord, who makes us witnesses to the Risen Christ, on this day, just as she did by becoming the woman apostle of the apostles’.

Fr. Gianfranco Lunardon

Download here the reflection and prayers of the Feast of St. Mary Magdalene 

Read here the press information