Mary Magdalene - called by name

A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Bishop David Walker

Good Morning

This week, my inspirations for prayer will come from the biblical characters who were profoundly changed by the death and resurrection of Jesus.

How could she have done it? How could she have mistaken one she had followed so closely, whose every word she had devoured, for a gardener? She was used to self-blame, indeed she was used to blame from all directions. Her past offences had put her well beyond the bounds of polite society. But when she remembered her first words to the Risen Jesus, her cheeks burned red again.

But quickly she remembered how his response had been simply to call out her name. In that moment, for Mary Magdalene, everything had changed. Here was the man she loved, the man she had seen die, and whose burial place she had noted, the man whose corpse she had come to preserve at least a little while longer with her spices, yet impossibly, here he was alive, and calling her by name!

One of my regular practices during my early morning prayers is simply to repeat the few words, “My God, God of all”. It translates a phrase often recited repeatedly by St Francis of Assisi. It helps me recall that the one who is God of everything is also a God who knows and loves me personally. The Jesus Mary met that first Easter morning is the same Jesus who calls me by my name today. The Jesus whose love for me is entirely unaffected by my failings, just as he loved Mary.

Lord Jesus, you know me by name, and love me for who I am. Help me to abide in that love throughout this day. Amen.