Words for week beginning Monday 20th July

For the Feast of Saint Mary Magdalene, 22nd July

“Then Peter said to Mary, “Sister, we know that you are greatly loved by the Saviour, more than any other woman. Tell us those words of His that you remember, the things which you know and we don’t, the teachings we never heard.”

Mary answered, saying: “What is hidden from you I shall reveal to you. Whatever is unknown to you, and I remember, I will tell you.”

And she began saying these words to them. She said, “Once I saw the Lord in a vision and I said to him: ‘Lord, [Rabbouni,] now I see you in this vision.’

He answered me and said: ‘Blessed are you Mary, for you do not waver at the sight of me. How wonderful you are! For this is where the treasure lies – in [that place where heaven and earth meet, where deep understanding arises in the heart and mind], ‘the nous’.”

… The Soul said: “Now I have recognised this: that everything is impermanent, the whole of creation will be dissolved. All worldly things, all heavenly things, everything passes, everything will be released… I have been set free from one world with the aid of another world, from one pattern through the moulding and shaping of a greater pattern. I have been liberated from the chains of forgetfulness which are both temporary and temporal. From this moment on, now and for all seasons, I am released into silent restfulness, where time rests in the eternity of time.”

After saying these things Mary settled into silence: that place of sanctuary to which the Saviour’s words had brought her.”

From The Gospel of Mary Magdalene, translated by David Curtis