GRACE  EPISCOPAL CHURCH

MAGDALENE COMMUNITY

ORDER OF SERVICE

NOVEMBER 14, 2016

4:00 P.M.

CALL TO SILENCE AND OPENING MEDITATION

A MEDITATION ON THE SAINT DAY OF PHILLIP THE APOSTLE

There were three who always walked with the Lord: Mary, his mother, and her sister, and Magdalene, the one who was called his companion. His sister and his mother and his companion were each a Mary.  Faith receives, love gives.  No one will be able to receive without faith.  No one will be able to give without love.  Because of this, in order that we may indeed receive, we believe, and in order that we may love, we give, since if one gives without love, he has no profit from what he has given he who has received something other than the Lord is still a Hebrew.

The Gospel according to Phillip, Nag Hamadi Library, Translation by Wesley W.Isenberg

As for the Wisdom who is called “the barren,” she is the mother of the angel.  And the companion of the […] Mary Magdalene. […] loved her more than all the disciples, and used to kiss her often on her mouth.  The rest of the disciples […].  They said to him “Why do you love her more than all of us?”  The Savior answered and said to them, “Why do I not love you like her?  When a blind man and one who sees are both together in darkness, they are no different from one another.

When the light comes, then he who sees will see the light, and he who is blind will remain in darkness.”  The Lord said,
“Blessed is he who is before he came into being.  For he who is, has been and shall be.”

1)      But they grieved.  They wept greatly, saying. How shall we go to the Gentiles and preach the gospel of the Kingdom of the Son of Man?  If they did not spare Him, how will they spare us?

2)      Then Mary stood up, greeted them all, and said to her brethren, Do not weep and do not grieve nor be irresolute, for His grace will be entirely with you and will protect you.

3)      But rather, let us praise His greatness, for He has prepared us and made us into Men.

4)      When Mary said this, she turned their hearts to the Good, and they began to discuss the words of the Savior.

5)      Peter said to Mary, Sister we know that the Savior loved you more than the rest of woman.

6)      Tell us the words of the Savior which you remember which you know, but we do not, nor have we heard them.

7)      Mary answered and said, What is hidden from you I will proclaim to you.

8)      And she began to speak to them these words: I, she said, I saw the Lord in a vision and I said to Him, Lord, I saw you today in a vision.  He answered and sid to me,

9)      Blessed are you that you did not waver at the sight of Me, for where the mind is there is the treasure.

10)  I said to Him, Lord, how does he who sees the vision see it, through the soul or through the spirit?

11)  The Savior answered and said, He does not see through the soul nor through the spirit, but the mind that is between the two that is what sees the vision and it is […]

                       Opening Dialogue

                   A Song from the Manichaean Psalms of Heracleides

Mary, Mary, know me,

But do not touch [me]

[Dry] the tears from your eyes

And know that I am your master,

Only do not touch me,

For I have not yet seen my father’s face.

Your God was not taken away,

As you thought in your pettiness.

Your God did not die;

Rather he mastered [death].

I am not the gardener.

I have given, I have received…

I did [not] appear to you

Until I saw your tears and grief…for me.

Cast this sadness away

And perform this service.

Be my messenger to these lost orphans

Hurry with joy, go to the eleven,

You will find them on the bank of the Jordan.

The Traitor convinced them to fish

As they did earlier

And to lay down the nets.

In which they caught people for life.

Say to them, “Arise, let us go.

Your brother calls you.”

If they disregard me as brother,

Say to them, “It is your master,

If they disregard me as maser

Say to them, “It is your lord.”

Use all your skills and knowledge

Until you bring the sheep to the shepherd.

If you see that they do not respond,

Make Simon Peer come to you.

Say to him, “Remember my words,

Between me and you.  Remember what I said,

Between me and you, on the Mount of Olives.

I have something to say,

I have no one to whom to say it.”

Rabbi, my maser, I shall carry out your instructions

With joy in my heart.

I shall not let my heart rest,

I shall not let me eyes sleep,

I shall not let my feet relax

Until I bring he sheep to the field.

Glory to Mary,

Because she has listened to her master,

[and she]carried out his instructions with

The joy in her whole heart.

              [Glory and] triumph to the soul of blessed Mary. 

The Gospels of Mary   By Marvin Meyer, copyright 2004

                Reading

“When the soul had brought the third Power to naught, it went upward and saw the fourth Power.  It had seven forms.  The first form is darkness;   the second is desire;  the third is ignorance,  the fourth is zeal for death; the fifth is the realm of the flesh; the sixth is the foolish wisdom of the flesh;  the seventh is the wisdom of the wrathful person.  These are the seven Powers of Wrath.

“They interrogated the soul, ‘Where are you coming from, human-killer, and where are you going, space-conqueror?’

“The Soul replied, saying ‘What binds me has been slain, and what surrounds me has been destroyed, and my desire has been brought to an end, and ignorance has died.  In a [wor]ld, I was set loose from a world [an]d in a type, from a type which is above, and (from) the chain of forgetfulness which exists in time.  From this hour on, for the time of the due season of he aeon, I will receive rest i[n] silence.’”

After Mary had said these things, she was silent, since it was up to this point that the Savior had spoken to her.

Gospel of Mary Magdala, Text from the Papyrus Berolinensis

                   Closing Meditation

Excerpt from the Transcript of Mother Teresa’s Acceptance Speech, held on 10 December 1979 in the Aula of the University of Oslo, Norway  

“As we have gathered here to thank God for this gift of peace, I have given you all the prayer for peace that St. Francis of Assisi prayed many years ago, and I wonder he must have felt the need what we feel today to pray for, I think, you have all that that paper?  We’ll say it together.”

“Lord, make me a channel of your peace, that where there is hatred, I may bring love’ that where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness; that where there is discord, I may bring harmony; that where thee is error, I may bring truth; that where there is doubt, I may bring faith; that where there is despair, I may bring hope, that where there are shadows, I may bring light; that where there is sadness, I may bring joy.

Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort than to be comforted; to understand, than to be understood; to love, than to be loved.  For it is by forgetting self, that one finds.  It is by forgiving that one is forgiven.  It is by dying that one awakens to eternal life.  Amen.”          Saint Francis of Assisi