Today the church remembers a saint honored by both Christians and Muslims: Saint Charbel Mahklouf, Hermit and Miracle Worker.

Born in 1828, Youseff Mahklouf was raised in the mountains of Lebanon to a working class family. From an early age he had an affinity for the saints of the faith. When his father died, his mother married a man who would go on to take Holy Orders, becoming one of the rare married Roman priests in the world.

Youseff would seek to follow in his step-father’s holy footsteps.

In 1851 he would go off to seek his monastic vows through the Lebanese Maronite Order, taking on the monastic name Charbel, a nod to the early Christian martyr of the same name. In his pursuit of ordination he became a keen mind, studying philosophy and theology under the names that made the Eastern church full of such wisdom.

Saint Charbel was drawn to the life of the hermit, though, and as soon as he was ordained he sought permission to no longer need anyone’s permission for anything. He spent the next twenty-three years of his life living alone, and died on Christmas Eve in 1898.

Since his death numerous miracles have been attributed to him and, though Lutherans are generally allergic to miracles, it’s worth noting that both Christians and Muslims have reported to feeling his help in times of need. Being raised in the hills of Lebanon at the intersection of these religious traditions, his very being provides a seam that sows the two faiths together in some ways…a seam that we should certainly use when seeking dialogue.

Saint Charbel is a reminder for me, and should be for the whole church, that sometimes we are called to live a solitary life and, in doing so, end up uniting people in ways we didn’t think possible. The trick is, of course, to discern and follow the call…

-information gleaned from Illes’ Daily Magic and public sources

-icon written by the saints over at monesterayicons.com

Today the church honors the “apostle to the Apostles,” St. Mary of Magdala, more commonly called Mary Magdalene.

Mary’s role in the stories of Jesus varies, depending on the account being referenced. In Luke she was one of those healed by Jesus during his ministry (apparently 7 demons plagued her). Some traditions have identified her with the “woman of the city” who anointed Jesus’ feet when he reclined in the Pharisees’s home, though there is no scriptural basis for this.

In the Gnostic Gospel of Philip, Mary is the one whom Jesus “loved more than the other disciples,” causing 2000 years of speculation over whether or not they were intimate or just in the “friend zone.”

It’s worth noting that the ancient church was known to type-cast in order to provide biased analysis, especially when it came to marginalized communities. The ever-virginal Mary, Mother of Jesus needed a yang to her yin, and so the perpetually penitent prostitute label was assigned to Mary Magdalene. These two mirrored Mary’s would stand for different paths in life for many a young Christian, and unfortunately these typologies have caused terrible, perhaps irreparable, harm to many of the faith.

This unfair, and unfounded moniker of prostitute doesn’t describe Mary Magdalene, but does describe us: we love such labels, especially ones that accuse and belittle.

I think Mary Magdalene should rather be thought of as “ever-faithful” instead of perpetually penitent. It was she who stuck by Jesus on his hardest day when everyone else fled. And it is she who, in the shadows of the early morning, rose to anoint his body, faithful to the end.

Or maybe we should call her “the first pastor,” because it is she who first told the disciples that Jesus had risen, originally proclaiming that good news formally, with the authority of one who had been visited uniquely by Jesus with the message.

Some recent scholarship suggests that “Mary of Magdala” is less a name assigning her to a place, and rather a formal title, with “Magdala” as a descriptor of what she was to the first church: “the tower.” If this is true, “St. Mary the Tower” gets equal billing with “St. Peter the Rock,” making her a beacon of strength and wisdom.

I quite like that.

If this understanding has been erased or lost to the insecurity of patriarchy, it makes recapturing and re-membering it even more necessary than ever in these days.

Mary Magdalene is a reminder for me, and should be for the church, of two things.

First: histories written by men will feature men and end up denigrating women in some way, either by omission or by commission. This has been true, is presently true, and without a real “come to Jesus” around re-imagining masculinity and the intentional introduction of female voices in the mix, will unfortunately be true in an unchecked future.

Second: a woman was the first pastor. Every pastoral call committee should be reminded of this before looking at any paperwork.

-biographical notes taken from Pfatteicher’s “New Book of Festivals & Commemorations,” opinion portions are solely mine and don’t represent Pfatteicher

-icon written by Ulla Karttunen

Today the church remembers the Biblical prophet-in-exile: Saint Ezekiel, Critic, Visionary, and Giver of Questionable Advice.

Saint Ezekiel was (probably) born sometime in the early 600’s BCE while King Josiah was instituting the reforms that Judah had hoped would keep them in Divine favor and keep warring armies from continually conquering them.

Spoiler alert: the reforms didn’t work.

He was born into the priestly cast of Israel, and was supposedly a descendant of Joshua himself. Ezekiel, prophet and priest, was married and, because of his high standing in Jewish society, was exiled to Babylon when the Babylonians crushed Jerusalem. The Babylonians were no fools. To prevent an insurrection in their captured lands they would exile the best and the brightest (and those who held the most political sway) to work in Babylon for the king there, benefiting from their wisdom and preventing any influential characters from gathering power around themselves.

Ezekiel was married, and reportedly lived in Tel Abib on the banks of the Chebar river.

In the book of Ezekiel we get a glimpse into his prophecies and encounters with God. Ezekiel was a person who lived off of the visions he had of the Divine, much like Saint Julian of Norwich and Saint John of the Cross, and his mystical visions vacillated between beautiful and horrific. He warned of the coming destruction of the temple in Jerusalem and, for five years, acted out this destruction in a kind of pantomime for all to see.

Other notable illustrations in his visions were the graphic depictions of the angels surrounding the Divine throne (human face, ox, eagle, and lion), and the cryptic fiery “wheels in wheels” which always reminds me of the Johnny Cash song, “Ring of Fire.”

When the prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem proved true, he became a would-be advisor for those also in exile in Babylon. Notably it was he who told Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to refuse to bow down to King Nebuchadnezzar’s golden idol, creating the fun Easter Vigil story popularly known as “Three Men in a Fiery Furnace” because when you don’t do what the King wants, you get thrown in the oven.

You know, that old chestnut…

Surely that was questionable advice, but everything turned out alright.

Ezekiel is held as a model of faith in all three of the Abrahamic traditions, the “People of the Book.” The Eastern Orthodox Church honors him on this day, as do many other communities (including Lutherans).

Ezekiel is a reminder for me, and should be for the whole church, that even when you find yourself as an exile from your home, stay true to your convictions and you’ll find your home is never far away.

-first icon is a typical Russian writing of Ezekiel and can be purchased at orthodoxchristiansupply.com

-second icon is a writing of Ezekiel’s vision of “wheels within wheels” and, though I’ve tried hard for a while to find the writer of the icon, I’ve been unable to locate them. Note that I’m not the writer of either.

Today the church remembers a firebrand of a saint who threw off the shackles of patriarchy every chance she got: Saint Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Speaker, Feminist, and Woman’s Rights Advocate.

Saint Elizabeth was born in Johnstown, New York to strict Presbyterian parents in the first part of the 19th Century. Early into adulthood she married abolitionist Henry Brewster Stanton, and together they had seven children. She organized women across the country to fight for the right to vote, coming alongside other advocates like Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, and Amelia Bloomer.

Together they organized the first Women’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York in 1848.

She was extremely witty, a brilliant scholar, and a staunch abolitionist. She created the “Declaration of Sentiments,” an expansion of the Declaration of Independence that inserted the word “woman” and “women” throughout the document. Along with advocating for woman’s suffrage and against slavery, she also moved the needle on the right for women to own property and divorce their husbands.

She was a regular church attender, but a sharp critic of Christianity (and religion in general) which makes me think we would probably have been friends.

She died in 1902, never witnessing the 19th Amendment or realizing the right to vote. Nevertheless, she paved the way for that legislation to happen.

Saint Stanton is a reminder for me, and should be for everyone, that sometimes we don’t see the results we labor for, but we must labor on.

-historical bits from Pfatteicher’s New Book of Festivals & Commemorations

-icon written by Fr. Robert Lentz and can be purchased at trinitystores.com

Today the church remembers a 4th Century saint who was often overshadowed by her more famous brothers Greg and Bas (you know them Gregory of Nyssa and Basil the Great, two of the three “Cappadocian Fathers” of the faith): Saint Macrina the Younger, Scholar and Universalist.

Saint Macrina was born in a family already well-steeped in the early Christian movement. She was named after her grandmother, Macrina the Elder, and though her brothers would gain notoriety for their scholarly treatises, they themselves mentioned Macrina as a teacher of faith in their home.

Having been betrothed in an arranged marriage by her father, Macrina never tasted wedded life as her fiancé died before the wedding. She came to see her vows as belonging to Christ alone, and lived an aesthetic and austere life with her mother and a group of women who pledged themselves to communal living. In this community, everyone was equal, whether you were formally a servant or wealthy enough not to owe anyone anything.

It’s one of the early egalitarian communities of the faith, and St. Macrina grew in responsibility as the community grew, taking on what we would call an Abbess role in time.

St. Macrina was also the tutor of her younger brother, Peter of Sebaste who would become a Bishop in the early church. She taught him not only the great philosophical ideas of the time, but also about The Way which was spreading like wildfire in the West and the Near East. In this way, and because she had such a strong influence on Greg and Bas (as I call them), means she was a shaper of the early church, an unseen hand on the needle of the faith.

Known for being a deep thinker, St. Macrina was supposedly a Universalist, and is lifted up by the Universalist Unitarian Church as a great scholar. Her brother, Gregory of Nyssa, composed Dialogue on the Soul and Resurrection in which he records a conversation with Macrina on her death bed (actually, her aestheticism was so great she refused to die in a bed, and chose to die lying on the ground). In that conversation she notes her deep conviction that everyone would be reconciled to God in the end, faithful and pagan alike.

St. Macrina died on this day in 379 AD in Pontus, modern day Turkey.

Saint Macrina is a reminder for me, and should be for the whole church, that the early Christian movement comprised a multiplicity of thoughts and theologies…and still does, despite what the zealots in all corners might want you to think.

-historical bits from open source publications

-icon a classic Byzantine style by unidentified writer where St. Macrina holds an icon of her brothers

The ancient Celts had a strong inclination that the rhythms of nature were echoed in the rhythms of the human body. Winter was for silence and rest, Spring for energy and growth, Summer for blazing work and toil, and Autumn for winding down and letting go.

They understood that living in a way that was in alignment with these rhythms led to a balanced way of being in this world.

At every new moon they also saw that the cycle of life both as continued and began again at the same time, giving support for this idea that time is circular, not linear, and that every moment is both a continuation of a past step and the opportunity for newness.

Let those with ears to hear, hear.