These two, together: VERY COOL! Here we have Philomena with the anchor along with Mary of Magdala
I just love that: the Virgin Martyr Philomena (posts HERE) and the sainted penitent Mary of Magdala, together! This is the glory of the Church Militant, the Church Triumphant, and the aim of going through purgatory in this life instead of the next. Both knew themselves to be saints and sinners.
It’s not that Philomena didn’t know that she was totally weak and conceived in original sin, absolutely deserving of hell. It’s because she knew that all so well, and was filled with such humble thanksgiving for Jesus, the greatest love of her life because of His grace, that she was able to persevere in being a martyr because of the virginity which she gave to Christ Jesus, knowing that He appreciates the utter agility of soul which goes along with this, one’s very life becoming an act of intercession for the entire Mystical Body of Christ.
It’s not that Mary of Magdala wasn’t a saint, though knowing full well her “past history”. It’s because she knew this all so well by the grace of Christ — the standard of goodness and kindness — that she was able not to look to herself and get depressed and despair, but was able to take up the invitation of the goodness and kindness of Jesus in order to be a great, great saint, for whose intercession we are all of us so very thankful, never forgeting, however, why she needed that invitation in the first place.
If one gluts oneself in sin, one no longer knows oneself to be a sinner. For the sinner, there seems to be no sin. For this one, saintliness is out of the question. If you’re not a sinner, you can’t be a saint!
If one easily, simply, fully accepts one’s weakness, that one would easily fall into sin without the grace of Jesus, then one can know that one is invited by our Lord’s goodness and kindness to be a saint, that is, to be His good friend, as He called us in a creative act after the Resurrection.
So, saint and sinner: it’s either both or neither one. Confession brings all this home gloriously. When’s the last time you’ve been? It’s a great experience of our Lord’s goodness and kindness.
Accompany me, Father George David Byers, S.S.L., S.T.D., as I begin life as a Catholic Priest-Hermit by choice. Holy Souls Hermitage is dedicated to the sanctification of my fellow priests, bishops, deacons & seminarians going through the purgatory of this life or the next. Prayer and sacrifice go up, of course, for both Benedict XVI and the next Successor of Saint Peter. 
I like this so very much. This post definitely reflects the same religion I believe in and why I love Jesus so much.
It makes me think of something I liked especially from George Wiegel’s biography of Bl John Paul II, “Witness to Hope”, and copied down: “Some post-conciliar theologians had argued that mortal sin was virtually impossible. ‘Reconciliatio et Paenitentia’ teaches that this theory empties the moral life of its inherent drama and denies individual moral acts their seriousness. If we cannot sin greatly because we ave no real moral capacity for doing serious evil, how is it that we can live nobly? Isn’t the same lack of capacity implied? John Paul asks.
“That is why the practice of individual confession is so important, and why Catholics have ‘an inviolable and inalienable right’ to it.”
This sinner is visiting some good Cistercian nuns to discuss my vocation on Saturday. This was at the urging of a priest who does not know me well, and others who know me better have said in the past I am not suitable for religious life. I feel uncomfortable tension because I strongly believe in religious life and can see very great benefits perhaps for my own and others’ salvation and even good in this life, It is what I feel I should do if possible for me, and corresponds to profound and strong yearnings of my heart to give myself totally to God, but I really believe those who have said I am unsuitable, and being strongly devoted to Truth I do not want to misrepresent myself. I am praying for a miracle, but not presuming. Actually what has felt right is to pray for a happy death, and to be holy, and may God lead this very blind person to that.
That’s just so very wonderful, Elizabeth! Yay! You have my prayers and blessings for this intention. Yikes: only a couple of days away!
Thank you very much Fr George, I need those!