771 (PROSTITUTION/ REPENTANCE/ EXERCISE/ DIVINE GRACE/ DIVINE ASSISTANCE)

Saint Mary of Egypt was the most notorious prostitute of Alexandria for seventeen long years…

And yet, the power of repentance has made her one of the greatest ascetics! This once pampered, sybaritic, pleasure-loving, voluptuous, vulnerable woman, who lived in pleasures and luxury, with soft garments, soft beds and extravagant meals, this person, I say, has lived in repentance for the rest of her life in the harsh and wild interior desert of the Jordan. No clothing, no food and no comfort…

Why am I saying all this? So that we may feel shame, when we are afraid of a little fasting, a little abstinence, a little exercise of the body… If she, whose life before her penitence was far worse than ours, how could she, still being a young and gentle daughter, decide to go into the wilderness, and how could we say that we cannot?

She accomplished those superhuman ascetic struggles, on the one hand through her desire and genuine repentance and on the other hand, undoubtedly, through the help and power of divine grace.

Let us therefore cast away from ourselves every cowardice and hesitation and by the intercessions of our Blessed Mother Mary of Egypt, let us engage in the beautiful struggle of the Christian life, as Christ taught us by his Gospel and as our holy Church has handed it down to us…

Thus, by purifying ourselves, our souls and our bodies, let us become a temple of the Holy Spirit, a temple of the Holy Trinity… Amen.