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The Monastic Office had a somewhat different selection from the Liturgy of the Hours.
MARY MAGDALENE, a woman of the city, which was a
sinner, washed out the stains of her sins with her tears, by her love of the
Truth; the Word of the Truth; and the Word of the Truth is fulfilled which
says, her sins are forgiven, for she loved much. She who had previously been
cold through sin, was afterward aflame with love. She would not leave the Lord's sepulcher even
when the disciples had left. She was seeking him and could not find him. As she
sought, she wept, and enkindled with the fire of his love, she was aflame with
longing for him whom she believed had been taken away. Whence it happened that
she alone saw him, as she alone had stayed behind to seek him: for the power of
good works lies in perseverance.
THE first time that she sought him she could in no
wise find him: she persevered in seeking, and so it came about that she found
him. And this happened, because longing increases when unsatisfied, and thus
increased, can retain what it finds. For it is of him that the Church, the
Bride in the Song of Solomon, says: By night on my bed I sought him whom my
soul loveth. We seek the Beloved on our bed, when, in the brief rest of this present
life we pine with love for our Redeemer. We seek by night, because, although
our mind is now watching for him, yet is our eye still in darkness.
BUT it remains for her who finds not her Beloved
to rise and go about the city; that is, by thought and questioning to go
through the Church of the elect: let her seek in the streets and in the broad
ways; that is, let her look upon the passers- by in the narrow and the wide
paths, to see whether there is any among them whose footprints she may follow:
for there are some even in this present life whose virtuous deeds we may strive
to follow.
BUT the watchmen that go about the city find us as
we search: for the holy fathers who guard the bulwarks of the Church hasten to
meet our good endeavors, that they may teach us either by word or writing. When
we have passed from them but a little, we find him whom our soul loveth: for
although by his humility our Redeemer became a man among men, yet by his
Divinity was he above men.
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