In Honor of Yeshua: To Carry One’s Burden, Willingly

Reflections on Jesus and Mary Magdalene after a Pilgrimage in the South of France

I’m arriving home from two weeks in Europe where I traveled to the South of France to visit sacred sites of Mary Magdalene.

This was a heart opening trip, one I held in my visions for years, and so sacred to share with my husband and daughter. I look forward to seeing how this time and the integration of it all shapes my teachings.

For now I’d like to say there is no doubt in my mind that Mary Magdalene was the wife of Jesus, a noble woman, and the one chosen to lead and teach the sacred path of “The Way,” after the crucifixion.

There is so much I could write about - how the Catholic Church named Mary a prostitute, that Jesus cast seven devils from her (when actually Jesus healed her after someone tried to poison her), that the stories of women were intentionally removed from the Bible under the Pope’s guidance - but today I’d like to share a fleeting moment that happened when I was hiking up the trail to visit Mary’s sacred cave in St. Maximin-la Sainte Baume.

This cave was thought to be where Mary lived out the last thirty years of her life. Where she wrote, prayed and meditated until the day she died. Some say she was lifted up by angels several times a day to receive nourishment. There was a sacred spring on the walk up, a holy source of fresh water that my daughter and I blessed each other with.

For the majority of the hike up the mountain, I carried my daughter on my back, in a backpack.

At one point on the trail we passed a man who asked my husband a question in French. We know almost no French, so we asked if he spoke English or Spanish.

He asked again in Spanish, which translated to: “Why is your wife carrying the child, shouldn’t you be doing that?”

My husband responded that I wanted to. It was true, I handed him the backpack with our camera, water and snacks, and chose to carry my daughter, even though she was much heavier than the other load.

To that he said, “Ella lleva su carga voluntariamente.”

This could be translated literally as, “She carries her load, voluntarily.” but the word carga is interchangeable with “burden.”

“She carries her burden, willingly,” is how my husband translated it to me as we walked up the mountain.

Those words stayed with me as I carried the “heavy load” on the walk up to the cave.

To carry one’s burden, willingly.

I thought of Jesus and the crucifixion… How I believe he was given some foresight of how things would unfold on what we now call Good Friday…

…and how he chose to carry his burden, willingly.

And as awful as it was to live through, how Mary Magdalene and Mother Mary, carried their burden willingly as well, in full surrender of a plan that was greater than them.

For the days leading up to the visit of the sacred cave, I had been praying for relief from the challenges of my own life.

I thought about the miraculous powers Jesus had to heal, and carried prayers of healing a difficult health challenge that has been leading to chronic pain and muscle tension in my body.

“Maybe I’ll be one of those people who receive a miracle today,” I thought when I woke up that morning.

But when I heard those words, something in me softened.

What if it’s all perfect.

What if it’s all in God’s plan.

What if I didn’t try to change the circumstances of what I have been given, but instead chose to carry those burdens, willingly?

It certainly changes how I was looking at the burdens in my life.

It was an invitation to release victimhood and suffering.

To instead to face hardship and challenge head-on and with grace.

A willingness to be with the pain, knowing that I am so much more than this body.

A teacher once shared with me, “The source of all suffering is resistance.”

When we want ourselves to be different, someone else to be different, the world or our reality to be different than it is, we suffer.

When we are in resistance, we lose connection to our power.

But when we surrender, we align with a plan that is greater than us.

Thy will be done.

Not my will, or what I think is the best outcome for my life, but a deep surrender to God/Source/All that is.

I’ll pause here, and wait to share more next week.

But I’ll leave you with the questions:

What would it look like for you to surrender your resistance?

To soften.

To remember Jesus, and the Mary’s, the burden they carried, willingly?

I am wishing you all a blessed Good Friday, Easter, and time of Resurrection. I’ll be in touch soon with more stories from France.

With love,

Meredith