Portraits of Penitence

That post of my abject groveling  apology seems to have gone over rather well;  hence, for the greater spiritual edification of the Talibân al-`Ilm, we offer here a gallery for contemplation, of penitents at their prayers.   They concern, as it happens, the well-known case of Mary Magdalene.  You could google them yourselves;  but for your convenience, I have (your servant) performed the prayerful work of seeking and clicking, renaming and saving, all for your developmental benefit.   So, seek solitude, and contemplate these icons;  for greater contemplative contemplation, you might wish to lock the bedroom door.

Gracious I hope my image does not become an occasion of sin for some excitable gentleman...

Yipes !  I forgot the Viewer Discretion Advised warning !!

Well,  better late than never:

To have seen that,

you have to have been eighteen.

[Post-scriptum:

This merry jest in no way aims at the Holy Mother Church, nor the resplendent truths of Christianity;  but simply acknowledges, with a kind of smile, the weakness of the flesh, well-known to all Christians.]

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[Update 21 April 2012]

[I approached Dr. Massey  for his nihil obstat.  He responds as follow:]

God, I love the female form.

And yes, that was actually not an interjection, but actually addressed to God.

The Greeks contemplated the ultimate meaning of beauty, kalos. And there is ultimately nothing more beautiful than the assortment you present here.

And the true meaning of a portrait of the Magdalene Repentant, in which I can not help but admire her from a physical standpoint, is to make me realize my own weakness and sin.

And if I then realize that I will never be able to not look at her that way--that only makes me abandon myself into God's grace, without which I am lost.

Ancient Judaic Wisdom passes down a prayer to say when captivated by the female form: "God, I thank you that you have made creation thus." And this places the surges of our heart in the proper context. It is a part of the glorious creation of our loving God. Only our human sinfulness has sullied it.