Commemoration: Joanna, Mary, and Salome (Myrrhbearers)

MATTHEW 27:54-56:
When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!”

There were also many women there, looking on from a distance, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him, among whom were Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.
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MARK 16:1-2:
When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb.
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LUKE 24:1-12:
But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” And they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles, but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. But Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home marveling at what had happened.

“Resurrection of Christ and Women at the Tomb” by Fra Angelico, 1440-1442. Fresco in Basilica di San Marco, Florence, Italy.

These faithful women (either mothers of disciples and/or having been healed of their demons or other infirmities by Christ), served Jesus during His earthly ministry, caring for the physical needs of both Him and His disciples out of their own means. They attempted to minister to Him one last time, following His death, only to be told the best news of all time: “He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay” (Matt. 28:6).

CTSFW Librarians Awarded

Two of our librarians, Rev. Richard Lammert (right) and Rev. Roger Peters (left), both graduates of CTSFW and part of our ordained staff here, were honored by the Private Academic Library Network of Indiana (PALNI) back in June. When I asked what outstanding services they were being awarded for (the news release from PALNI simply said “Support of Bethel and Saint Mary’s WMS Implementation”), Rev. Peters was good enough to send me the following explanation on behalf of both men:
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“We were just discussing how best to answer your question without writing a whole essay. I think this will capture all the important details:
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“The Wayne and Barbara Kroemer Library is a member institution of PALNI, which supports 24 libraries with a shared Integrated Library System (among other things) known as WorldShare Management Services (WMS). During the first half of 2018, PALNI gained two new member libraries, Bethel College and Saint Mary’s College, who then needed to implement WMS in order to take part in PALNI’s shared resources. Librarians from several PALNI libraries assisted in this implementation in various ways, according to the skills those librarians brought to the table. Rev. Lammert assisted with data migration and was therefore a key member of the team. I assisted by helping to demonstrate how group circulation and other resource sharing methods work within PALNI and WMS.
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“I think that just about covers it. I won’t bore you with the details of data migration or group circulation. If you want the TLDR version, you could just say we helped two libraries new to PALNI get up and running with the new library system.”
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For those of you unfamiliar with internet chat acronyms, TLDR stands for “too long; didn’t read.” So in short: the CTSFW staff members continue to serve our neighbors, whomever they may be. Congratulations for the well-deserved recognition to those who spend their days working quietly behind the scenes!