Welcome to the Faithful Four, friends. After weeks of learning and voting and occasionally squabbling (in a holy, churchy kind of way) we have whittled the field down to four spiritual heavyweights: Mary Magdalene, Margaret of Scotland, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Emma of Hawaii. Collectively, it's a fascinating group of four heroes of the faith stretching from Biblical times to the 20th century.

As we like to tell our five-year-olds when they join their first soccer team (that's football for our friends across the pond), "there are no losers, everybody's a winner." Of course we're lying. Thus, while we can sing the praises of these saints, only one Golden Halo will be awarded.

Today Mary Magdalene (Meredith Gould) takes on Margaret of Scotland (Penny Nash); tomorrow Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Neil Alan Willard) battles Emma of Hawaii (Heidi Shott); and on Spy Wednesday the championship round will take place. In this round, we let our four remaining Celebrity Bloggers loose as they answer the question "Why should Saint XX win the Golden Halo?" In other words, they've been charged with letting us know why their particular saint is so awesome. And, in a nod to the fact that the SEC is responsive to the cries of (some of) the masses, we are including a few works of saintly art.

To make it to the Faithful Four, Mary Magdalene dispatched John Huss, Joan of Arc, and Evelyn Underhill with relative ease. Margaret of Scotland bested William Temple and John Cassian before squeaking by Enmegahbowh. See the updated bracket and then please vote just once.

What calls any of us to embrace a particular saint? Our saints are extraordinary models of Christian faith and fidelity.  Throughout history, all have endured conditions and situations that, despite our best imaginations, we cannot fully comprehend.

These women and men of God are spiritual Sherpas, guiding us along the path; welcoming us back when we wonder and wander away. What makes Mary Magdalene first among equals is simply this:

“When Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene…” (Mark 16:9).

Jesus is indisputably the Christ, and entrusts Mary Magdalene with the near-thankless task of reporting his Resurrection from the dead. The disciples do not immediately believe her story of death defeated. Gospel stories about their resistance to hearing this liberating truth from a woman foreshadows a woeful and ongoing history of truth denied and evangelists mocked. (I sometimes find myself asking what has changed.)

While I have a (short) list of holy women and men who help sustain my faith, Mary Magdalene, Apostle to the Apostles, is my radical go-to saint. Contemplating her love and loyalty to Christ Jesus keeps my heart from breaking whenever I focus too long on wreckage wrought in the name of religion. For all this and more, she’s already wearing a golden halo.

Click here to see my Mary Magdalene board on Pinterest.

 -- Meredith Gould

Why should Margaret of Scotland win the Golden Halo? Because she was an awesome, saintly saint! Oh, yeah? you may ask...well, read on.

-- Penny Nash

Vote!

[poll id="32"]

To follow up on the earlier post from today, here are excerpts from devotional sketches for the two saints who are duking it out on Tuesday, Emma of Hawaii and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. These are excerpts from Calendar of Saints: Lent Madness 2012 Edition, published by Forward Movement.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

As the Nazi ring closed in upon him and the Confessing Church he had an opportunity for asylum in the United States, which he declined. He was arrested and jailed in 1943, and from his cell in Berlin he helped plan an assassination of Adolf Hitler. The assassination failed and Bonhoeffer’s involvement was discovered, and he was sent to Buchenwald concentration camp. But his life was spared, for reasons we do not know, and he was transferred to Schoenberg Prison. There he served as chaplain to fellow inmates until on a Sunday in 1945, immediately following divine services, he was summoned by the guards and taken by automobile to Flossenburg Prison, where he was summarily hanged. That was on April 9. Bonhoeffer was thirty-nine years old. The crumbling German Reich formally surrendered twenty-eight days later.

May we, like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, count the cost of discipleship to be worthy of our whole selves. Amen.

Emma of Hawaii

The Hawaiian Islands were first evangelized by sternly Calvinistic Congregationalists and by Roman Catholics. Neither group had much respect for the other or for the native Hawaiian culture and traditions. King Kamehameha IV, who was crowned in 1854, and his wife, Queen Emma, actively sought a branch of Christianity that was all-embracing, reconciliatory, and accepting of Hawaiian culture, yet orthodox and traditional. They found such in Anglicanism. Queen Victoria served as godmother to their son. Under royal patronage Thomas N. Staley became Hawaii’s first bishop, ground was broken for St. Andrew’s Cathedral in Honolulu, The Book of Common Prayer was translated into Hawaiian, the Queen’s Hospital was founded, and several schools were established in the islands with Anglican clergy as tutors. Kamehameha was only twenty-nine when he died. Queen Emma lived on for many years and became a symbol of dignity and Christian piety to the people of Hawaii. The Archbishop of Canterbury described her as one of the most saintly souls he had ever met.

We thank you for the witness of Kamehameha and Emma and for their work to build up your church. Amen.

By the way, for only seven bucks you can get your own copy of Calendar of Saints: Lent Madness 2012 Edition. It’s available as an ebook only for Kindle and Nook.

Today being Palm Sunday, the Supreme Executive Committee is focused on palms, processions, readings of the passion of Jesus, and so on. However, we also can't escape the fact that tomorrow begins the showdown in the Faithful Four. Bright and early tomorrow morning, both Mary Magdalene and Margaret of Scotland will compete. Only one will emerge, ready to enter the championship match on Wednesday.

After lots of kitsch last week -- and a little bit of, um, kontroversy -- we thought we'd encourage a more reverent contemplation today. As many of you know, Forward Movement (the sponsor of Lent Madness 2012) publishes a book called Calendar of the Saints: Lent Madness 2012 Edition. It's a set of devotional essays for every saint in the official calendar of the Episcopal Church, plus the saints who made it into the bracket of Lent Madness this year but who aren't yet officially commemorated. There are plenty of places to get facts and narrative hagiographies. These brief essays are intended for private devotional use, and they tend to focus on one aspect of the saint's life which can be applied to our own. Each entry concludes with a prayer.

Here are excerpts from the two essays for Margaret of Scotland and Mary Magdalene. Later today we'll post the entries for Tuesday's contentants, Emma of Hawaii and Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

Margaret of Scotland

Mary Magdalene

By the way, for only seven bucks you can get your own copy of Calendar of Saints: Lent Madness 2012 Edition. It's available as an ebook only for Kindle and Nook.

To help you through this weekend's likely bout of Lent Madness Withdrawal, the Supreme Executive Committee wishes to offer menu suggestions for Palm Sunday. We hope this will also aid in your discernment as to which of the Faithful Four you will seek to propel into the championship battle on Spy Wednesday.

Monday morning, Margaret of Scotland will face Mary Magdalene beginning at 8 a.m. Eastern time. One of two queens in the Faithful Four, Margaret will face the "Apostle to the Apostles."

Flickr user Meri Tosh gives us this picture of the classic Scottish food, haggis. Of course, whether it is food is debatable, but that's not our purpose here. Because the SEC seeks to be inclusive, we note (with some wariness) that there is something called "vegetarian haggis" too.

Finding food to represent Mary Magdalene was tricky. The one time in scripture we know she showed up for dinner, she brought ointment in an alabaster jar (or so Pope Gregory the Great said, referring to Luke 7:37). That seemed like a lousy choice for an illustration, so we combed through tradition. She is said to have confronted the Emperor Tiberius to tell him of Christ's resurrection whilst holding an egg. The emperor laughed and said that Christ's resurrection was as likely as that plain white egg turning red. Well, guess what happened? So here we portray Mary's red eggs (thanks to Flickr user jessmonster).

On Tuesday morning, Emma of Hawaii is up against Dietrich Bonhoeffer. The action begins promptly at 8 a.m. Eastern time.

People will argue about the quintessential German food. Here we shall go with the classic pretzel as portrayed by Flickr user avlxyz.

Finally, a photo which shows the ubiquity of Hawaiian influence on pan-Asian cuisine. A few years ago, I snapped this photo in Tokyo. Yes, that's a Hawaiian food truck. In Tokyo.

So there you have it. Tomorrow after church, have a meal with eggs, haggis, pretzels, and perhaps some fruit. As you say grace, ask God to inspire you through dining.

Be known to us, Lent Madness, in the breaking of the pretzel, the cracking of the eggs, the slicing of the haggis, and the peeling of the pineapple.