In an article in L’Osservatore Romano to coincide with the new liturgical feast of St. Mary Magdalene on Friday, Cardinal Robert Sarah has said the great woman saint reminds us of the need to “recover the primacy of God and the primacy of adoration in the life of the Church and in liturgical celebration.”

The prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments recalls in a reflection on the preface of the new liturgical feast that Mary Magdalene “was the first to adore” the newly risen Lord, and that He “honored her with the task of being Apostle to the Apostles, so that the good news of new life might reach the ends of the earth.”

For this reason, he writes, Mary Magdalene “is the first witness of this twofold attitude: to adore Christ and to make him known.”

He goes on to affirm that adoration was “a fundamental goal of the Second Vatican Council and continues to be so now.” God, he said, “must occupy the first place, but this cannot be taken for granted.”

Quoting from John Paul II, on the 25th anniversary of Sacrosanctum Concilium, he says: “Nothing of what we do in the Liturgy can appear more important than what in an unseen but real manner Christ accomplishes by the power of his Spirit. A faith alive in charity, adoration, praise of the Father and silent contemplation will always be the prime objective of liturgical and pastoral care.”

Aleteia's Diane Montagna has a full translation of his reflection here. 

On June 3, and as part of the Holy Year of Mercy, Pope Francis permanently raised the celebration of the memorial of St. Mary Magdalene to the dignity of a liturgical Feast, the same grade of feast given to the celebration of the Apostles.

Until now, St. Mary Magdalene has been a memorial that has a lower status.