Join Rev. Debra McKnight to explore the mystery of Mary Magdalene and her lost gospel through a beautiful six week devotional, rooted in study and love for all the gifts the early church can offer the modern one. Each chapter offers an original prayer and reflection to understand our faith and the complex history we inherit. 

Chapters:

Even Jesus Can’t Save Mary…from the Patriarchy

Mary the Tower or the Repentant Whore

Mary’s Gospel: There is NO Sin

Eye of the Heart: Mary’s Visionary Recital 

Mary Teaches Us How to Love (If we Let Her)

A Note About Orthodoxy

There is a lot we don’t know. But what we know about Mary Magdalene comes through the lens of patriarchy and the Church, which has never handled sex and bodies very well, and made her sexuality and gender a “thing.” We know from scripture that she paid the bills for the movement, overcame seven demons and traveled with Jesus. Pope Gregory the (not so) Great assumed her a prostitute and the church went wild with the story of a sexy sinner transformed by Jesus. Take a moment to Google church art of the Marys. Look at Mother Mary in a turtleneck and Mary Magdalene often wild with sexy red hair covering just enough. (Even Dr. Freud could diagnose the institutional church with a virgin/whore complex.)

Magdalene may reference a location, perhaps a fishing village. It may also be a spiritual name and reference a key spiritual growth moment (Paul becoming Saul and Simon becoming Peter the Rock or Rocky). Magdalene means tower. Mary the Tower. The one we can look for, the one we can see when we are unsure and uncertain. The one that can help us find our way. The refuge in struggle. The one that stands tall. 

I invite you into the love that reverberates through Mary Magdalene. She is the first preacher of Easter, and it is right that we would listen deeply to her voice that has been stunted and stilled by 2000 years of the patriarchy. Uncovering her faithfulness from the past might be the best thing we can do for our future.