Questions of Mary: Reflections on Mary Magdalene

The name Mary Magdalene conjures up several opposing images. Was she a saint or a sinner? A prostitute or an apostle? Just one of the women who followed Jesus or one of his most trusted confidants, a leader of the apostles, perhaps the most beloved? Scholars now believe she was truly one of Jesus' most devoted and beloved apostles and was in a position of leadership and authority. Pope John Paul II called her "apostle to the apostles." Her intimacy with Jesus two thousand years ago enabled Mary Magdalene to write two books, her apocryphal Gospel of Mary Magdalene discovered in 1896 and her Questions of Mary referenced in only a few writings by others but never found, some think destroyed. One of her roles, allowed to only three other Apostles, was that of "Questioner," those who were allowed to pose questions to their teacher. In his latest book, Fr. Jim Galluzzo recreates some of the questions he believes Mary might have asked Jesus, based on her own writings in The Gospel of Mary and the writings of the four Canonical Gospels and Gnostic Gospels. He then responds in the way he believes Jesus might have answered these questions. Suggested practice: meditate and reflect on one quote for each week of the year and then think of how you might answer the question Mary poses.