Mary, Mary

Categories: uncategorized

Date: 12 May 2008 12:58:49

..quite contrary traditions survive about you. I'm writing Bible notes this week on Mary Magdalene, about whom we really know very little but about whom various dubious legends have been woven. I was sitting in a café not long after the Da Vinci Code film came out and heard one workman saying to another: 'Mary Magdalene, she was married to Jesus wasn't she?'. I intend to attempt to refute this myth in my introduction.

As there's really not enough in the Gospels about Mary to fill a fortnight's notes, I also intend to write on several other Gospel women and Jesus' attitude to them, and to try to disentangle Mary M from the various other Maries she seems to have got mixed up with. I'm looking forward to it.

Yesterday I asked a church friend who's in a temp job, whether she's enjoying it. 'Enjoying it?' she exclaimed, 'it's work!'. I think I am probably very privileged to be able to give my time to work I love. Writing is one of the most rewarding things in my life (housework very much less so). And because I have a nice husband who lets me live off his earnings, I can do the sort of writing that earns a pittance:-) This is a great blessing.