This week Christians will commemorate Good Friday and Easter. The story in the Christian gospels tells us that Mary Magdalene is one of the few who stand at the foot of the cross to courageously bear witness to the full trauma of Christ’s crucifixion. Then on Easter morning, her loving devotion has her alone at his tomb to prepare his body for burial. Those same gospels tell us she was the first person to encounter the risen Christ and that she was given the commission to announce this miracle to the world.
As we welcome spring and approach the holy season of Easter, it seems the perfect moment to share this new book about Mary Magdalene from our dear friend Veronique Flayol.
Some of us have been blessed to walk the pilgrimage paths in France with Veronique as our guide. We have traveled with her from St. Marie de la Mer to Vezeley, from Cathar Country to St. Baume. We have been touched by Veronique’s devotion and kindness; by her ever-expanding knowledge of the many layers of spiritual architecture in this region; by her deep and authentic relationship with the land, its legends and its people.
This book is Veronique’s personal story of her journey with Magdalene — the traditions anchored in the land where her family has lived for hundreds of year; her experience as both guardian of and guide to Magdalene’s story lived out on that land; her family’s spiritual lineage of devotion passed down to her through many generations.
In its pages, we were surprised and delighted to learn new information about Mary Magdalene – a powerful spiritual role model we have been studying for decades. Many of us already have a long bookshelf of books we have explored to learn about Mary Magdalene. Our WSF website includes a full page bibliography of books and websites on this topic ranging from serious academic study to gripping historical fiction. Bibliography here
And yet several of us discovered in Veronique’s slim volume a Mary Magdalene we had not previously encountered.
Veronique acknowledges and honors that we all have our own relationship with Mary Magdalene and our own deeply held beliefs about her. She humbly offers this book purely as her personal experience: “From my earliest memories, my life has been intimately intertwined with hers.”
We love this example of the wholeness and unity that Magdalene embodied.