As a priest or priestess of the Magdala and the Holy Grail,you now serve a role of mouthpiece or communicator, whether you like it ornot. Unless you are a religious hermit, and even if you are, you aregoing to come in contact with others in the world who will notice you aredifferent. You are on a mission, you have a message, and they willsense it, wonder what makes you unique, wonder what it is you have that theydon’t. Hone your ability to communicate for our Lady by developingtalking points about her, (learning and refuting the “arguments” regardingher). Serve the cause by reading and writing book reviews and by designingoral presentations (speeches, powerpoint presentations, etc.). In thisway you are performing the holy work She has called you to, and literallyserving the Divine Plan.
Essays:
1. Conflation. Argue for or against the conflation of MM and Mary ofBethany. Here are two articles that discuss the conflation, but be sure tolook up others. Mary Magdalene,First Witness of the Resurrection and theElevationof the Magdalen: Mary Magdalene
2. Explain why Mary of Egypt, the naked penitent, is not Mary Magdalene.How did they get confused?
3. Do you believe the theory Jusino argues in this essay, tell whyor why not? “MaryMagdalene: Author of the Fourth Gospel?” by Ramon K. Jusino.
4. Survey different theories about the seven “devils” supposedly castout of MM. What have people said about those demons/devils over thecenturies, what are they saying now, and most importantly, what are YOU saying. Develop your opinion on this and be prepared when people curious aboutMagdalene ask you about the “demon problem.”
Project:
Write a speech or design a 20 minute presentation introducing the ideaof MM as we know her, not as history has described her. You do nothave to actually give this speech, so don’t panic. If you are the shytype, imagine yourself as a speech writer for a public figure. You are thebehind-the-scenes scholar/creator. Send in your written text byemail and/or if you arereally creative, snail-mail a CD with powerpoint presentation or audio ofyou delivering the speech.
Your Mary Magdalene Library, the service of reviewing books. Yes,writing book reviews is a service to your fellow womankind and mankind. Your words might help someone toward a realization, or toward the holywork. Post your reviews to Amazon.com, and to ourdiscussion forum. Andof course send them to the MysterySchool. If you like you can also send your reviews to ourDaVinciCodeForum discussionlist.
Write a book review on each of the following books and post it atAmazon (be sure to mention our Order of Mary Magdala and give this URLhttps://northernway.org/school/omm in your review so Amazon visitors can comecheck us out.
OR Lesson Creation: Instead of writing a review, you can writea set of questions on each chapter for one or more of the books below, maybedesign some exercises or meditations, points to ponder to go with the questions,too. In other words, create a mini-course like we use here at the MysterySchool. Your lessons will be put online in this very study hall forother members coming after you.
(April 2004) 
This book comes with a CD of one of Margaret’s awesome lectures! 
Our Order of Mary Magdala is mentioned inside this book! Siobhan Houston is a marvelous MM devotee and has created this awesome inspiring book and CD. One of our prayers from our OMM Online prayer book is featured inside, our Litany to MM. Siobhan also found the image for the cover right here on our website, which of course we had “stolen” from someplace else…! The CD that comes with this book is excellent. (Click on Book Cover) 
(April 2005) 
Click on Book Cover to order, or read reviews 
The Gospel of Thomas: The Gnostic Wisdom of Jesus, by Jean-Yves Leloup (Paperback – February 16, 2005) As a substitute for one of the books above, choose another Magdalene book or Mary Magdalene “classic” to review or do a mini-course on. For a bunch of books to choose from, including newly released ones, just go to Amazon.com and type in their Amazon search window, Mary Magdalene.
Then clear your book choice with Prioress Katia or Abbess Elda before digging in.
You may substitute writing a book review or mini-course by reviewing two of the online lectures on this page. Magdalene, the Templars & the Grail, lectures by Stephan Hoeller (Note: you have to pay for each lecture, so this is an optional assignment).
