Debbie Burnham-Kidwell

I am a retired librarian, who has been a member of EEWC-Christian Feminism Today since the 1980s. I frequently turn to a saying I pinned to my bulletin board, at eye level above my computer, a number of years ago: "The Savior said . . . , 'It is for this reason that I told you to find contentment at the level of the heart, and if you are discouraged, take heart in the presence of the Image of your true nature.'” This quote comes from Cynthia Bourgeault’s book, The Meaning of Mary Magdalene: Discovering the Woman at the Heart of Christianity (Boston: Shambhala, 2010, p. 46). Mary Magdalene’s gospel was not part of the Nag Hammadi collection. It was found almost half a century earlier in an antiquities market in Cairo, but it’s seems to come from the gnostic tradition. Reading this quote always instills me with a sense of gratitude and confidence.