My name is Mary Magdalene. My name Mary was for my grandmother. Some people kidded me about being "merry" all the time, but that is not why I had that name.

Mary was my grandmother. She was dependable, honest, fair, faithful, and true. She was everything that I was not.

I grew up in Magdalene. It was a small town not too far from Cana. I had one brother and I was the baby. I hung around with the boys as much as possible. I liked men better. I'm sure you know that women in Bible times were not worth much -- just something to be used.

As I became a young woman, I had lots of attention from men. I was very flattered at first because my parents (especially my father) was too busy for me. I craved male companionship.

The first time I was with a man was when I was 14 years of age. There was a wedding in Cana of Galilee. I went with my family. My parents were not paying attention to me so I had several glasses of wine. Too many.

Maybe I should tell you that I looked much older than I was, therefore, older men were attracted to me.

There was a handsome young man, who looked to be in his 20s, at the party. He was a tax collector and he knew a lot about making money. Because I wanted to be rich, he told me that he could show me how to make money. I was flattered. I followed him to the back of the house into the garden. We started kissing and he held me very close. I liked being loved, or so I thought. I let him love me. After awhile, he said he had to go. I will never forget the loneliness I felt. I was a nobody. I thought he cared.

I walked around to the front of the house in time to see the servants serving wine from the jars. There was much commotion. A man named Jesus had turned water into wine. I tried to see who He was but I missed Him. He had gone.

As more and more time went by, I wanted to be close to men, so I sold myself. That is a terrible feeling. I'm sure you understand. You have probably sold yourself for something small like a promotion, a salary increase, attention .... you know it does not last. You may have sold your best friend's secret to someone just to be popular. When you sell yourself for something so small, you feel worthless. It feels like the world is crashing in on you, and it seems almost too late to change.

I remember hearing a story that describes the dangers that can happen when one sells one's self. It was titled Worms for Feathers. A fox said that he would provide worms for any bird if the bird would share its feathers. The bird thought that was a good idea, so it pulled a feather out of its wing, gave it to the fox, and then received a worm. The bird decided it was an easy way to get worms. After a while, the bird had pulled out so many feathers that it could not fly away and the fox jumped on it, killed it, and ate it. It is awful to sell yourself like that.

Well, I did. I became known around the area as someone very common. Men would come, give me attention, make over me. I would even get money. For awhile, it felt great, but then they would walk away and leave me alone. They would laugh and call me cheap. When your value goes down, it is hard to get it up again -- everyone sees you that way.