Mary and Peter

It's interesting that Jesus is so confident of Mary's love that He proclaims it to others (see John 12:7, Matthew 26:10-13, Mark 14:6-9).   Peter, on the other hand - not so much (see John 21:15-17).  What do you think the difference is?

About those apostles...

The fact that Jesus chose 12 men and no women to be His apostles is frequently cited as the reason for excluding women from formal ordination and full participation in the church (the fact that Jesus is male is actually the primary reason, but we'll get to that later).  But consider:  Jesus tells us again and again that those who are first will be last and those who are last will be first, and that we should not take the place of honor.  And we know that the men Jesus chose were not exactly the cream of the crop (it's generally understood that Jesus deliberately picked those who were weak in faith to demonstrate the power of the Holy Spirit in their transformation).  So why do we presume that Jesus excluded women because they weren't good enough, and that that's a bad thing?  He apparently chose men because they weren't good enough - as they proved again and again - and neither that fact nor the sorry history of the church's male leadership over the centuries has been enough to exclude men from leadership!