CBB Review – A Year with Mary: Daily Meditations on the Mother of God

CBB Review – A Year with Mary: Daily Meditations on the Mother of God July 29, 2015

a_year_with_mary_spotlightSaint Benedict Press and Paul Thigpen have recently released yet another volume in their “A Year with” series. Thus far I have reviewed A Year With the Saints: Daily Meditations with the Holy Ones of God by Paul Thigpen. We have also just finished daily posts from Mike Aquilina’s A Year with the Church Fathers: Patristic Wisdom for Daily Living. This year we have A Year with Mary: Daily Meditations on the Mother of God. This is a fine addition to the series and one we will be working through daily here on The Catholic Book Blogger as well.

The book itself is presented with the same high quality as the previous editions. The UltraSoft cover returns with this and this time comes in a stunning blue and brown tow-tone color. The pages are of a heavy paper that can stand up to regular use and are gold trimmed. Lastly there is a gold ribbon sewn into the spine for marking your place. As with past volumes this book is intended to be used daily, it is certainly rugged enough to hold up for a long time.

“What about the content of the book?” you may ask. You will find 365 individual, daily meditations here. These are not strictly numbered by date but rather day which allows the reader to pick up the book and start Day 1 any day of the year. Paul has used the Revised Standard Version (2nd Catholic Edition) for all scriptural references. There are also numerous classical texts used from such Marian spiritual writers as: St. Louis de Montfort, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, St. John Damascus, Blessed John Henry Newman and of course St. Alphonsus de Ligouri.

The texts themselves utilized include: The Glories of Mary, True Devotion to Mary, The Spiritual Exercises and Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament to name a few. Solid texts that have been honored and read for years and certainly deserve a spot in a book of this nature. Some of the entries include:

Prayer to Mary is good and right – St. AlphonsusLiguori

The mother was like the Son – St. Ignatius Loyola

Turn to us, Mother of God – St. Peter Damian

Mary, Star of the Sea – St. Bernard Clairvaux

Truly, blessed are you among women – St. Sophronius

Mary’s death was unlike any other – St. John of Damascus

The power of the Rosary – Venerable Pope Pius XII

Overall I was just as impressed with A Year with Mary as I was with the previous A Year with books. These are perfect gifts to give devotees of Mary or gift it to yourself. Spending a year with these great saints and learning more about our Blessed Mother can only strengthen your devotion to her and her Son.
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