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April 21, 2022If you like and use the books by Sarah Young, especially her book, “Jesus Calling” (2004) you will love this book.
Instead of Jesus speaking to the reader, it is the Blessed Virgin Mary. I have been using Young's books for years and have been using Sister Mary Kathleen Glavich's for about a year now.
Glavich's book is wonderful! It has a daily reading from Mary. There are some direct quotes from Scripture or she alludes to them. Glavich's book is organized according to the calendar and includes some liturgical feast days of Mary; like the Visitation (May 31), Our Lady of Mount Carmel (July 16) and others.
Sometimes Glavich will have Mary speak in an overly sweet way, using words like “sweetheart” and “darling,” which might remind readers of their grandmother or other woman who is or was dear to them. If the reader does not like that, they easily can ignore it and still benefit from the reading.
The readings are usually two to three paragraphs long. After that, Glavich provides a very short reflection. All kinds of topics are covered like shortcomings, imperfections, self-worth, a merciful heart or something related to the feast day the devotion is covering.
What Glavich has the Blessed Virgin Mary say is very thought-provoking and very worthy of reflection. She writes a lot of encouraging words that are uplifting.
Toward the end of the book Sister Mary Kathleen provides a possible group retreat using this book. She maps out a program for that. She writes in the back “this (book) will encourage others to nurture their relationship with our Blessed Mother and go to Jesus through her.”
Sister Mary Kathleen is the author of many books like “The Essential Guide to Catholic Terms” (2014), “The Catholic Companion to the Psalms” (2008), “Praying on Empty: a guide to rediscovering your Prayerful Self” (2019), “The Holy Spirit: font of love, life, and power” (2020) and others. This book is very highly recommended to those who love “Jesus Calling” and others. This book by Sister Mary Kathleen is “Marian” and Catholic.
Brother Benet Exton, O.S.B., St. Gregory's Abbey in Shawnee, is a freelance writer for the Sooner Catholic.
