Book Review: A Year with Mary

“A Year with Mary” is a great book for those looking for a book on devotion of the Blessed Virgin Mary. I have used this book for years. I have tried to find a book on Marian devotion, but cannot find one that equals this one.

Paul Thigpen has compiled this book from various sources that reflect on Mary. Some of these sources are homilies or other devotionals/prayers connected with Mary. Thigpen's main source is Saint Alphonsus Liguori's book “The Glories of Mary.” Saint Alphonsus' book is a classic and Thigpen uses another classic “True Devotion to Mary” by Saint Louis de Montfort. He also uses the works of Saint John Henry Newman, Saint Bernard, Saint John of Damascus, Church Fathers, popes, saints and some notable lay Catholics.

Thigpen covers all kinds of topics and subjects related to Mary; like the Annunciation, the Nativity, the Presentation, the Resurrection, the Assumption, the Rosary and Marian feast days. He discusses the humility of Mary, the innocence of Mary, people's devotion to Mary, and how people should live their lives after the example of Jesus and Mary.

Thigpen's plan for this book is: A date, title of topic, short introduction to the reading and author, the actual entry that varies in length but usually is a page long, this is followed by reflections or meditative questions and finishes with a prayer that could be by a saint or a quote from Scripture. The book has no index or bibliography. It does have very short biographies of the authors. The Scripture quotes are from the second edition of The Revised Standard Version of the Bible.

The majority of the entries are from Saint Alphonsus' “The Glories of Mary.” Saint Alphonsus quotes from various Church Fathers, saints and popes. In this way the reader receives information from a variety of sources. I love this aspect of this book.

I wish this book was arranged according to the calendar, especially the liturgical calendar. The reader can start the book on any day of the calendar and proceed from there. The calendar issue is the only thing I do not like about this book, but other than that I love this book and as I have said I have used it for years and have not found a better book of its sort. I actually use the e-book version of it, which is with some of my other spiritual reading books. I highly recommend this book to those looking for a devotional book on Mary.

Br. Benet Exton, O.S.B., from Saint Gregory’s Abbey, is a freelance writer for the Sooner Catholic.