When I was in elementary school, I remember in 3rd or 4th grade Sunday school we were talking of different things and I had questions about Mary. Want to know how to annoy and frustrate an older, Baptist, elementary school Sunday school teacher? Give her a kid that asks questions about Mary.
I was hoping this book would answer many of my questions I had from over 2 decades ago about Mary. It did a good job. A sampling of the questions would be (not all of these from elementary school, some came later):
- Is Mary God's mother, too? (yes)
- Do Catholics worship Mary? (no)
- Did Jesus have brothers? (turns out, not in the sense we use the word)
- Why does Mary being a perpetual virgin even matter? (turns out it does, read the book, I can't summarize this)
- Mary is not God, so why do we need to make a big deal about her? (she's our mother)
Ultimately, I gained a much better understanding of both Mary and Marian doctrine. It was very interesting. In the end, I could summarize it by saying the following:
If Jesus and God are one person, then Mary is both of their mothers. God commanded us to honor our mother. By God being our Father, then that would automatically make Mary our mother. So, we should honor her.
I'm ok with that.
Really, it was an extremely interesting book that shows how Mary is the New Eve, as well as how and why she should be honored (not worshiped). As I have thought with all of Hahn's books, if you are a Protestant and want to better under Catholicism, you should read it. (Ditto for Catholics who want to better understand Mary.
175 pages
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