It's an honor to be a stop on Marge Fenelon's blog tour for her new book, Imitating Mary: Ten Marian Virtues for the Modern Mom-- even more special since I had the opportunity to meet Marge in Alabama last week when we were both guests on Donna-Marie Cooper O'Boyle's upcoming show on EWTN.
Marge is like your five favorite people to have coffee with. She is sweet, funny, and down to earth, has meaty stories to share, and she'll be the one making sure everyone's cup is refilled.
And that's what Imitating Mary is like, too. It's not a lofty treatise that scares us with images of Mary's perfection -- it's a lovely, encouraging guide book that makes us look forward to the trip.
Marge opens with the premise that the prospect of modern motherhood can be intimidating:
A few years ago, I was talking with a young woman who confided that she was afraid to have children because she had yet to experience good mothering. She assumed that if her mother had fallen short, she would, too. I did my best in the course of our chat to change her mind, but I realized quickly it would take more than a conversation.
Since that conversation, I've realized this case of self-doubt isn't an isolated one. In fact, I've observed quite a few women being tossed to and fro by a culture that's trying to to convince them that motherhood is either a commodity or an affliction. It only follows that if our culture doesn't value motherhood, then it won't value the mother either. The result is a plethora of women giving up on mothering because they have no one to encourage them.
The book addresses ten virtues that Mary manifested in her role as a mom and shows us how we might strive to grow in those virtues, too. Through Scripture, explication, personal stories, quotes, and thoughtful questions for reflection, Marge walks us down the path of Mary's virtues: her fiat, her patience, trust, obedience, endurance, courage, strength, hope, faith, and joy.
As someone who has written about the Blessed Mother, I know that sometimes people wonder, "Do I really need another book about Mary?" But every writer brings her own style, vision, experience, and wisdom to bear on a topic, even topics that have been around for 2,000 years. Marge Fenelon's unique take on imitating Mary makes the answer to that question, "Yes. Yes, I do."
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Find Marge's entire Imitating Mary blog tour here.
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