Fulton Sheen did an amazing job at showcasing the beauty of Mary in an enlightening way. Reading this definitely helped my understanding and devotion towards Mary and what role she exactly plays in our daily lives. I rated it a four because I did get bored at some points while reading.

Excellent work! This book presents an inspiring spiritual portrait of Our Lady and how we, in modern times, should relate and turn to her. Not difficult to read or comprehend. I also love that Sheen doesn't mince words, and when he wants to make a point about something - be it bad or good - the reader unquestioningly knows what it is. I found this particularly helpful as a modern woman as he points out many of society's misconceptions about the Church's view of women and how modern, anti-Christian feminism and things like contraception do more to harm women than help them. Great read!

Venerable Fulton Sheen was a hopeless lover of the Blessed Mother, as one can feel from the tenderly-chosen words in this love letter to Mary. Parallels and allegories from Tradition and tradition pertaining to Mother Mary were made throughout this tribute-- Ven. Sheen loved drawing full circles with them-- making this book a beautiful and regal portrait of the Woman.

Beautiful insight into the Lord and being close to him. At a few times, requires slowing down and reflecting.

To be honest I'm not sure whether this book deserves 5 stars or 2 stars.

Five stars:
Truly one of the most inspiring spiritual works I've ever read. It's accessible and theologically rich. Probably the best book
I've ever read on Our Blessed Mother.

Two stars:
I kinda of like this about Fulton Sheen but he wrote for his culture. The book is engrossed in the culture of the red scare. There's a long comparison between the philosophy of Mary and the philosophy of Marx. The last chapter is about the atomic bomb.
Then the most annoying part. The reason why I also hate this book, Fulton Sheen misquoted philosophers and misinterprets them. Every time a contemporary philosopher is mentioned, he replaces their arguments with a strawman. It really distracts from the spirituality of the work and is super unnecessary.

My favorite Marian book so far. Need something simple and down-to-earth, yet enlightining and theologically rich? Something to kindle, rekindle, or enrich your personal Marian devotion? Just want to know why Catholics love Mary so much, and why you should?
If you will read only one book about Mary,choose this one!

Great book for anyone, but I'd recommend this one especially for:

*Those in RCIA, or interested in Catholicism
*Teens and young adults, especially those preparing for Confirmation or other Sacraments
*Anyone who feels uncomftorable or unsure when trying to answer questions about Mary/rosary/etc.

Amazing! First Fulton Sheen book and I can't wait to read more. So insightful and content filled! Easy to read too

A great read...I think I want to pick it up a second time!

My love for Mary has definitely grow a hundredfold after reading this book.

This leads us to a forgotten aspect of
namely, that intelligence is related obedience to law, to obedience. It is only by obedience that we grow in wisdom. A scientist who would know the He may not
dictate to nature its laws, nor may He impose his own intelligence before nature, nature; rather, the more passive he is the more nature will reveal its secrets. And he who would play golf well must know how to hold the clubs aright, for here, too, wisdom is related to obedience. The more we obey the inherent laws of anything, the more that thing reveals itself to us. To obey God's laws because they are the ordinance of an All-wise and an All-loving God is the best means to discover the wisdom and the beauty of life.

p. 111


These two basic ideas of modern thought, sex and death, are not unrelated. Freud himself hinted at the union of Eros and Thanatos. Sex brings death, first of all because in sex the other person 1S possessed, or annihilated, or ignored for the sake of pleasure. But this subjection implies a compression and a destruction of life for the sake of the Eros. Second, death is a shadow that is cast over sex. Sex seeks pleasure, but God cradle since it assumes that this life is all, every pleasure is seasoned not only with diminishing return but also with the thought that death will end pleasure forever. Eros is Thanatos. Sex iS death.

p. 137


Love is a choice. Every act of love is an affirmation, a preferment, a decision. But it is also a negation. "I love you" means that I do not love her. Because love is a choice, it means detachment from a previous mode of life, a breaking with old bonds. Hence the Old Testament law: 'A man, therefore, will Auld precede u leave his father and mother and will cling to his wife" (Gen Her God had 2:24). Along with detachment, there is a also a deep sense of attachment to the beloved. The desire in one is met by a response on the part of the other. Courting love never asks why dare came th one is loved. The only question love asks is "How?" Love is never free from difficulties: "How shall we live? How can we support ourselves?"

p. 162


Sin, in all its forms, is the deliberate eviction of Love from the soul. Sin iS the enforced absence of Divinity. Hell is that the will. God absence of God made permanent by a last act of
does not do anything to the soul to punish it; the soul produces hell out of its very self. If we excluded air from the lungs as we exclude love from the soul, the lungs could not because we got red in the face or fainted, or our blame God the lungs, that lungs collapsed. What the absence of air is to the lungs, the absence of love in the soul is to the soul. On this earth, want of love makes people red; in the next life, want of love makes a red hell.

p. 231

I love the works of Fulton Sheen, but this one is a little light on research and heavy on assumption and opinion. Not the best book by Sheen and not the best book on Mary, but still worth a read.

This book was given to every family in my church last advent by our Parish priest. As a convert to Catholicism from the evangelical Protestant tradition, I've never known quite what to make of Mary, though my respect for her has grown through my years in the Catholic Church. In this book, Sheen shows the beauty of the gift that Christ gave to us in Mary: a mother to every one of us and one who has suffered every grief we could ever know yet continues to love with a perfect love. I found this book enlightening and deeply consoling. Sheen has a gift for making abstractions crystal clear. In his portrayal of Mary, he shows the tremendous reverence that the Catholic tradition shows for women, with Mary being God's perfect creature and an example for both Christian men and women to emulate. Mary is given tremendous power from God the Father and Jesus her son, more than any other human. This is a great book for anyone to read, maybe especially Catholic women who are concerned with power struggles in the Catholic church; no person in the Church is given more power or respect than Mary.