Customer Reviews

Catholic for a Reason II: Scripture and the Mystery of the Mother of God, Second Edition

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This is not much of a devotional work, but is rather an in-depth analysis of Mary's role in salvation history, as understood by the Catholic and revealed in Sacred Scripture.

If you are interested in Scriptural apologetics regarding Mary, or if you are curious as to what role Mary should play in your life, then this book is highly recommended.

Like all the books in the "Catholic for a Reason" series, this book is a collection of essays by some of the top Catholic Apologists in the world today. You can always expect hard hitting, well written, and scripturally saturated essays in the series. I especially like this one because it focuses on our Blessed Mother. You will find essays on her as the New Eve, the Ark of the New Covenant, the Queen Mother, and much more. I've never heard good Protestant rebuttals to the typology that you will find in these essays. In fact, I don't think many of them know about how we compare Luke 1 with 2 Sam 6, or John 1 with Gen 1 and see Mary's role in these passages. It is so beautiful, and such a great way to become more familiar with who our Blessed Mother is.

A great book-user friendly, informative, inspiring and clarifies misunderstood Catholic teachings on Mary.
Kathleen Daley

This 2000 book is #2 in a series of four volumes; the others are: Catholic for a Reason: Scripture and the Mystery of the Family of God, Catholic for a Reason III: Scripture and the Mystery of the Mass, and Catholic for a Reason IV: Scripture and the Mystery of Marriage and Family Life.

Here are some quotations from the book:

"The Church has traditionally understood Mary's virginity during birth as meaning that Jesus passed from His mother's womb into the light of day without the womb's being opened. In other words, Mary gave birth without the destruction of the physical signs of virginity possessed by one who is virgin in conception, and without labor pains and other infirmities (e.g., rupturing, bleeding, etc.) involved in childbearing after the fall. It was, in reality, a 'miraculous birth,' which relates more to her role in the new creation---and thus her Immaculate Conception and Assumption---rather than her virginity before and after." (Pg. 109)
"In fact, further examination of the texts alone reveals that at least some of these purported 'brothers' were NOT the children of Mary. Indeed, nowhere in Scripture is the Blessed Virgin Mary ever identified as the mother of anyone other than Jesus." (Pg. 113-114)
"I continued to struggle with the repetitive nature of the Rosary (didn't Jesus condemn repetitive prayer as vain?) until I read an introduction to the Rosary by a nun. She asked the question, 'How many times a day might a young child run to you and say, 'Mommy, I love you!'?" (Pg. 143)
"According to the popes, the Rosary is the most highly recommended prayer in the Catholic Church, second only to the liturgy. I think one of the reasons for this high recommendation is that it is a quick way for us to enter the world of Jesus and meditate on the most precious Gospels." (Pg. 186)

Wonderful, informative. Scott does a terrific job of collecting the right material and putting it in print for easy reading and understanding. Highly recommended!