Mother Mary Speaks to Us [Paperback]

Brad Steiger (Author), Sherry Hansen Steiger (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 1997

This wonderful, inspiring book reveals the miracles and experiences in which ordinary people have seen, spoken with, and been healed by the Blessed Virgin Mary, as well as containing interviews with theologians, mystics, and psychologists on the subject. MOTHER MARY SPEAKS TO US is a testament to Her divine revelations, as we receive Her message of peace, love, and guidance for the world today.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Sherry Steiger has always felt Mary was vitally important and sustaining to her. As a child, she says, she experienced two visitations of Mary. The Steigers (Angels Over Their Shoulders, Fawcett Columbine, 1995) intersperse what might be considered unorthodox visitations of Mary, like the Mary who talks about reincarnation, with traditional sightings of Mary, like those at Fatima. Some of the more unusual visitations of Mary presented here?psychics, witches, channelers invoking Mary as a spirit guide; Mother Mary and Egyptian goddess Isis as one; speculation on the secret third prophecy of Fatima's Mary?would not be out of place as headlines in supermarket tabloids. While this book will clearly appeal to readers of New Age spirituality, it is may offend some Roman Catholic readers with its sensational speculation about the Holy Mother.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Signet (November 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451188047
• ISBN-13: 978-0451188045
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,017,426 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Brad Steiger is a world renowned author of over 150 books with over 17
million copies in print. His titles include; "Mysteries of Time and Space", "Real Ghosts", "Restless Spirits and Haunted Places",
"Conspiracies and Secret Societies: The Complete Dossier", "Touched by Heaven's Light", "American Indian Medicine Power", "Strangers from the Skies", "Project Bluebook", "The Rainbow Conspiracy", "UFO Odyssey" and many more.

Steiger first began publishing articles on the unexplained in 1956; since then he has written more than 2,000 paranormal themed articles. From 1970-73, his weekly newspaper column, "The Strange World of Brad Steiger", was carried domestically in over 80 newspapers and overseas from Bombay to Tokyo. He was born in Fort Dodge, Iowa, on February 19, 1936. He is married to Sherry Hansen Steiger, author and co-author of over 22 books. They have two sons, three daughters, and eight grandchildren. Reality Press and Steiger Werks are pleased to announce the re-release of "Revelation - The Divine Fire", which is a compelling investigation into people who claim to be in spiritual communication with a higher intelligence. "Revelation" is a true Steiger classic that is as relevant and fresh today as it was when it was first published. For more info go to www.realityentertainment.com/books.htm

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Partial, Unprofessional, Shallow., November 10, 2006

By 

Nick (Switzerland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mother Mary Speaks to Us (Paperback)

For the first half of the book, I would have given something like 3 stars, mostly because the bulk of what was to be read was little more than summing up cases that are already known, famous, and well documented. Basically, as far as those cases are concerned, you'd learn more about them by looking up Wikipedia than you will by reading the relatively short chapters devoted to those well known cases (Lourdes, Fatima, Knock, etc.).

One thing that I find rather unprofessional was the constant misspelling of the saint Bernadette de Soubirous, which the authors refer to as "Soubrious". I know it's only a detail, but if you haven't read enough about that saint to know how to properly spell her name, perhaps you should refrain from writing about it.

The case of Lourdes is the one I knew best before reading this book, so I know for a fact that the authors haven't exploited half of the possibilities offered by that Marian apparition (or rather, set of Marian apparitions). Typically, the Steigers did not get into any details. That's one of the major flaws of this book: you only skim the surfaces of many different cases but you never go into any depths about them. I would say they are not even convincing, and fail to use all the arguments available (such as scientific evidence provided by scientists).

The authors assume that you don't need any sort of convincing, and that I find to be antagonising because unless you take their word for it, there's nothing to help you "join in". This is especially true of chapters which they wrote about their personally known "psychic" friends.

And this leads me to my next point. The structure; there is literally none to be found in this book. You move from one chapter to the next without any sort of continuity. For instance, one chapter will be about Knock, the following will be about some acquaintances of the authors and how they saw Mary as a stain on their wall, and the following chapter will be about Fatima or another well known case. There is no cohesion, no evolution in the way the book is assembled. It's like a patch-work that doesn't build up to something.

For the first half of the book I regretted the almost total absence of a critical sense, and of a more inquiring mind. But then this changed, and I regretted it too. When it comes to pseudo-feminist theories (where you can find such eloquent quotes as "After all, our planet is female. Mother earth.") I really wanted to drop this book and waste my time in a more interesting way.

This book is a rather shallow general introduction to Marian apparitions (if that much) and it nevertheless attempts to get into deeper considerations, though failing to do so. Indeed, it's not enough to claim things that may sound interesting to some (the feminine aspect of the Godhead, the future changes, the end time, etc.) you also have to back this up with more than just your psychic acquaintances confirming what you claim.

Moreoever, I would say that I find it unfair to put side by side well known cases of Marian apparitions which have a lot of backup evidence and proof and witnesses, with other apparitions that are not at all comparable in every parametre (weird stories told by an acquaintance without any backup evidence hardly stands the comparison with the case of Lourdes for instance, for which there is a lot of documentation and witness accounts).

Among other oddities there is this story told by an acquaintance of the authors where someone is "possessed" by Mary during a ritual. There she pours gemstones from her palms into a crystal bowl and her face suddenly assumes the features of Christ, says one of the witnesses. First of all, how could you recognise the face of Christ if you have never seen Him before? Second, why would someone possessed by Mary assume the face of Christ? The acquaintance claims to have many photographs and even a video of that mystical session. Hence my following question: why did the authors suppose that it would be pointless to produce those photographs? Why not show some stills from the video as well?

Another negative point in the book is the "novelisation". It is very irritating when the authors invent direct speech to illustrate a true story; for one, it sounds very pedagogical, as though the readers were all children who need their information sweetened, and secondly it tends to let the authors' personal bias sift through. To cite only one example: the communism hatred. It's all very fine to me that as believers you hate communism and the "Godless philosophy" as it's often called, but when it extends as far to make caricatures of any person who had as little as an interest in communism (back to the 50's and around) it becomes too much and in my opinion, not very professional and certainly not neutral. If the authors spoke their own mind that would be fine, but usurping the mouths of people who have existed is dishonest.

I purchased this book because I was genuinely interested in Marian apparitions; I am not criticising the book because of the subject matter. I can only express my disappointment at this book which I found to be extremely shallow, uninquisitive, not especially well documented, and uncritical. By the end of the book, the authors let you know (in third person) that one of them experienced a Marian apparition of her own. I felt that this sort of "twist" should be restricted to novels and fiction, but that is only me. It made me understand better why the authors seemed so very partial and uncritical of all the information they had at hand.

In conclusion, I would say that if you are interested in Mary and/or miracles, this is definitely not the book to start with. It is unprofessional (not a single footnote to be found), it is partial and biased, it does not let room for skeptical readers (you either take their word or you don't) and for all the chapters about known cases it does little more than (poorly) sum up events that are much more (and much better) detailed elsewhere. Wikipedia alone is infinitely richer in information than any of these chapters.

Now I know, as the title suggests, what is supposedly the focus of this work is what Mary says. But even that leaves much to be desired. If you want to know what Mary says, here is my own sum up of it so you won't have to read this tedious book:

Basically, she wants you to know that you are loved. Then she wants you to know that the power of prayer is effective and that you can do a lot by praying, including saving people, healing people, helping even the planet and God and Jesus by sending them love. On a darker note, she also warns you humans that if you don't repent soon, God is going to chastise you big time.

I was interested in knowing what Mary had to say (especially about non-dogmatic issues such as reincarnations and else) but I found little if anything about it in this book. On the whole, the book fails to accomplish what it aimed to do. The authors tackle with too many topics to successfully expose any of them, and as I have said before, the heterogenous nature of the book (mixing known cases with stories told by acquaintances) doesn't help. There is no structure, no leading thought or thesis or even argument.

If you're interested in Mary, please find your documentation in another book than this one.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book!!, April 18, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Mother Mary Speaks to Us (Paperback)

I could hardly put this book down. I thought I knew a lot about Mary, but had no idea of the enormous amout of sightings and healings. Mary's message really makes me think twice about how I live my life. Found it very heartwarming and touching- the kind of book that changes your life!I would highly recommend this book- especially for those who are interested in Mary and those who are "searching" for something but don't know exactly what. Received a lot of peace just from reading it and makes me want to learn even more.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing reading, May 29, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Mother Mary Speaks to Us (Paperback)

This book really opened my eyes to the involvement Mother Mary takes in our lives. Mother Mary is love in the truest sense of the word. I don't agree with everything in the book but enjoyed it very much.