Mary and Me: Catholic Women Reflect on the Mother of God

My friend Ginny book Mary and Me: Catholic Women Reflect on the Mother of God is due to appear, hot off the presses, in late January/early February. I contributed some stories to her during her research for the book and wait in anticipation to see which if any of my stories were used and read all the other wonderful stories. Even if she don't use any of my stories I want to promote her book and get the word out about it.

Mary has always been an important part of my growing up in Ireland, from the Grotto's on the road sides, to having her feast days as holidays from school, to Pilgrimages to Knock, to lying next to my senile Nan who rosary beads never left her hands, to saying a Hail Mary at the beginning of each class at school ( I can say it in English, French and Irish) and having her name as my middle name!! I think she is an important Lady in my life and a Mother to us all.

Here is the original article that the book is based on:

Strong role model or impossible standard? Women share their thoughts on Mary - Part 1


Strong role model or impossible standard? Women share their thoughts on Mary - Part 2

Here is where I get a mention, in part 2:

"Leona, an engineering program manager, described how praying for Mary's protection is intimately connected to her relationship with her own mother. Back in her native Ireland , when she got her first car, her mother gave her a little statue of Mary to put inside it, and blessed the car with Lourdes holy water. Here in the U.S. , Leona recently bought herself a new car, and one of the first things she did was to repeat her mother's car blessing. "Even though my mom was millions of miles away at the time, her presence was there as I asked Mary, our Mother, to protect me in my new car."

I had not read this article for a long time and when I read it today it made me laugh out load when I remember this post of a few weeks ago when I got my new Prius. At the very end of the post you can see the statue of Our Lady and the little bottle of Lourdes water that we used to bless the car before the we  left the dealers lot. The tradition still lives on and will continue for every car that I will ever own. 

Pass the word along to anyone else you know who would be interested in this book and buy a book when it is available.