Today I was posting a review on GoodReads, and came across this lovely review of my book “Behold Your Mother” by Clare Duroc (I don’t believe I know Clare personally, which is what makes this review such an unexpected blessing.) If you are looking for a little encouragement in your call to motherhood, Clare offers it in this review! She writes:

This is a beautiful book I’ve been going through slowly. It’s a small book, and deals a very simple concept: motherhood.

But like most simple concepts, it is also a very deep one. The Blessed Virgin’s relationship to us is a very deep one. The relationship between a loving mother and child is one that is hard to describe in a purely technical sense. We understand it best when it is presented through an imagery of love. The simple paintings of an artist like Mary Cassatt, whose many portrayals of mothers and their children always touch something within us… the quiet little things mothers do for their children, like slipping into the room after they’ve gone to sleep to make sure they’re tucked in… and, like St. Gianna, sacrificing everything for them in the end.

The beauty of motherhood is not something that can be described easily. We need to see it, to feel it. And even deeper is the relationship of motherhood that the Blessed Virgin has to us. She is the Mother of all mankind.

Behold Your Mother presents us with very simple images of the Blessed Virgin in her role of a mother, but because of their very simplicity they resonant deeply. We see her as a true mother, gentle and quiet, loving and tender, and we understand how this love relates to us. To me, reading the book was liking gazing on one of those famous Mary Cassatt paintings: a portrait of the deep love of motherhood.

The book is split in a way that it could easily be used for a little private retreat, with some scripture, a prayer, and a portrait of our Blessed Mother presented each day. It would be ideal reading for this month dedicated to her.