News

PRESS RELEASE 2-14-08

A Fresh Look at Marian Devotion  

World Wide Web—Bezalel Books announces the release of Behold Your Mother: Mary Stories and Reflections from a Catholic Convert, by Heidi Hess Saxton.

When she converted to the Catholic tradition in 1994, Saxton says she initially found it difficult to “get close to Mary.” This difficulty resolved itself over time … but she never completely understood her own initial reluctance until she became a foster parent in 2002, and experienced the children’s initial resistance to her parenting efforts. 

            “The Bible tells us that we are children of God by adoption, because of Christ’s atoning work on the cross (Gal 4:5-6). From the cross, Jesus entrusted Mary to his beloved disciple with the words, ‘Behold your mother … behold your son.’ In that moment, Mary became the spiritual mother of the whole Church. Yet she does not keep any glory for herself. True Marian devotion always leads us closer to Jesus. It gives Jesus joy when we honor His mother and His Father.

“Those who are raised in the Church learn early on to embrace Mary’s spiritual motherhood, primarily from the example of trusted adults. For those who enter the Church as adults, the transition is often more complex. Many initially resist the Church’s teachings on Mary, wrongly assuming that honoring Mary somehow dishonors God. Thankfully, the reality of Mary’s motherhood is not dependent on our response. She waits for us to turn to her … and draws us close, as a mother does.”

            Behold Your Mother (72p) contains three short stories from the author’s life that illustrate Mary’s “spiritual motherhood”; then a series of forty-eight short reflections, based on Scripture, on the life of Jesus’ mother. This is a second, expanded edition of Saxton’s book With Mary in Prayer (Loyola Press)

PRESS RELEASE 2-1-08

Raising Up Mommy:

A Study in Womanly Vice and Virtue

World Wide Web—Simon Peter Press announces the release of Raising Up Mommy: Virtues for Difficult Mothering Moments, by Heidi Hess Saxton. Part of the Women of Grace® LifeGuide Series, Raising Up Mommy is for Catholic women who want to embrace authentic Catholic womanhood within the vocation of motherhood.

            Saxton, an adoptive mother of two former foster children, says she wrote this book not as a parenting expert, but as someone who is “also soldiering along in the trenches of motherhood,” and has found inspiration and encouragement from other spiritual mothers, particularly the saints. “Each of the seven deadly sins have a uniquely feminine expression – and a heavenly virtue that also is distinctively feminine. As Teresa of Avila taught her sisters, the best way to overcome vice is to practice the opposite virtue. This book shows how.”

The vice of pride, for example, can turn up as martyrdom or perfectionism in some women … and the antidote, humility, is most often experienced in the “hiddenness” of a mother’s life. Depending on how strongly the person is tempted to exhibit the vice, she might need to do a little “spiritual weight training” in order to cultivate strength or endurance in a particular virtue. The last chapter of the book leads the reader to develop her own plan.

Each chapter of Raising Up Mommy explores a deadly vice and its corresponding virtuous antidote … along with its distinctively feminine expression or gift.  Greed is rooted out with generosity, as expressed through hospitality. Anger is tempered with justice, as meted out with compassion. Lust is stamped out through modesty and courage, with the simple habit of resilience. “This last virtue is particularly rooted in the Theology of the Body, which teaches the inseparable character of physical and spiritual intimacy within marriage. To separate these two elements is to disrupt God’s plan for the essential unity that defines the marital relationship.”