Reviews

Sometimes I must remind myself that I am still a fairly new Catholic. In the three-and-a-half-years since I converted, I have come so far and learned so much about the faith, yet there are still endless paths and roads not yet taken, so many corridors to explore and rooms to open.

Once such room is Mary. “I will never pray to Mary,” I wrote confidently in my journal in 2017, still Protestant, drawn to Catholicism but refusing to admit I was drawn. Things are different now, very different, but my anxiety around Mary and my reluctance to trust her still remain.

Enter Marian consecration. When I heard that my parish was doing a Marian consecration this winter, I was intrigued and signed up almost immediately. The Holy Spirit, it must be assumed, was at work. I did the 33 days and made the consecration on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Some of this, it must be said, is due to the accessibility of 33 Days to Morning Glory.

In the style of (the much more intensive) True Devotion to Mary by St. Louis de Montfort, 33 Days gives brief overviews of four major Marian saints (including de Montfort) and explains some of their significant contributions to Mariology, but does not offer much beyond that. Breadth, and not depth, is the hallmark here and someone who already knows a good deal about Mary might find it too light.

But for a beginner like me, just learning to trust Mary for the first time and call her mother, this light overview is a perfect introduction to such a vast and limitless topic. The next time I undergo the consecration, I will probably choose de Montfort’s more advanced curriculum; nevertheless, I learned much from 33 Days and I am excited to keep learning more.