The Way of Mary

A New Book from Mary Ford-Grabowsky . . .

. . . The Way of Mary: Following Her Footsteps Toward God

Paraclete Press, $23.95, 228pp, ISBN 978-1-55725-522-8

Selected by One Spirit Book Club, an affiliate of the Book-of-the-Month Club

 

Available now at your local bookstore and through cyber-stores such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Borders. As Andrew Greeley advised about another of Mary’s books, get a copy for yourself and a few more for your family and friends . . . particularly at this season of Christmas.

Visiting a remote village in Guatemala, Mary Ford-Grabowsky encountered a Mayan statue of the Virgin Mary. Although she had experienced many wondrous moments in her life as a spiritual teacher, the depths of love she sensed in this small chapel surpassed them all. Ford-Grabowsky set out to find new and modern ways of relating to the woman who has had such a momentous influence on history and the human heart.

The result of Mary’s search is The Way of Mary, a series of fourteen devotions based on the most beautiful and moving stories of the New Testament. Arranged in a two-week cycle, each devotional reading includes meditation, reflection, prayer, visualization and ideas for freeing the creative spirit.

“Christian devotees of Mary would seem to be a logical audience for this book,” Publishers Weekly writes,” but because Ford-Grabowsky writes with a sensitivity to all faiths, pointing out links between Mary and other religious traditions (she notes, for example, that Muslims revere Mary and that Buddhism and Hinduism abound with wise and saintly female figures), her invitation to ‘return home’ to Mary as an archetypal mother is both inclusive and compelling.”

 Advance Praise for The Way of Mary . . .

The book “is reflective and provocative,” writes the Reverend Thomas Smolich, President of the Jesuit Conference of the United States. “The invitation to place ourselves with Mary as she lives key moments of her life and our salvation is compelling.  Mary Ford Grabowsky's reflections on the historical Mary and her times drew me to reflect in a new way on her distinctive choices and gifts.  It is a book that I began by reading, yet it soon became a source of meditation and prayer.  Mary's footsteps toward God are well worth making our own.”

Margaret Payne, bishop of the New England Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, calls the book“a joy-filled antidote to the misconception that Mary is merely a bystander to the story of salvation. Using prayers, scripture and guided meditation as paths to a deepened understanding of the mother of Jesus, the author gently leads the reader into a new receptivity to her astonishing gifts of faith. Mary’s wisdom, compassion and utter openness to God offer a model for men as well as women.”

Brother David Steindl-Rast, while reading The Way of Mary, thinks of his youth in Austria. “Crystal clear mountain water spouted into the wooden trough of an ancient shrine in the Alps,” he remembers. “Praying to Mary, we used to drink of this water from a tin cup chained to the trough, and wash our eyes. Mary Ford Grabowsky . . .  made this memory from my boyhood days light up. The voice of her loving devotions made me hear again the long forgotten splash and gurgle of that sacred spring. As you read this book, let it quench your thirst and brighten your eyes.”

“This is the reflection of a trained theologian, who first, though, is a mother and a spouse,” says Bishop John D’Arcy of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend in Indiana. “Ford-Grabowsky ponders Mary’s life in fidelity to the Scriptures and calls on theologians, monks and holy women, as well as mystics and the Fathers of the Church, to give us a portrait of Mary that is faithful to Catholic tradition and biblical sources and filled with the life and vitality that comes from prayer.”

“This book offers a down-to-earth, practical feminine spirituality,” writes Lauren Artress, Canon of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, “that is accessible to all of us, no matter what (if any), tradition we stand in. With the turn of every page, the mystery of Mary unfolds in our hearts.”

Also by Mary Ford-Grabowsky

Stations of the Light
Doubleday, 2005

Spiritual Writings on Mary
SkylightPaths, 2005

WomanPrayers
HarperSanFrancisco, 2003

Sacred Voices: Essential Women's Wisdom Through the Ages
HarperSanFrancisco, 2002

Sacred Poems and Prayers of Love
Doubleday, 1998

Prayers for All People
Doubleday, 1995