Book Review: The Golden Door/Mary in Our Life
The Golden Door
“The Navajo in his Hogan, the Negro in his cabin, the white man, poverty-stricken or wealthy, all were entitled to receive an education… O Lord, turn the hearts of men in love to their brethren.”
Saints’ lives naturally define our priorities in life and urge us onward. Often a fundamental intuition is the pivotal point of their spiritual ascent. For Katherine Drexel, it was the Gospel words to “give up all that you have, take up your cross and follow Me.” Her epic is worth telling, starting at age 30, when she devoted her life and her own huge fortune to the aid and comfort of the most wretched and abandoned souls in the U.S.
This biography not only relates an American history; it tells not only the intricacies of the pioneer years of Christianity in the South and West. In fact, a world of education and physical mercy suddenly opens before our eyes. And, there is always the question of racial civil rights which, to this day, has never found a better solution than that given by such Catholic heroes as Katharine Drexel.
The readers of these pages will be astounded to discover the makings of a saint in the genuine humility of an upper-class woman turned novice mopping the floor to her heart’s content. Described here are 65 years of religious life of the woman who used the largest inheritance ever for her mission work in the North East, the deep South, and the West, her close connections with the successors of Fr. de Smedt and mission priests as well as the greatest Church leaders of the time.
Mary in Our Life
This latest book out of Angelus Press will certainly draw the curiosity and interest of our Marian readers. This prolific spiritual writer of the mid 20th century here presents a colorful palette of the Blessed Mother.
He starts with the assumption that no spiritual devotion to Mary could exist without sound doctrinal foundation. And so he endeavors, with perfect success, harmoniously to join dogma and devotion, the faith and the filial sentiments we owe to our heavenly Mother.
One will certainly find one’s spiritual food in this unassuming book. Besides the obvious privileges which adorn Mary at the Incarnation and the foot of the Cross, we find little gems like the steps of perfection and prayer, and the total consecration according to St. Louis de Montfort.
To top it all, abundant texts are offered in the numerous appendices about the popular devotions of the Rosary and the scapular, the potential dogma of the Coredemption and the New Eve.
This book is to be used as a bedside read, as a spiritual guide for perfection in imitation of Mary, or as a study on the faith as it includes also a study guide. Its easy-read style will make this Reader’s digest on Mariology a favorite of Christian homes.
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