Birthing the Holy

Birthing The Holy bears the hallmark of a healer. Christine guides the reader on a uniquely intimate journey through the historical and mystical facets of Mary. Honoring tradition through new eyes, she connects with today’s world and its needs. A helpful tool for the individual or for groups with its light on healing and unity, this book is sure to become a favorite in Marian studies.

What a beautiful devotional.

'Birthing the Holy' takes you through 31 titles for Mary and encourages you to explore and meditate upon each of them. Each meditation is prefaced by a beautiful (kindle friendly, black and white) lino-cut illustration and ends with a prayer. The devotions themselves bring together biblical sources, psychology, writings of the saints and the author's personal experiences to help you delve deeper into your relationship with the Blessed Mother.

The 31 devotions are broken into groups to take you on a spiritual journey. It would suit anybody at the beginning of a discernment about anything - be it business, parenthood or just life in general - and each devotion encourages you to think deeply about how Mary can help usher you down your path in life.

I enjoyed learning about Mary outside of the Catholic church as Paintner brings in information from the Qur'an, Greek Orthodox and other sources to show Mary's wide and uniting appeal. I tend to stick to very strictly Catholic sources about anything religious so it was a little difficult for me to read these parts of the devotional, but ultimately I'm glad that I now know more about Mary from other sources.

I would thoroughly recommend this book, and am already planning on buying a copy for a friend who is starting a new business soon. My only problem with the book is that there is a lot of information! As I tried to read this every night before bed after the business of the day, I was never able to devote the amount of thought and introspection each devotion deserved. If you have the space in your life to devote yourself to prayer and contemplation for 30-60 minutes without someone interrupting you then you will get a lot out of this. As for me, I'd like to go back and re-read this in the future at a slower pace. Maybe at the rate of 1 a week!

Thank you to NetGalley for my ARC.

Once again, Christine Valters Paintner brings the ancient into the 21st century. Birthing the Holy is much more than honoring Mary as a Virgin who became Christ's mother but rather a book of archetypes of the ways Mary has connected with people through the ages not only in the Christian West but also in the Islamic, and Eastern Orthodox Traditions. My favorite is Mary as Untier of Knots; someone who can act as a guide and provide comfort in the midst' of life's entanglements. Featuring 31 archetypes each with their offerings of sacred creativity and blessing, Birthing Holy will be a book that will be one I return to again and again to mine its riches and learn from Mary.

Thirty-one days. I've really taken to liking this kind of format. Reflecting on names, on this case the names of Mary, gives us a time of focus on a particular person or book or topic. The intro here explains how meditating on the names of Mary can awaken feminine tendencies inside of us that might need tending. A good dose of history runs throughout the book as well, so a primer of sorts.

Great for private or small group use.

This book was exactly what I needed. So beautifully written and I can't wait to get a physical copy to see the photos of the gorgeous depictions of Mother Mary. The way that Valters-Paintner weaves our life journey together with how to pray to Mother Mary was helpful and empowering. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to connect to the divine feminine nature of God.

Birthing the Holy: Wisdom from Mary to Nurture Creativity and Renewal by Christine Valters Paintner is a great collection of many of the different names and facets of the Blessed Mother Mary.

This is such a great collection of so many of the different names and representations of Our Blessed Mother. The author does a great job in presenting each name, its origins, and how we can learn from each amd apply these lessons within our contemporary and daily lives. Beautiful prayers are presented as examples of how we can incorporate these requests into our daily devotions and prayers.

I really enjoyed learning more about Mary and encourage others that are also desiring to learn more, to pick up this book as well.

5/5 stars

Thank you NG and Ave Maria Press for this wonderful arc and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.

I am posting this review to my GR and Bookbub accounts immediately and will post it to my Amazon, Instagram, and B&N accounts upon publication on 4/13/22.