Our Catholic Faith - Student Text: Living What We Believe Book

Reason for Reading: Personal edification.

When I started my conversion process to Catholicism, I immediately felt the welcoming, warmth and peace of our Mother, the Blessed Virgin. Marian theology is something I really wanted to fully understand and this book is truly wonderful in describing Mary's place in the Bible, in the Church and in every Christian's life.

Hahn explains biblically why Mary is honoured by Catholics, and her central importance in the Christian Life (not just Catholic). First he goes through who Mary really *is*, then shows the parallels between the Old Testament and the New where references to and promises of Mary are made, he also explains Mary's role in Revelations. Using passages from the bible and quotes from early church writers we see how Mary was essential to Jesus' message. Scott Hahn calls Mary "the test" of Christianity. Jesus gave us his Mother!! What more proof do we need that He loves us? And how could we *not* honour her if we love Him.

Hahn has a wonderful narrative voice. He can speak clearly in layman's terms and often adds humour to make his book not only informative and inspirational but fun to read. The book does go pretty deep theologically and I did find myself reading passages twice or thrice to comprehend, but I am still new to studying theology. I had a lovely chat with our church Deacon about what I had learnt and had a few questions for him but it was wonderful to share the big lightbulb moments that went off in my head with him as I came to some realizations of Truth while reading the book. When reading this book (and possibly any book on Mary) one of the most powerful forces one realizes is just how much the Church respects women as a whole. One can see this every time one attends a Mass but when reading about the role of Mary, Mother, Bride and Queen in any Church teaching it is simply beautiful to find a place in today's world that still respects and honours women as women. An extremely enlightening book. No Catholic should go without reading it and Protestants with an inquiring mind will find it interesting to learn what Catholic beliefs really are from this ex-Presbyterian minister author.