Book Reviews and More: Saint Bernadette Soubirous And Our Lady of Lourdes - Anne Eileen Heffernan, Elizabeth Tebo and Mari Goering

Wednesday, 22 August 2018

Saint Bernadette Soubirous And Our Lady of Lourdes - Anne Eileen Heffernan, Elizabeth Tebo and Mari Goering - Encounter the Saints Series Book 2

Saint Bernadette Soubirous:
And Our Lady of Lourdes
Encounter the Saints Series Book 32
Anne Eileen Heffernan, FSP
Mary Elizabeth Tebo
Mari Goering (Illustrator)
Pauline Books and Media
Pauline Books and Media
ISBN 9780819870209

I have now read 28 books in the Encounter the Saints Series from Pauline Books and Media. I started reading them myself, because they were books I stumbled upon about saints I wanted to know more about. Now, my children and I are reading the whole series. Of the 28 book I have read the vast majority have been reread with one of more child. My Oldest and I read these books together, alternating pages. And I read them with the younger two. Though the middle child will now often read alternating pages also. My first time reading this book was with my son, our middle child, for his reading challenge time. It has really left an impact upon him.

This book was a surprise on many levels. I doubt you could find a Catholic who is not familiar with the name of Our lady of Lourdes. In fact, I doubt you could find someone who was raised in the western world who does not know at least the name. But this is the incredible story of God choosing a poor small girl to bring a message though Mary, first to a small town and then to the whole world. I had recently read another book on Saint Bernadette Soubirous, but was still taken by surprised by her humility, and servants heart. For my son it was an introduction to this story.

The chapters in this book are:
Poor and Small
The Wonderful Day
A Fantastic Story
More Excitement
Promises
Three More Apparitions
Interrogation
A Mysterious Force
The Miraculous Spring
Another Summons
The Request
The Chapel and the pastor
Annunciation Day
A Temporary Farwell
Decision
Still Poor and Small
Lourdes Today
Prayer
Glossary

This book follows the same format as the others in the Encounter the Saints Series. It contains the biography of the saint, a prayer to the saint, and a glossary of terms specific to this volume. It also contains 5 illustrations, the drawings are by Mari Goering, this is the first of 4 volumes she illustrated in the series. The illustrations are wonderful pencil sketches. They have a great deal of detail and my son has spend a lot of time examining the pictures.

My son was drawn to this book in a way that he has not been drawn to many others. Currently he is wearing a back brace and preparing for spinal surgery within the next year. As soon as we finished the book, he wanted to know if we could go to Lourdes and he could bathe in the spring. It was hard to explain to him that a trip there is out of the picture, but we can pray and trust God. And that is one of the big lessons we both took from this book, pray and trust.

This book does an amazing job of portraying the life of this saint in a way that can be enjoyed by any reader. Readers of all ages. The book and series are written for children but honestly anyone can read these books and have their faith encourages and challenged by the saint presented in that volume. This series is among our favorite Catholic books to read, and from 50 years of age through to 7 we love these books. Currently there are only 10 titles we have not read in the series, but we have reread some books up to four times now. So even once we finish them all we can go back and reread them again and again.

This book is an amazing book in a wonderful series as a family we give them our highest recommendations.

Note: This book is part of a series of reviews: 2018 Catholic Reading Plan!

Encounter the Saints Series from Pauline Books and Media: