Book Review: “The Life of Mary as Seen by the Mystics” by Raphael Brown with Foreword by Rev. Edward A. Ryan, S.J.

Raphael Brown, The Life of Mary as Seen by the Mystics: Compiled from Revelations of St. Elizabeth of Schoenau, St. Bridget of Sweden, Ven. Mother Mary of Agreda, Sister Anna Catherine Emmerich, with Foreword by Rev. Edward A. Ryan, S.J., Dr. En Sc. Hist. Professor of Church History, Woodstock College  (Bruce, Milwaukee, 1951). 292 pages.

Book Review

A friend gave me this book last week. I started reading it last 16 March and finished it last 19 March on the Feast of St. Joseph. This 292-page pocketbook is difficult to put down.

It is hard to imagine what daily life in a holy family is like, with Mary as Mother, Jesus as Son, and Joseph as Father.  But the book describes these things in detail.

For Mary and Joseph, whenever Joseph pass by Mary, he would genuflect and he would not allow her to serve him, until he was told by his guardian angel to allow Mary to serve him, and interiorly treat her with highest reverence.  Joseph and Mary worked not for gain but for charity or to supply a need: they left the payment to their employers and accepted it as a freely given alms rather than an earned reward.  They divide their earnings into three parts: one part for the temple, one part for the poor, and one part for themselves.

For Jesus and Joseph, when Jesus was born, Joseph prostrated himself before Jesus.  Then upon Mary’s bidding, Joseph “kissed the Babe’s feet, and held little Jesus in his arms, pressing Him to his heart, while tears of happiness moistened his cheeks.”  In Jesus’s hidden life, he helped Joseph in his carpentry work.  When Joseph says to Jesus “‘Do this” or “Do that”, Jesus did it at once out of obedience.

For Jesus and Mary, the relationship is more intimate, so close that Mary becomes a reflection of her Son.  After Jesus’s birth, Jesus can already speak, but he speaks only at first to Mary and many years later to Joseph.   Jesus continuously instructs Mary on His mission on earth and how Mary becomes part of that mission.  Even during Jesus’s public ministry, Mary follows Jesus physically or through a vision.  Jesus always introduce his new apostles and disciples to Mary, so that she also becomes their spiritual mother.  What Christ suffered from his Agony in the Garden to his Crucifixion, Mary also suffered vicariously, even while only following the Stations of the Cross years after Jesus’s death.  Mary gathered the apostles during Pentecost.  When the Gospels were being written Mary requested the evangelists to write only as few as possible about her, so that the first Christians will not worship her as God.

CONTENTS

Foreword

Introduction

1. Private Revelations
2. St. Elzabeth of Schoenau
3. St. Bridget of Sweden
4. Venerable Mother Mary of Jesus of Agreda
5. Sister Anna Catherine Emmerich
6. Summary
7. This Compilation

Chapters

1. St. Ann and St. Joachim
2. The Nativity of Mary
3. Infancy
4. Presentation
5. In the Temple
6. The Espousals
7. Preparation for the Annunciation
8. The Annunciation
9. The Visitation
10. Trials
11. Mary and Joseph in Nazareth
12. The Journey to Bethlehem
13. The Nativity
14. The Adoration of the Shepherds
15. The Circumcision
16. The Adoration of the Magi
17. The Purification
18. The Flight to Egypt
19. The Holy Family in Egypt
20. The Return to Nazareth
21. The Boy Jesus in the Temple
22. The Hidden Life in Nazareth
23. The Death of St. Joseph
24. Preparation for the Public Life
25. The Wedding at Cana
26. Mary During the Public Ministry
27. Judas
28. Prelude to the Passion
29. Holy Thursday
30. The Passion
31. The Crucifixion
32. The Resurrection
33. The Ascension
34. Pentecost and the Early Church
35. Mary’s Last Years
36. The Dormition
37. The Assumption and Crowning

Bibliography