I am the kind of person who likes to dive right into a book. I fully commit, reading quickly and absorbing the story or purpose in most of my free moments. I enjoy how different authors’ develop their characters or forward their message through the written word. Catholicmom.com’s latest book Mary’s Way: The Power of Entrusting Your Child to God by Judy Landrieu Klein was a book that though I enjoyed as a whole, I could not read the way I usually do.

Judy Klein’s life has been tumultuous to put it lightly. Her family has suffered through the pains of death, addiction, debilitating anxiety and many other trials. Klein herself also worked through a series of conversions on her way to Catholicism, coming to terms with extreme feminism and a need for control. Reflecting back on her life, Klein shows the reader how the major events of Mary’s life provide a unique lens for understanding the trials she and her family have walked through.

As each chapter of her life unfolds, Klein explores with the reader how the more she surrendered to God’s will, the more she emulated Mary’s fiat or yes to God’s will at the Annunciation, the deeper her faith grew. It allowed her to grow through her trials, seeing how God can use even the most devastating moments as a channel for grace.

Klein’s ability to impact her readers’ hearts, and especially my own, is through her gift to tell a story gently but not without giving the reader the full weight of what happened. Her stories wrenched my heart in ways that few books ever have. This is not a book to push through, it’s one to cry over, re-read, maybe cry again, and together with Klein see how there truly was light and grace through it all. Klein herself puts it best:

One must stand in the tension between the grief of death and the hope of new life to embrace resurrection’s paradox: it is through death that we find life, by dying that we rise, and only by losing our life that we find it.

If you are struggling with your own fiat, this book is for you. If you aren’t quite sure what it means to surrender your life to God’s will, this book is definitely for you. If you need encouragement as you seek to discover your fiat, this book is absolutely for you. Just make sure you have tissues at the ready.