As I continue to write my own book and finish a writing project on the Blessed Virgin Mary, it came to me that I have never written a post on the books I often turn to when writing. Although I don’t use these five books every week in these posts, they are five books that have become my favorites over the past few years of writing about Mary. If you don’t have these books in your personal library, I would suggest purchasing them.

The order they are in has nothing to do with how I favor these five books. The listing of these books is not like the Top 10 Plays on ESPN each night, they are just a list of five good quality books that focus on the Blessed Virgin Mary.

1. Introduction to Mary (Mark Miravalle) – this book gives a good systematic approach to Marian theology beginning with Devotion to Mary, Mary in the Scriptures, then focusing on the four dogmas of Mary, the fifth doctrine – Mother of All Peoples, The Holy Rosary, Consecration to Jesus through Mary, Mary in Private Revelation, and concludes with the most common objections and responses on Marian theology. A must read and one that should be in any Catholics library.

2. Our Lady of Guadalupe and the Conquest of Darkness (William H. Carroll) – as soon as your finish reading this blog post, open up a new tab in your web browser and head directly to Amazon to purchase this book. It’s the best book I have ever read in regards to the great Mexican shrine dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Once you begin reading it, you will not be able to put it down. I have told countless people about this text. They all come back saying the same thing – Wow! What a book! To read my blog post on this book, please go here.

3. Mary and the Fathers of the Church (Luigi Gambero) – this has become one of my go to books as of late because it contains Marian theology given to us by the early Church Fathers. Covering Church Fathers of the Ante-Nicene period and the Post-Nicene period, its vastness of the great early century theologians seems to be unmatched. This is a fantastic book for anyone seeking to know more about Marian theology through the words of the men that followed the Apostles.

4. John Paul II’s Book of Mary (Margaret R. Bunson) – if you read this blog often and know my interests, then you will understand that there is no way a book list would be complete without the writings of Pope St. John Paul II. This is an excellent book for anyone seeking to know the Polish Pope’s thoughts on one of his favorite topics, the Blessed Virgin Mary. Having a devotion to her since he was a young boy in Poland, and even placing the letter “M” on his papal crest, John Paul II wrote extensively on the Blessed Mother in many of his documents, letters, and speeches. This book is a compilation of some of those words.

5. Mariology: A Guide for Priests, Deacons, Seminarians, and Consecrated Persons (Mark Miravalle, Editor) – a much thicker book than the rest on this list, but the information this book provides is an excellent resource for anyone seeking a more academic understanding of Mariology. It’s a compilation of essays written by some of the best minds of today focusing on a wide range of Marian topics. When I was in graduate school at Franciscan, one of the essays in this book became the outline to my own thoughts and eventual paper on Mary as the Advocating Queen.

If you have any questions about these books or other Marian books in my personal library, please let me know. As this very moment, I am looking at 30 books that focus on the Blessed Virgin Mary in some capacity. Even with all these books on Mary in my library, I realize everyday the more I think I know, the less I know.

Once my writing projects on Mary are complete and ready for publication, I will release that information on here. Please pray for me.