Book Review: The Christian Mother

The Christian Mother: The Education of Her Children and Her Prayer is another one of those old books that I couldn't wait to crack open.  The book was originally published back in 1880 so you can well imagine just how beautiful many of the prayers contained within this book are.  I became aware of this book when I read a few excerpts from it on a blog I read regularly.  Based what I had read of the excepts, I knew this book was one I had to have on my bookshelf.

Upon getting the chance to read through this book I discovered that it doesn't just contain loads of beautiful prayers for a variety of situations, it also is filled with lots of sage and timeless advice for raising Catholic children with well-formed consciences and a firm understanding of their faith.  So the book is really part manual part prayer book.

With the book being written over a hundred years ago it goes without saying that the portions of this book that reference the Mass are ideally suited to the Extraordinary Form (Latin Mass) and not the Ordinary Form, although, many of these prayers could certainly still be employed.

There's a section on indulgenced prayers near the end of the book, but I question whether or not the indulgences are the same now as they were then.  I have a few other pre-Vatican II prayer books that were reprinted in recent time, and one of them has some annotations regarding the indulgences and some changes that were made after a certain date.

There is a beautiful Way of the Cross for the Christian mother for the benefit of her children.  The reflections and prayers for this Stations of the Cross are beautiful and timeless.

Overall, Rev. W. Cramer's The Christian Mother: The Education of Her Children and Her Prayer, is a spiritual treasure trove for mothers.  No matter where you are a mother, whether you're a new mom or a the mother of adult children, this lovely little hardbound volume has something to offer you.  Ideally, though, this is a book that you'll want to have on hand while your children are young.  It would make a great gift for a mother-to-be or a new mom.

I was provided with a review copy of this book by Tiber River in exchange for my honest review. Visit Aquinas and More for more information or to purchase a copy for yourself.