I very much enjoyed "The Handbook for Catholic Moms" by Lisa M. Hendey. I will admit I knew nothing about her website, as I really don't have much time to be one the computer anymore, this book was recommended to me by Amazon and I bought it as it looked interesting. As a Catholic stay at home mother of three very young children (4 and younger), with a husband who is working most of the time, and few Catholic friends, I am ALWAYS looking for books like this. A Catholic mother writing about her experiences and what worked for her and/or her friends. Not only do I want spiritual advice, but also practical wisdom and encouraging words. And that is just want I got. As with all of these style books, it is meant to give you ideas and take what you like and leave the rest. She never said what she wrote was the only or even the best way to do things, only that it worked for her.
The book is divided into four parts: Heart, Mind, Body and Soul. Each part has 6 chapters, with the exception of the Body, it only has four. Each chapter heading is followed by a Bible quote. Every chapter begins with "My Story" where Hendey gives the reader a glimpse into her life and how the chapter topic relates to her. For instance, under chapter 16 Doctor's Orders, she relates her battle with breast cancer. Following this, the reminder of the chapter is divided into headings. For chapter 18 Mass Matters, they are: "The Heart of Our Faith", "Preparing Ourselves for Mass", "Keeping Sunday Holy", and "Take the Word of God with You as You Go". Each chapter ends with the same two headings: Mom's Homework and Web Resources. Mom's Homework provides concrete actions for the reader to do to better themselves in the chapter's topic. In the Mom's Homework for chapter 7 "School's Never Out" some of the tips include: Join a book club in your community or online... This month, research and attend one faith formation event in your diocese...Investigate resources offered by your local library system...Assess your long- and short-term educational goals... And obviously the Web Resources are just that.
Throughout the book there are inspiring and informative quotes from the Bible, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Saints, and Popes. Also throughout the book are short essays, topically a few paragraphs long, relating to the topic at hand. While there are a couple done by priests, most were written by other Catholic moms including: Donna-Marie Cooper O'Boyle, Mary Ellen Barett, Mary Ann Kuharski, Holly Pierlot, and Sue Stanton. Topics covered include: marriage, motherhood, friendships, parish and faith community, mothering adoptive, foster, or special needs children, parenting on your own, continuing education, career issues, productivity and time management, finances and stewardship, healthy and useful ways to use the Web, creativity, fitness, nutrition, anxiety, medical routines, prayer, mass, Mary, Saints, the Bible, and Catholic faith and identity in the home.
In the preface of the book Hendey writes,"...I am writing this book to try to support and encourage you in your role as a Catholic mom and encourage all of us to nurture ourselves as mothers, so that we have the energy, spirit, and peaceful souls to help take care of those who fill our homes and our lives." And I feel she has accomplished that goal. I have read many similar books, but I think that this is my favorite. It was very encouraging and provided a number of useful tips and excellent resources. Perhaps if I had the time to surf the web and her website, I wouldn't need the book to find these resources, but I don't, so this part of the book was extremely valuable. As with every one of these type of books, there is limited help if all you have are young children, but there are many ideas for when they are older and I have more time to myself. Still, I thought that this book was well worth the read and also very enjoyable. I highly recommend it to all Catholic mothers.
