Category: Reviews

Book review: Bless My Child: A Catholic Mother’s Prayer Book

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Bless My Child: A Catholic Mother’s Prayer Book
Julie Cragon
Cover art: Rose Walton
ISBN-10: 1594710147
ISBN-13: 978-1594710148
UPC: 033500021060

This book review is on a book of prayers for Moms! I actually bought it for myself while I was pregnant, having discovered it when I purchased the grandparents’ version as a gift to my own mother in celebration of her first grandchild. There is a lot of overlap between the two, but I don’t think it hurts to have more than one person praying for the same thing!

This thoughtful collection of prayers can be used for many stages of your child’s life, from gestation into adulthood, including for the sacraments!

The prayers themselves are quite modest in their language, without pretense or ostentation (haha, the irony of this review!), and seem to have been written from the heart. They relate to our daily parenting life, the joys, struggles, milestones, and everything in between, and they resonate well with the yearnings of a mother’s heart – some have definitely brought a tear to my eye! Perhaps the best thing about this book is that it also reminds us to pray for ourselves as moms, asking for God’s help and guidance in raising our little saints.

I acknowledge that it is difficult to write prayers for an individual without knowing their gender (that he/she can get a bit clunky and impersonal!). Cragon’s prayers address this by cycling through the use of masculine and feminine pronouns, so some prayers are written using he/him, and other prayers with she/her, but can be prayed for a child of either sex. This may be a stumbling block to some, but I find it easy enough to replace pronouns that didn’t apply with the appropriate ones for my child – I simply think about my child while I read each prayer, and correct as I go along.

There is a Catholic spin on it, hence the title. This is mainly because of the prayers written for receiving the sacraments, as I mentioned earlier. There are also prayers to patron saints of various issues our children may encounter on life’s journey, though neither of these are strictly Catholic things. Aside from these categories of prayer, the book contains many other prayers that could be applied to parents across denominations.

I have the paperback edition, although it is also available as an e-book for Kindle. The satin finish book cover has a sleek feel to it, with just enough grip to be easily held. The paperback book itself is fairly light, and isn’t too big, so it won’t take up too much space on your bedside table or in your bag.

This prayer book would make a great addition to any Catholic mother’s repertoire! It would be a touching gift for any faith-filled mother to celebrate a pregnancy, new birth, baptism, or just because!

Until next time, let’s pray for each other. And remember, we can do Mom things through Christ who strengthens us!

Book review: Prayers for Children

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Prayers for Children (A Little Golden Book Classic)
Various authors
Illustrations by Eloise Wilkins
ISBN: 0307021068
ISBN-13: 9780307021069
UPC: 033500021060

This beautifully illustrated book was gifted to me at my baby shower. At first, I thought it was nothing more than a sweet little collection of prayers, but once I opened it up and began to turn the pages, those timeless watercolour illustrations flooded my mind with memories from my childhood. Suddenly, these 26 pages became nostalgia and something of an heirloom. Folks, this book has been rattling around bookstores (and now the internet) since it was first published in 1952… yes, over 70 years ago. And I think there’s a reason for it.

This book contains 19 prayers and poems, including the staple Our Father – it does have the doxology (i.e. “for the kingdom, the power and the glory…”) tacked on as the protestants usually pray it, but this isn’t a bad thing. There are other familiar prayers as well, such as the Evening Prayer (“now I lay me down to sleep…”). Some of the poetry was written by greats, like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The last page is dedicated to a musical arrangement of the evening prayer, so if you are a musically inclined family, you could even sing the prayer together!

Other than some of the thee/thou language that can simply be explained or changed to the modern version, it definitely stands the test of time. The many rhyming prayers will also help with memorisation, when the time comes for that.

We have the hardcover format, which is the classic format for Little Golden Book titles. It does not lay flat, but it is fairly light, and because of the nature of the book, you probably won’t be reading it from cover to cover in one sitting, so holding it isn’t too difficult. I can’t speak to the quality of the paperback or board books, though they are fairly scarce, so they may not be easily sourced, in any case.

In all, this is a good book of traditional style prayers. It is not strictly Catholic, but it has good material that can help little ones connect with God. The illustrations are what managed to stick in my memory for decades, and I still find them beautiful to behold. This is a good book for early prayers that has remained true to its claim of being a Little Golden Book Classic for several generations, and will likely continue for several more.

Do you have this book? Did you have it as a child? Have you bought this for your own child? Which prayers from this book stand out to you?

Until next time, let’s pray for each other. And remember, we can do Mom things through Christ who strengthens us!