 Hi, I'm Tim Hill with tan books. Thanks for joining us, and I'm happy to be joined by author Philip Campbell his new book the story of Mary Very edifying for plenty of youngsters out there who can learn plenty about the story of Mary Philip Thanks for being with us. I'm very happy to be here talking about the blessed mother And I know you've been talking about this you have a tan course attached to this you've Written the textbook and the workbook. I guess the the first question I have for you Philip is why why the story of Mary after we did a story of civilization and story of the church Which were the first five volumes and story of series. We started thinking about The role of the blessed mother in Catholic spirituality and how how central she is and how Marian devotion is such a rich part of our of our Catholic heritage And we thought that it might be good to use this format to try to give a comprehensive Educational view of the blessed Virgin Mary's role in Catholicism for that same young age range that we target story of civilization to So this is like your lower elementary to middle school Maybe like age 8 to 13 ish so we're just looking to yeah to really give a comprehensive view of Marian spirituality to that age group using the model story of civilization, which has been so successful Sure perfect for my 8 year old and 10 year old When I'm communicating with them when I'm trying to teach them anything And sometimes I find it a bit of a struggle anything that's very complicated to to simplify it and yet to not Miss really important parts. Did you how did you balance that in this book? Oh, that was That was a big challenge There were some you know, you can get into aspects of Marian theology that are very complicated or at least you know challenging to explain to a young audience and so I was always trying to think of analogies and Examples from everyday life to try to kind of put these important ideas into a Framework that younger minds could grasp easily and there was a couple times where I had to have A phone call with the theologian or something to say like is this an accurate representation of what we're trying to To put forward and so in the end I think it all worked out But of course I've been I've been a teacher for many years I'm kind of used to being in that mindset of having to take complex ideas and And put them into a medium that that younger minds can grasp So it was a bit of a challenge, but not insurmountable I'm very happy with the finished product anything particular any of the particular stories in the story of Mary stick out to you. Oh There's so there's so many Like I really love the story. So I guess We should preface this by talking about this the structure of the story of marrying what it you know Because there's many ways you can consider the Blessed Mother You could you could look at just the theology of marrying devotion, right? Like what are the doctrines we believe about the Blessed Mother you could look at her from a cultural perspective like how has Devotion to the Blessed Mother influenced the development of cultures and say the Philippines or Latin America or medieval Europe You could look at apparitions We could talk about lords and Guadalupe and things like this or we could talk about our lady in the Bible You know Old Testament foreshadowings her life in the New Testament early church traditions about her So Mary algae is such a huge a Huge thing and so when I was talking to tan about first writing this book And I said what what angle do you want me to take here and tan was like all of it I want you to get all of it in there. So this book is very comprehensive It's not just and that's why I think makes it different than other books about Mary It's not just like here's what the church believes about Mary. It's not just like here's some stories of Mary's life It's everything it's Old Testament symbolism her life according to the Gospels Early church traditions all the great ecumenical councils the apparitions the devotions like the rosary the bronze scapular miraculous metal it talks about cultural things like feast days and popular celebrations it even talks about Companies and cities and geographical landforms dedicated to our Blessed Mother it has apologetics about Mary So it's very comprehensive. So getting back to like my favorite story There was so much that I've learned about the Blessed Mother But I think my favorite was probably the chapter on Our Lady of Chescova, which was this famous famous Polish icon of our Lady that is famous for having slashes on its face It's Mary holding a baby Jesus and there's some sword marks on the face of the icon This dates back to in the late Middle Ages when the monastery at Yosnogora was attacked by bandits and they made off with the they made off with the icon and In the process of stealing the icon it was it was slashed across the face by their their swords in anger And then they left it in a field and it was eventually recovered And I really love that story and I had a great time writing the the historical fiction Vignette describing that that story. So there's so many cool things There's so many there's so many tender tender stories of Mary devotion There's these sweet stories like Catherine of Siena as a little girl Floating floating down the stairs while she prays Hail Mary's and her parents You know freaking out seeing her levitating and then there's like a lot of really epic stories battles like the Battle of Lepanto or Or various things like that or the assassination attempt on on John Paul second, which we talk about as well so It's really great encapsulates all the the tender sentimental stories about our Blessed Mother and then a lot of like the the epic grand Civilization altering events that have been related to Mary as well. Wow with all the the wealth of Knowledge that you're imparting all the the stories all the just all the stuff that's in there What do you hope young readers take away from this most? well, I So I myself when I was younger did not really understand marrying devotion that well I would I was baptized Catholic when I was very young, but I didn't really I didn't have any formation in the church Really, I kind of had to relearn these things as an adult And even as a young adult Learning the faith I did not really understand The importance of marrying devotion. I mean it was there and I accepted it But it was kind of like a kind of like an add-on like an extra, you know To my Catholic faith and then gradually over the years I came to really see why the Saints recommend marrying devotion so highly and the important place that Mary plays in Our faith both has an intercessor as someone who actually Obtains grace as on our behalf, but also as a as a symbol as like a role model Of motherhood of piety of all these different virtues and so it really made a big difference in my life And and I think, you know, maybe for many other Catholic young people Maybe they've been raised with marrying devotion. Maybe they've been raised, you know, praying the rosary or wearing the stabular But maybe a lot of the rich symbolism or the history or the theology of these things Maybe there's like gaps that need to be filled in in their brain, you know So I'm kind of hoping that this book will help young people to make marrying devotion their own So it's not just something that their parents are telling them here We pray the rosary because we're Catholic where they really start to kind of take ownership for their own love of the blessed mother and grow in that That devotion that st. Louis de Montford says is the fastest way to to the heart of our Lord So that's really what I'm hoping they will get out of it That's what I've gotten out of marrying devotion. And so kind of hidden within all these pages There's maybe like echoes of my own story, you know, as I discovered these things So yeah, I just I just really hope that that young people will take a look at Even if they've known her their whole lives to take a look at her with with fresh eyes and kind of learn how Influential and important she is in the Catholic faith and she's not just an add-on that she's really there at the at the heart of our Spirituality, you know, I think as a cradle Catholic myself and growing up around a lot of Protestants I think Mary might be the most misunderstood part of Catholicism in a lot of ways or certainly one of the main ones Have you encountered that as well? And do you think this can help dispel some of those notions? Yes, I Encountered that in my own life from my my Protestant friends I encountered that from myself where because most of my Christian friends growing up Oh, I mean actually all of them were Protestants So I heard like my understanding of Mary was like filtered through a Protestant lens, you know And I really had to delve into Catholic sources to understand what the church taught and did not teach about the Blessed Virgin Mary So in the book you will find you'll find a couple chapters that are very Apologetical in nature where they literally say this chapter is about marrying apologetics if they say this here's a good thing to point out But then even throughout all the chapters that aren't apologetical. There's constant like explanations of What the teaching is why would believe it? Trying to use helpful analogies to explain it Analogies to explain the immaculate conception or to explain the idea of Mary as a mediatrix and these various ideas So I think in a certain sense the whole book is apologetical in that it's it's helping students to understand and explain What we believe about the Blessed Virgin, but yeah, there's specific chapters dedicated to answering Protestants as well Story of Mary. It's a textbook at the workbook. I opened it up thumb thumbing through it a little bit earlier Looks like lots of great activities to engage kids as well Yeah, and that's that's been a hallmark of all the story of books from story of civilization on down as we've tried to Not just produce a a textbook But but to have the workbook and then we also have an audio drama with story of Mary and like with the other story of Books I I came down to Tans Tans studios. They're a Belmont Abbey and I recorded a series of lectures I think there's 35 of them one for each chapter where I offer like kind of like an eight to ten minutes Synopsis of the chapter so there's all sorts of components to help make this a very rich Catechetical piece of material so you could read this for your own edification You could read this as part of a church history curriculum This could also be implemented in like a formal religious instruction setting To you know if it was part of religious education or something like that it would be ideal So there's lots of flexibility with how it can be used especially all the different components the workbook the audio drama The videos etc and with the eight and ten year old boys at home trying to teach them anything I know I can use all the help I can get so I Thank you in trying to reach them in different ways I know that is very valuable, and I'm sure you found that in your teaching career as well Yeah, a teacher really needs a full arsenal of tools to reach kids in many different ways It's true, and I think that's that's Tans view as well It sounds like the fitting way to end this conversation then would would be a Hail Mary Why don't why don't you lead us Philip? All right name of the father son the Holy Spirit on men Hail Mary full of grace The Lord is with thee blessed art thou amongst women and blessed as the fruit of thy womb Jesus Holy Mary mother of God pray for us sinners now and in the hour of our death Amen Holy Spirit Amen Thank you Philip. Thank you. It's been a pleasure talking to you And I pray and I hope that that this work is blessed and that and that it goes out to a lot of kids and Accomplishes what I what I hope it will