Girlfriends, episode number 179, Mary, our queen and mother with Marge Fennellin.

Hello and welcome to Girlfriends. I'm Danielle Bean. I'm a wife and a mom, and I'm on a mission to help you know your worth as a woman so you can find peace, balance, and joy in family living.

This week, I'm sharing a wonderful conversation I had recently with a friend and fellow author,

award-winning writer Marge Fenelin. Can't wait to share it with you. Let's get started.

Hey, girlfriends, how are you?

Thanks for being here.

Thanks for showing up for another episode of the Girlfriends podcast.

You know I love to be able to connect here.

And this week we have kind of a Mary theme going here because I'm going to be talking with Marge Fennellin, who is a fantastic author who has written extensively about Mary and from a lot of different points of view and sharing a lot of our church history and history of apparitions and her own personal devotion and journey in her relationship with Mary.

And I find this so interesting because even those of us who are cradle Catholics sometimes struggle in our relationship with Mary. And I find this so interesting because even those of us who are cradle Catholics,

sometimes struggle in our relationship with Mary, what that means. And for sure, those who are converts have their own issues, perhaps, that they bring to that relationship with Mary and

obstacles that we need to get over. Do you struggle with your relationship with Mary? Do you struggle in loving her the way that

Jesus tells us to love her? Do you sometimes feel like you're not sure how to approach Mary in a

relationship with Mary? Or do you struggle with the rosary? That's a big one that I hear from people

about all the time.

But, you know, beginning your devotion to Mary, beginning a relationship with Mary, if you don't

currently have a close relationship with Mary, you don't have to start out by praying the

rosary daily, right? Just start out by approaching her in prayer about, you know, what's going

on in your life and what you're struggling with, the same way you would with a good earthly mother, you know, what's going on in your life and what you're struggling with the same way you

would with a good earthly mother, you know, turning to her in what's going on in your life and

asking for her support, asking for her prayers, asking for her intercession on your behalf.

You know, something that I usually do when I'm turning to Mary in prayer, especially if there's something

...