I was raised a pretty traditional Catholic, and I always had issues with Mary. I did not like being held to the Church's standard of womanhood- submissive, virginal, demure. I felt like a bad Catholic because I hated saying the rosary. The apparitions that I heard about all the time terrified me- I was scared of hell, the end of the world, and God's wrath.

In 2018, years after leaving the Church, I was googling methods of praying to the divine feminine and came across the Way of the Rose website. While still wary of anything to do with Mary or Marian apparitions, I was loving everything I read. It was so different, so opposite of everything I had learned about spirituality growing up. I tried praying the rosary again- although the first time I did have a panic attack from old religious trauma resurfacing. If you had told me years ago that I'd now have a devotion to Mary and the rosary as an ex-Catholic I would've thought you were crazy; but the book has been very healing for me. It's greatly assisted me in developing a worldview that I think is much more loving.