My Books

My Books- Through the Year with Jesus  and Through the Year with Mary

Through the Year with Jesus: Gospel Readings and Reflections for Children

Through the Year with Mary: Ponder and Pray Together with Children

It's been such a gift to share this resource for your homes and classrooms! Below you'll find some peeks inside of the book, read endorsements, links to outside reviews and interviews, and free printables to support using the book. You can always reach out at hello (at) looktohimandberadiant.com if you have any questions I can help with!

I'm honored, blessed, and amazed at how much I'm already hearing from readers about how you love it! If you have a copy of the book, I'd be so grateful if you shared it somehow- whether just telling another parent about it, gifting it to your child's teacher, or leaving an Amazon review. Make sure you take advantage of the freebies below as an extra thank you from me to you!


Here are a few sneak peeks at the inside pages:



From the Back Cover & Endorsements:

The liturgical year invites us to walk with Jesus through the most wonderful story ever told: the Gospel. In Through the Year with Jesus: Gospel Readings and Reflections for Children, catechist and popular blogger Katherine Bogner reveals the rich mystery of the seasons we celebrate in the Church.

With Gospel readings for each week of the liturgical year, along with tools for reflection, discussion, and prayer, Through the Year with Jesus offers endless opportunities for discovering who Jesus is and better understanding Catholic teaching about his life and mission.

  • Promote prayer and conversation about the life of Christ with children through
  • Weekly readings from the Gospels
  • Lectio Divina prompts to nurture personal prayer or journaling
  • Sacred art to accompany the Gospel reading
  • Stories of saints and many rich Catholic traditions for the liturgical year

The easy-to-use format of Through the Year with Jesus helps adults lead children to an intimate encounter with the heart of Jesus through the rhythm of the liturgical year and the powerful words of Scripture.

"Katherine Bogner hits a liturgical living home run with this devotional for children…. This book is an excellent, all-in-one way to bring the stories of Jesus and his family and his friends and his life into a home or classroom in a way that kids of all ages can connect with at their own levels. Grownups are sure to find their own faith deepened as well." Kendra Tierney, Author of The Catholic All Year Compendium

"If you've been looking for a way to engage your family or classroom in meaningful conversations throughout the liturgical year here is your answer. Buy this book!" Bonnie Engstrom, Author of 61 Minutes to a Miracle

"Through the Year with Jesus not only has beautiful Scripture readings and reflections on the Gospels, it is also an invaluable guide to help parents, teachers, and catechists learn how to pray through the Bible with their children—and how to teach them to pray and live God's Word." Katie Warner, Catholic Children's Book Author, FirstFaithTreasury.com

"Lectio Divina (and Visio Divina)are the hidden gems of prayer in the Catholic Church. With this book, Katherine Bogner brings these devotions to life for children, teachers, and parents. I am certain her guidance here will lead many young people into an encounter with Jesus Christ." Jared Dees, Founder of TheReligionTeacher.com and Author of Christ in the Classroom

Through the Year with Mary: Ponder and Pray Together with Children, my second book, is here! A stand alone book, but certainly a companion to Through the Year with Jesus, this book offers weekly readings, reflections, art, discussion questions, and prayers. Its topics include Marian devotions, feast days, traditions, apparitions, Bible stories, Saints, art, prayers, and hymns, all organized by themes that fit within the Church year. There are also a couple of great appendices with a Marian timeline, all the feast days in the book, and the full text of dozens of Marian prayers- making it easy to pray and learn about Our Blessed Mother all year long. 

Here's a look at the Table of Contents. Each weekly entry includes a quote (wisdom from Scripture, Saint, CCC, or author), an explanation of the tradition or devotion, a few discussion questions, a piece of sacred art including a reflection topic, a connection back to Jesus, and a prayer. (Click on the image to enlarge or zoom in to read the themes and topics)

And here's a sample week:


You can click here to order directly from my publisher. Right now, the book currently only listed in hardback, but will also be available as an ebook on the release date. You can also find it here on Amazon (affiliate link). If you like to shop local, now is a great time to ask your favorite bookstore to order the book for you to pick up locally, and they might also consider adding it to their shelves!


As a thank you for ordering, I'd like to offer you a free 20 page activity book, designed as a companion to the book. You can download it here!

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From the back cover:

For two-thousand years, Christians around the world have sought the Blessed Virgin Mary as a guide to growing closer to her Son, Jesus. Through Scripture, Catholic teaching, devotions, and countless works of art, we come to see Mary as our Mother, too.

Through the Year with Mary by Katherine Bogner brings together the Church’s traditions in one place and provides a year-long plan for coming to know and love the Mother of God through:

  • Weekly passages from Scripture, saints, and scholars
  • Reflections to nurture your understanding of Marian teaching and devotion
  • Sacred art from around the world
  • Marian prayers to teach you to grow closer to Jesus through Mary

This comprehensive resource will help adults and children alike to entrust themselves to the most loving Mother of Jesus.


Through the Year with Mary has received the nihil obstat and imprimatur.
Nihil obstat:
Msgr. Philip D. Halfacre, V.G.
Censor Librorum 
Imprimatur:
Most Rev. Daniel R. Jenky, C.S.C.
Bishop of Peoria
September 15, 2021 


“In this companion volume to her wonderful book, Through the Year with Jesus, Katherine Bogner again hits all the right notes. Everything you’ve ever wondered about Mary is covered here, with quotes from saints and scholars, Church doctrine, Marian apparitions, Scripture from the Old and New Testaments, beautiful works of art, and prayers. It’s great for all ages, and would be useful in the home or classroom. Alongside your children, you’ll learn everything the Catholic Church has taught about Our Lady over the centuries, and how all of it, always, points us to a deeper understanding of her Son, Jesus.”

Kendra Tierney, Author and Blogger, CatholicAllYear.com

 “This book is an absolute must for families interested in deepening their devotion to Mary and honoring her in their homes and hearts all year long. In simple and compelling language, Katherine has made the wealth of the Church’s teachings on the Blessed Mother accessible without sacrificing depth. With easy-to-read reflections, beautiful art, and prayers from around the world, this book will easily become a cornerstone of your domestic church.”

Colleen Pressprich, Author of Marian Consecration for Families with Young Children

 “I am always looking for things to help us better communicate the faith to our daughters, who have lots of questions and an appetite to learn about Jesus. Who better to help us help them meet Jesus than His mother? Through the Year with Mary has been such a great resource for us to pray with on the way to school each morning, at the dinner table in the evening, and to try to grow our little domestic church with intentional focus on the person who knew Jesus best: His mom.”

Katie Prejean McGrady, Award-winning Author of Follow: Your Lifelong Adventure with Jesus and Host of The Katie McGrady Show on Sirius XM

 “Katie Bogner has done it again! Through the Year with Mary is an outstanding guide for children and adults as they grow in their love of God and His Church. Katie’s book offers a robust collection of Marian art, theology, prayers, and feast days to lead us to Jesus through Mary. Just like its companion book, Through the Year with JesusThrough the Year with Mary is the perfect addition to any Catholic classroom or home. Buy this book!”

Bonnie Engstrom, Author of 61 Minutes to a Miracle

Through the Year for Jesus and Through the Year with Mary elsewhere:

Promo videos from The St. Paul Center

National Catholic Register 2022 Buy Catholic Gift Guide

EWTN/Ave Maria Radio Catholic Connection Interview, starting about minute 34

The Catholic Post Newspaper: Book Review

Quote Me Podcast with Lindsay Schlegel

Letters to Women Podcast with Chloe Langr

Katie McGrady Show on Sirius XM Interview

Iowa Catholic Radio: Jon Leonetti in the Morning Interview

Real Presence Live Interview

Catholic Community Radio (Starting at about minute 18)

Interview with Bonnie Way of The Koala Mom

The Regular Catholic Guy Show Podcast

Review at Equipping Catholic Families

Review at Good Books for Catholic Kids

The Front Line with Joe & Joe Podcast

Review at Good News Book Fair

Bookish Christmas Gift Guide at National Catholic Register

The Catholic Post Newspaper: Book Review

Interview on How They Love Mary Podcast

Review of Through the Year with Mary from KoalaMom.com

Companion Resources for Through the Year with Jesus

A growing collection of items can be found in this folder include:
-Journaling pages to support praying with Scripture (for both older and younger kids)
-Liturgical Year Journal "cover" in three color choices: blue, green, and red
-Lectio Divina prayer guides (small cards and full page)


I love how these Liturgical Season Planning Pages turned out.  I think they could help you anchor each Season with a printable to set up ways you plan to pray, serve, sacrifice, and celebrate, as well as lists of prayer intentions and inspirational quotes. Perfect to hang on the fridge or with your calendar or to add to a journal, and could be completed individually by kids or together as a family.


This Liturgical Wheel Watercolor printable is something great to hang up or add to a journal:


These journal printables are super flexible and could help you and/or your kids set up a journal following the Liturgical Year themes. Pretty "endpaper" cover options, tabs for the seasons, and journaling pages for both older and younger kids are included. I also added a Google Slides version for those of you that might want to use it digitally with a classroom:


And a digital version perfect for the classroom:



This coloring page is from my sketch that was used as inspiration for the book cover:

And here's a little watercolor version too:


6 comments:

  1. Thank you for the great resources but the liturgical year watercolour looks confusing with the words matching the colours. Could it be made clearer with the words and colours through arrows or the words on the colours?

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    1. Thanks for that feedback! I guess I meant it to be more of an "artistic" or reflective look at the continuity of the Liturgical Year, not as much for instruction. I do have a Liturgical wheel as part of this coloring book that might be more of what you are looking for: https://www.looktohimandberadiant.com/2016/11/the-liturgical-year-coloring-book.html

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  2. I am so excited about this book. Your offerings helped me beautifully when I taught 4th grade, and now that I am teaching Junior Kindergarten, this will be a wonderful way to introduce our dear Jesus.

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  3. Thanks for such a beautiful resource to teach our Children about Jesus!. I have two questions. Is there a distributor of your book in Canada? and my second inquiry, does the gospel readings in the book are meant to match with the current liturgical calendar 2020-2021 ?. I wonder if they would be different for next year. Thanks for the clarification.

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    Replies
    1. Hello! My publisher at stpaulcenter.com ships to Canada and last I checked it was also available through Amazon in Canada. I don't have a separate distributor there to recommend, however so I know the shipping cost might be a bit higher, I'm sorry.
      The short answer is that the readings do not match with a certain Liturgical Reading cycle, so it can be used year and after year. If you are interested in the long answer ;) here are some more details as to why:
      When we began planning the book, we wanted it to revolve around the Liturgical Year and have weekly reflections. The natural next step was to look at the Mass readings. However, because the English missal is on a three year cycle, the book would only be "good" for one year if we designed it to match a specific set of readings. Having three books of this quality wasn't marketable for the publisher, because we wanted to create a keepsake book, not something that was more disposable in nature. Besides the A, B, and C reading cycles, there are also solemnities that move each year, vigils that have different readings, etc. Not to mention English speaking Catholics of different rites (Marionite, Byzantine, etc.) as well as parishes that use the 1962 Missal, all of whom have totally different readings each week.

      All that being said, the only solution for creating a book that could be used year after year no matter the calendar in use was to choose the Gospel readings based on themes, not the specific cycle we are in. So the readings you see are based on the theme of that Liturgical Season and the events from Jesus' life being remembered. I also tried to fit in 60 of the "highlight" stories of Jesus' life so there wasn't too much repetition and as many of the key (narrative) events would be included as possible.
      Hope that helps!

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  4. You are so generous! Thank you! I just purchased the first book and downloaded your resources.

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