Choosing Beauty: A 30 Day Spiritual Makeover for Women

I choose this book by Gina Loehr to review for different reasons, but mainly to discern if our women's bible study group would enjoy it as a selection. It was a great study. The book is broken down into 10 chapters, each for three days and are grouped by a virtue that the chapter focuses on, such as hope, prudence, or charity. There is a prayer and thought provoking questions at the end of each day's short reading. At the end of each chapter there is a short explanation of how Mary and a saint models the virtue discussed. Gina also includes a "suggested spiritual activity" at the end of each chapter. There are also charts to fill in if you'd like to keep track of your personal progress on your growth in a particular virtue.

Some questions she asks are: How can you "open the doors to Christ" in your life? Describe how you have seen hope and joy expressed in young children. What can you learn form them? A suggested spiritual activity, from the chapter on faith is to spend time in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament on a regular basis and from Fortitude, consider reading one of the gospels all the way through, paying special attention to how Jesus lived out eh virtue of fortitude.

I enjoyed the study and think it would be useful to women in many different stages of their faith life. All of us need a reminder now and again that Christian virtue should be the foundation of our life in Christ and that the world's definition of beauty is not what makes an attractive woman. I especially enjoyed Gina's story as to how she was convinced to spend time cultivating her inner beauty.

This book is definitely on my short list of possibilities for fall with the women. This review was written as part of the Catholic book Reviewer program from The Catholic Company. Visit The Catholic Company to find more information on Choosing Beauty.