Somethings about Mary in April 2014
Many, many thanks to Albert, Alex, Alicia, Anna, Antoine, Barbara, Claire, Père Daniel-Ange, David, Diane, Evita, Frances, Gaelle, Giulia, Jan, Father John, Sister John Mary, John Paul, Luz, Maria, Mary, Mary-Therese, Nicole, Brother Patrick, Father Philip, Father Raymond, Sammy, Theresa, Tommy & Victoria for giving their 'something' about Mary this month.
This photo is of the altar of Our Lady of the Miracle in the Church of Sant' Andrea delle Fratte, where Mary appeared to Alphonse Ratisbonne in 20 January 1842 (& where St Maximilian Kolbe celebrated his first Mass on 29 April 1918).
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If you'd like to give Our Lady a metaphorical bunch of flowers by saying your something about Mary, please, pretty please, contact the Totus2us team.
1st April - Claire 
"Our Lady is a very special person for me. She’s the greatest person who I can turn to in my hour of need and my own special mother, who I pray to on a regular basis and who I have a great devotion to."
Claire is from London.
Our Lady's message to Mirjana Soldo, Medjugorje, 2nd April 2014:
"Dear children, with a motherly love I desire to help you for your life of prayer and penance to be a sincere attempt of drawing closer to my Son and His divine light – that you may know how to separate yourselves from sin. Every prayer, every Mass and every fasting is an attempt of drawing closer to my Son, a reminder of His glory and a refuge from sin – it is a way to a renewed union of the good Father and His children. Therefore, my dear children, with hearts open and full of love, cry out the name of the Heavenly Father that He may illuminate you with the Holy Spirit. Through the Holy Spirit you will become a spring of God's love. All those who do not know my Son, all those thirsting for the love and peace of my Son, will drink from this spring. Thank you. Pray for your shepherds. I pray for them and I desire that they may always feel the blessing of my motherly hands and the support of my motherly heart."
2nd April - 9th anniversary of death of Pope John Paul II - Maria 
"I love Mary very much. I think of her very strongly as my mother and I’ve always been really struck how, in the difficult times in my life especially, she is one of the first people I want to turn to. The loving arms of a mother - nothing can beat it!"
Maria is 22 & from London.
3rd April - Diane 
"Ce que je peux dire de la Vierge Marie c’est que chaque fois que j'ai des difficultés, que je suis triste, je me tourne vers elle et elle me conduit vers son fils Jésus. C'est par elle que je suis arrivée à Jésus. Elle me prend toujours par la main, je me sens toujours recouverte de son manteau d'amour, de son amour."
Diane is from Paris & gives her quelque chose de Marie in French.
4th April - David 
"I think of Mary as being the Mother of God and being the purest form of woman, and I try to think of her in an affectionate way or good way by thinking of my own mother."
David is from Ireland.
6th April - Evita 
"Mary to me is like a mother, like my own mother, who I feel can support me and nurture me in a way that people can’t, in a spiritual way."
Evita is from Latvia.
7th April - Alex 
"Our Lady Mary means a lot to me in my life. She’s a mother to me, she's the mother of Jesus and she’s much more a mother to me."
Alex is 29 & from Kenya.
8th April - Luz 
"Mary is like my mother.
Nuestra Señora María es como una mamá para mí."
Luz is from Colombia.
9th April - Gaelle 
"La Vierge Marie, elle est une force, une image, qui m'aide à m'abandonner à la volonté de Dieu puisque la Vierge Marie est la première à l'avoir fait totalement, pleinement. Donc elle est un vrai modelle quotidien. Notre Dame du Rocher, priez pour nous."
Gaelle is 26 & from France; she gives her quelque chose de Marie in French.
10th April - Brother Patrick 
"Just to say about Mary, the most wonderful title: the Mother of God, the Mother of Jesus. My prayer is that this concept be better understood in the world, for the peace of the world and for justice in the world."
Brother Patrick, from Ireland, is a brother of the Servite Order.
11th April - Father Philip 
"Lent is the time of repentance, of sorrow for sins. We turn to the Lord, but we turn to Mary, the Mother of Mercy, begging her prayers that we be released from our sins and may turn to Jesus her Son, for she is mother of us all."
Father Philip Allen from the Servite Order is from London.
12th April - Sammy 
"When I think of Mary, Mother. Mother - that’s the first thing that comes into my head."
Sammy is 22 & from Eritrea.
13th April - Palm Sunday - Anna 
"For me , Mary is someone that walks with me every day. I see Mary in everyone's face and I can see it on my way to work."
Anna is 21 & from Poland; she gives her response in English & Polish.
14th April - Antoine 
"I love Mother Mary because she’s an example for everyone, she’s the one that accepted the Lord in her life.
La Vierge Marie a su accepter Dieu dans sa vie pleinement, même si ça peut être effrayant pour elle. Elle a tout sacrifié pour ça et en ça c'est un parfait exemple pour nous qui parfois avons de mal à accepter de remettre Dieu au cœur de notre vie. "
Antoine is 25 & from France.
15th April - Giulia 
"Mary, you amazed me when your loving mantle surrounded me and protected me. I feel safe and rescued. Thanks with all my heart."
Giulia is from Italy.
16th April - Theresa 
"What Mary means to me is the ultimate Supermum. .. In the burden of facing evil in the world, Mary was very aware of what her Son was called to do and was prophesied to by Simeon outside the Temple that a sword would pierce her heart. So I think that whenever we have a tremendous suffering or illness, or a difficulty with a child, or a difficulty with work or vocation or superiors or people in power, which is what life is all about, we can really look to her as someone who knows the most intense, excruciating suffering and had to live her life from the beginning with Jesus knowing that a sword would pierce her heart and that that was part of God's plan. And to continue on in steadfast perseverance and continue to love even though everything inside you can be crushed in those times. And then also to share in the joy."
Theresa is from Philadelphia in the United States. She is the founder of Rachel's Vineyard Ministries and Grief to Grace Ministries.
17th April - Maunday Thursday - Father John 
"That has been a tremendous grace in my life to feel that Our Lady, through the tragedy that she experienced in her life, can connect with the difficulties we have and give us the grace to persevere and to overcome. So Our Lady continues to be an inspiration and a great advocate in my life.
Father John McHale, from the United States, is COO at the Living Scripture Institute.
18th April - Good Friday - Frances 
"All I know is that when Our Lady is in your life, she tries not to lead you to her but to her son Jesus, because all of her life was a reflection of him. I believe all of her messages and her influence is to lead people to Jesus, her son, and to help them to come to understand and believe that he died on the Cross for them to save them, because he loves them. I believe her mission is to bring us to Jesus and to salvation because it is only through him that we can be saved. And that was what she did for me."
Frances is from Ireland.
19th April - Holy Saturday - Mary 
"To me Mary is the Mother. I know that sounds like a cliché but she’s the person who I just go to when I can’t do anything else. And I just picture myself sitting next to Christ in her lap, like the Pieta and she holds me. And that always, always can bring peace - Mary the Mother. "
Mary is 27 & from Canada.
20th April - Easter Sunday - Victoria 
"Mary is the first person to say ‘yes’ and from that yes, that fiat, she taught us all to do his will."
Victoria is from England.
23rd April - Easter Wednesday - Nicole 
"Our Blessed Mother is to me the most loving mother that anyone could ever have, the most perfect mother who wants the best for her children. Because she wants the best for her children, she brings us to Jesus in the quickest way possible. She wants everything for us and so she leads us and makes sure that we are on the quickest and surest path to holiness and to heaven. She holds us in her heart and in her mantle."
Nicole is from San Diego, California in the USA (& today is her & Steve's 20th wedding anniversary ... many congratulations & wishing you many graces & blessings in the years ahead :o)
Our Lady of Medjugorje's message to Marija Pavlović on 25 April:
“Dear children! Open your hearts to the grace which God is giving you through me, as a flower that opens to the warm rays of the sun. Be prayer and love for all those who are far from God and His love. I am with you and I intercede for all of you before my Son Jesus, and I love you with immeasurable love. Thank you for having responded to my call.”
“Queridos hijos! Abran sus corazones a la gracia que Dios les da a través de mí como una flor que se abre a los cálidos rayos del sol. Sean oración y amor para todos aquellos que están lejos de Dios y de Su amor. Yo estoy con ustedes e intercedo por todos ustedes ante mi Hijo Jesús y los amo con un amor inconmensurable. Gracias por haber respondido a mi llamado."
"Cari figli! Aprite i vostri cuori alla grazia che Dio vi dona attraverso di me come il fiore che si apre ai caldi raggi del sole. Siate preghiera ed amore per tutti coloro che sono lontani da Dio e dal Suo amore. Io sono con voi ed intercedo per tutti voi presso il mio Figlio Gesù e vi amo con amore immenso. Grazie per aver risposto alla mia chiamata.”
26th April - Easter Saturday - Père Daniel-Ange 
"It’s of course the Blessed Virgin Mary who is our real, our true Mother. It's through her that God came amongst us and remains always amongst us. There are so many sufferings in the world today - Jesus is really crucified again, he is on the Cross. But just next to the cross is his mother and her head touches the holy side of Jesus, his heart. During all those terrible hours on the cross she's there, like at Bethlehem. She has her face on the heart of her little one. And when Jesus cries 'My God, my God, why have you abandoned me', Mary is saying to him, 'No, my little one, the Father is not abandoning you because your mother is not abandoning you.' And at that moment Mary is the sacrament, the visible sign, of the invisible presence of the Father. It's like as if the Father was putting Himself a bit aside in the feelings of Jesus in order that all his feelings be with his mother, like at Bethlehem. And it's Mary who gives her little one to his Father, who brings back Jesus to his Father. That is why after saying 'My God, my God' (and not 'Father, Father'), he says again 'Father, into your hands' because he has just said the word 'Mother', and in saying the word 'Mother' he receives again his Father."
Père Daniel-Ange is French/Belgium & the founder of Jeunesse-Lumière, a school of prayer & evangelization.
27th April - Divine Mercy Sunday - Father Raymond 
"Our Lady makes man aware of his vocation to participate in the life of the Blessed Trinity … She is the reason why so many people can return with tenderness and belief in the mercy of God. She is the person who says to everyone 'Do what my son says.' She is, in the words of so many saints of the Father, 'the easy door to get into heaven'. And this is our hope. This is a story that Padre Pio used to tell: One day Jesus was walking along in the gardens of heaven. He saw some undesirable people in the gardens. He said nothing but in the afternoon he said to St Peter, when he saw how they'd multiplied a hundred fold, 'Why are there so many undesirables in heaven?' And Peter said 'It's not my fault. I am keeping the gate but whenever I'm at the gate, your mother comes along and opens all the windows.'"
Father Raymond is from Ireland.
28th April - Feast of St Louis-Marie Grignon de Montfort - John Paul 
"Mary to me is Mother of the Church, Mother of God, Mother of us all. I came closer to Our Lady through reading about John Paul II’s devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel and the total consecration that St Louis de Montfort talks about. So I was enrolled in the brown scapular on 13th May and I'm half through the consecration to Our Lady to finish on that day. So in a sense renew my commitment to Our Lady - completely to her, Totus Tuus - give myself completely to her to come so close to Christ our Lord."
John Paul is from England.
29th April - Feast of St Catherine of Siena - Albert 
"I think Maria is a very special person. She brought Jesus and Jesus is the way for us, for all people. So I think Mary is the precursor for the way, for the big way, to show us Jesus. "
Albert is from Warsaw in Poland & gives his something about Mary in English & Polish.
30th April - Sister John Mary 
"For me, Mary is a tender mother."
Sister John Mary is from Steubenville, Ohio in the United States.