Somethings about Mary in August 2013
Many, many thanks to Abiola, Adam, Alina, Amanda, Beatriz, Inoka, Janek, John, Johnny, Lawrence, Mark, Sister Mary of Mercy, Mary-Jo, Maryann, Matthew, Noel, Ratna, Robert, Shanti, Susan, Sister Suzanne & Tsitsi for giving their 'something' about Mary.
This painting of the Madonna and Child is in the Basilica degli Santi Dodici Apostoli in Rome.
You can subscribe to this Totus2us podcast here on iTunes or here on the RSS web feed. Plus, you can download the free mp3 Totus2us audio recordings individually by right/double clicking on the play buttons.
If you'd like to give Our Lady a metaphorical bunch of flowers by saying your something about Mary, please, pretty please, do contact the Totus2us team.
1st August - Feast of St Alphonsus Liguori - Mark 
"Mary is my mother. She is somebody for whom I feel a great devotion and love. I especially think of her mantle of protection being over me at all times and over those whom I love. She's a central part of my faith because she brings me closer to her son Jesus and I feel connected with the love that they all have for everybody. So I am eternally grateful to Our Lord for calling me into the Catholic Church and giving me Mary as my mother."
Mark is from England.
Our Lady's message to Mirjana Soldo, Medjugorje, 2 August 2013:
"Dear children; If only you would open your hearts to me with complete trust, you would comprehend everything. You would comprehend with how much love I am calling you; with how much love I desire to change you, to make you happy; with how much love I desire to make you followers of my Son and give you peace in the fullness of my Son. You would comprehend the immeasurable greatness of my motherly love. That is why, my children, pray because through prayer your faith grows and love is born, the love along which even the cross is not unendurable because you do not carry it alone. In union with my Son you glorify the name of the Heavenly Father. Pray, pray for the gift of love, because love is the only truth: it forgives everything, it serves everyone and it sees a brother in everyone. My children, my apostles, great is the trust that the Heavenly Father has given you through me, His handmaid, to help those who do not know Him, that they may reconcile with Him and follow Him. That is why I am teaching you love, because only if you have love will you be able to respond to Him. Again I am calling you to love your shepherds and to pray that, at this difficult time, the name of my Son may be glorified under their guidance. Thank you."
2nd August - Feast of St Eusebius of Vercelli - John 
"I always try to say the rosary on a daily basis because I believe in the mother of Jesus and I know with her there is salvation because she is much closer to her son than I am to him and therefore she is able to intercede on my behalf with the son so that I can look to the future for salvation."
John is from Nairobi in Kenya.
3rd August - Inoka 
"I trust in Jesus Christ and Mother Mary. I pray to them and every time they do good for me."
Inoka is 28 & from Sri Lanka.
4th August - Feast of the St John Mary Vianney - Alina 
"Mother of God actually was my mother because my mother died when I was seven and since then, actually I pray to her for everything."
Alina is from Poland & gives her response in English & Polish.
5th August - Our Lady of the Snows - Robert 
"There’s a wonderful sense of Mary being a pilgrim and a traveller with you, in that she was just like you and me but without sin, and she had to take all those leaps of faith. In fact she was the first believer, as John Paul II said, she believed in Jesus before anybody else did. So I would say she helps my faith and helps me through her prayers believe in Jesus."
Robert is from Yorkshire in England.
6th August - Feast of the Transfiguration - Amanda 
"Our Lady is so important to me and to my life and I’m so grateful to her because it was really through her that I came back to practicing my faith. Having experienced really a desert for several years I rediscovered the rosary which I had lost an understanding of, and I remember several moments of opening up my heart and asking Our Lady to show me to pray. And it was through that help that she gave me to open up my heart that I discovered that God was real in my life and that He was going to guide every moment of it."
Amanda is from Yorkshire in England.
7th August - Feast of St Cajetan of Tiene - Shanti 
"I like Mother Mary. We do pray to her every day and we do the rosary."
Shanti is from India.
9th August - Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross - Matthew 
"When I think of Our Lady, I think of my grandmother. Whenever I pray the rosary, I feel very close to her. She passed away about 16 years ago but when I pray the rosary I feel like she’s right there with me."
Matthew is 38 and from Houston, USA.
10th August - Feast of St Lawrence - Lawrence 
"Mary, with all our problems we come before you. We ask for your help and your assistance. Any time I go to the altar, I ask for your help. I pray for the children, born and unborn, so that, with your help and with your spouse, Joseph, you may help the born and unborn, and help to alleviate all the poverty and misery in the world. We pray that peace will prevail."
Lawrence is from Ghana.
11th August - Feast of St Clare of Assisi - Sister Mary of Mercy 
"Mary is a wonderful person. She’s God’s Mother and she’s always looking after us. And she’s very close to her son and brings us closer to Jesus."
Sister Mary of Mercy is a Sister of Nazareth from Ireland.
12th August - Tsitsi 
"Hail Mary, I came to you this morning asking, ‘Can you hear me?’ You are a mother. You look after your children as you looked after your own son so, Mother, I am coming to you to answer my plaint."
Tsitsi is from Zimbabwe.
13th August - Saint Maximus the Confessor - Johnny 
"Our Lady, what she means to me is the Matriarch of humanity."
Johnny lives in London; his family is from Trinidad.
14th August - Feast of St Maximilian Maria Kolbe - Ratna 
"So I prayed a novena prayer which my mum gave me and it was a novena to Mary, Mother of God, and I trusted in the prayer and at the end I said, ‘Mary, Mother of God, I really want to go to this school, and if you are willing, I believe that you can make a miracle.' And actually two days before school started, I was accepted to this school and I graduated with a very, very good mark as well. So I think that was really a miracle. .. It was something that nobody but Mary, Mother of God, could do."
Ratna is 27 & from Indonesia.
15th August - Feast of the Assumption of Mary into heaven - Adam 
"When I finally got the acceptance letter, it said “Adam, congratulations, you’ve been accepted to study for the diocese of Pittsburgh to be a priest. You start Sunday, August 15th, the feast of the Assumption." When I received that letter, I knew that Our Lady was all over it. And I continue to pray the rosary every day and I know that my vocation is to in such a large part due to her and her really protecting me and really preserving me in so many different situations. So thank you, Blessed Mother."
Adam is a seminarian from Pittsburgh in America.
16th August - Abiola 
"I love Our Lady. She’s the precious, treasured mother that constantly each time I appeal to her I have this peace of mind and believe that my prayers are answered."
Abiola is from Lagos, Nigeria.
17th August - Maryann 
"Our Lady, she’s my mother, she’s my everything. I’m nothing without her. I love my mother Mary."
Maryann is from Nigeria.
18th August - Susan 
"I’ve been praying to the Blessed Virgin Mary most of my life ... and I am doing a pilgrimage every year to Our Lady of Walsingham and I encourage a lot of other people to join me. When we are in desperate cases, we pray for everybody and do the petition and send it to Our Lady, our dearest mother of all, Mother of God, Jesus Christ. Amen."
Susan is from Salisbury in England.
19th August - Beatriz 
"The Virgin Mary is the Mother of God and our mother.
La Santísima Virgen María es la reina de la paz en el mundo entero… es nuestra Señora del Santo Rosario."
Beatriz is from Colombia.
20th August - Feast of St Bernard of Clairvaux - Janek 
"As everybody knows, in Poland there’s a special veneration for Our Lady, Our Lady of Czechestowa."
Janek is from Poland & gives his something about Mary in English & Polish.
21st August - Feast of Our Lady of Knock - Mary-Jo 
"I’ve always had great faith in Our Lady ... I always make a point of going to Knock whenever I go to Ireland because it means so much to me, and Our Lady of Knock has showered many blessings and answered many prayers for my family over the years."
Mary-Jo is from County Sligo, in the west of Ireland.
22nd August - Feast of the Coronation of Mary, Queen of Heaven - Sr Suzanne 
"Since I was a teenager, Mary for me was like a mother who is always near to me, who accompanies me and who always takes care of me and there is a prayer of Leon de la Grand Maison: 'Mary, help me to have a heart like a child. To be humble, simple.' I used to say this prayer every day and it gave me peace in my heart, and with my friends, I can feel that Holy Mary is with me and she's taking care of me like a mother who is taking care of her baby.
L'expérience que j'ai eu avec la Vierge Marie, que je peux appeler une amie sur le chemin de la foi, c'est cette présence simple qui m'a toujours accompagné. "
Sister Suzanne is from Cameroon & gives her quelque chose de Marie in English & French.
Our Lady of Medjugorje's message to Marija Pavlović, 25 August 2013:
“Dear children! Also today, the Most High is giving me the grace to be with you and to lead you towards conversion. Every day I am sowing and am calling you to conversion, that you may be prayer, peace, love - the grain that by dying will give birth a hundredfold. I do not desire for you, dear children, to have to repent for everything that you could have done but did not want to. Therefore, little children, again, with enthusiasm say: ‘I want to be a sign to others.’ Thank you for having responded to my call.”
“¡Queridos hijos! También hoy el Altísimo me concede la gracia de estar con ustedes y de guiarlos hacia la conversión. Día tras día yo siembro y los invito a la conversión para que sean oración, paz, amor, y trigo que al morir produce el céntuplo. No deseo que ustedes, queridos hijos, tengan que arrepentirse por todo lo que pudieron hacer y no hicieron. Por eso hijitos, digan de nuevo con entusiasmo: “Deseo ser un signo para los demás”. Gracias por haber respondido a mi llamado."
"Cari figli! Anche oggi l’Altissimo mi dona la grazia di essere con voi e di guidarvi verso la conversione. Giorno dopo giorno Io semino e vi invito alla conversione perché siate preghiera, pace, amore e grano che morendo genera il centuplo. Non desidero che voi, cari figli, abbiate a pentirvi per tutto ciò che potevate fare e che non l’avete voluto. Perciò, figlioli, di nuovo con entusiasmo dite: “ Desidero essere segno per gli altri”. Grazie per aver risposto alla mia chiamata.”