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Somethings about Mary in January 2014

Many, many thanks to Alfonso, Anna, Augustine, Carina, Christina, Ciara, Claire, Clifton, Cordelia, Corinthia, Courtney, Deborah, Elizabeth, Emilia, Enrique, Francis, Jacob, Joseph, Krzysiek, Madeleine, Maria, Patricia, Patrick, Paulie, Rose, Ruth, Sandrine, Silvana, Simone, Tiziana & Veronica for giving their 'something' about Mary.

The icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help (pictured here) is in the Chiesa di San Alfonso (v close S Maria Maggiore) in Rome.

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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 January - Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God - Cordelia      

"Mary is such a wonderful mother that in times of need and sorrow and when I am going through distress, I just imagine myself laying in her arms the way our Christ Lord Jesus laid when he was a baby, and I look to her to comfort me the way she did comfort Jesus as a baby. And I'm so grateful to have her to do that."

Cordelia is from Nigeria.

2nd January - Feast of Ss Basil the Great & Gregory Nazienzen - Ruth 

"I love Our Lady.. She’s very, very good and she’s a very good lady to me, and I will devoted to her until I die."

Ruth is from Dominica.

Our Lady's message to Mirjana Soldo, Medjugorje, 2nd January 2014:

"Dear children, for you to be able to be my apostles and to be able to help all those who are in darkness to come to know the light of the love of my Son, you must have pure and humble hearts. You can not help my Son to be born and to reign in the hearts of those who do not know Him, if He does not reign – if He is not the King – in your heart. I am with you. I am walking with you as a mother. I am knocking on your hearts. They can not open because they are not humble. I am praying, and you my beloved children also pray, that you may be able to open pure and humble hearts to my Son and receive the gifts which He has promised you. Then you will be led by the love and strength of my Son. Then you will be my apostles who everywhere around them spread the fruits of God’s love. My Son will act from within you and through you, because you will be “one”. My motherly heart yearns for this – for the unity of all of my children through my Son. With great love I bless and pray for those who are chosen by my Son – for your shepherds. Thank you."

(According to Mirjana, at first Our Lady was sad and then she was decisive.)

3rd January - Feast of the Most Holy Name of Jesus - Tiziana      

"Mary to me is the channel to Jesus and to God. She’s been a huge blessing. She’s the one who really brought me to the knowledge of God’s love.

La Vergine Maria è la strada di Dio."

Tiziana is from Italy & gives her qualcosa su Maria in English & Italian.

4th January - Corinthia      

"I come to Our Lady for my family, for myself, for my work, for my friends who are going through difficult divorces and what have you, and I pray to her on a daily basis, as I do to her Father and her Son and her Husband, the whole family."

Corinthia is from England.

5th January - Anna      

"When I think about Mary, I think about the gift of God. I remember a very specific time in my life where I was really seeking God and I turned to what for me from childhood was Mary, and I read this little booklet about the Devotion to Our Lady by St Louis de Montfort, and I decided to do that, the prayers and the consecration. And I'd have to say that was probably the moment when my true faith journey began."

Anna is from Poland.

6th January - Solemnity of the Epiphany - Christina      

"Our Lady is the mother who I turn to to comfort me when I am feeling lost. She is the lady whose hand I hold as I pray the rosary, and she holds my hand as a child and leads me very gently deeper into the heart of her Son. She is the one who teaches me not to worry but to trust in God. She is my intercessor. She's my heavenly mother, and I just praise and thank God for the gift of Our Lady and for her care for me and her bringing me to where I am today. I find a home in her heart."

Christina is 30 & from Scotland.

7th January - Elizabeth      

"Our Lady is our blessed mother and she is a good guide and, when we pray, we ask for her to intercede for us. She is a role model to all women, and the Lord loves her dearly and we should love her too."

Elizabeth is from Ghana.

8th January - Madeleine      

"I’ve just got back from Medjugorje which I’ve been to for the second time. The first time I converted back to the Catholic faith. This time I feel that Our Lady is drawing me closer to the Lord and teaching me that the Holy Spirit is a very powerful part of that. It's just for me a journey - I'm just following and praying the rosary, praying a novena to Our Lady at the moment - and she is leading me because she is our mother. So, I'm just very excited about where this journey is going to take me."

Madeleine is from London.

9th January - Augustine      

"Our Lady is very caring and very precious to me. I'm in the Legion of Mary, so I'm doing her work as well - going to visit the sick, and the people that need our prayers. .. I'm very grateful to have Our Lady in my life."

Augustine is from Dominica.

10th January - Francis      

"Our Lady is God’s gift to us. She shows us perfectly how to love Christ. If she's with us, we know Christ fully, and our lives will be full because then we'll do everything right, we can never go wrong. So pray with Our Lady. She's God's gift under the Cross, given to us in the person of Saint John. Like St John, we are also given Our Lady to receive all the gifts of the Cross. "

Francis is from Ghana.

11th January - Ciara      

"I suppose what’s beautiful about Mary to me is her capacity to come to you in a way that is entirely different from the way that she'd come to anyone else. And that's such a beautiful thing of her being spouse of the Holy Spirit that she has got this deep awareness of the yearnings within each of us and what we need."

Ciara is 25 & from England.

12th January - Feast of the Baptism of the Lord - Carina      

"For me Mary is the perfect woman, she’s who I aspire to be, she’s unparalleled in beauty and purity and holiness, and she's the greatest bearer of Christ. She's who I wish to be in bearing Christ to others and in saying my own fiat, my own amen and alleluia, yes to God, in my life through the Holy Spirit, that God's work may be done through me for His glory and for the good of other people."

Carina is 22 & from England.

13th January - Feast of Saint Hilary of Poitiers - Joseph      

"Mary is an example of bearing the child Jesus and bringing Him to the world. So in my Christian life I try to take Jesus Christ into my life so as to bring Him to the world."

Joseph is from Ghana.

14th January - Maria      

"Our Lady is very important in my life."

Maria is from Portugal.

15th January - Alfonso      

"I really feel that for me the Virgin Mary is my mother, is the point of reference when I feel I need somebody to take care of me. I don’t have a mother so actually for me every time that I want to feel that mother's loving, I always go to her and it always gives me a lot of peace. .. When I try to tell her of my problems and try to find from her some peace, I just find it. And also I try just to have her in every little thing that I do every time in my day. So, I just try to keep her very close to me."

Alfonso is 23 & from Madrid; he gives his response in English & Spanish.

16th January - Courtney      

"I suppose that Mary’s significance in my life is a very positive role of a Christian woman, because you think of the Church as being so masculine and male dominated, but really Mary stands to serve as a model of a Christian woman and a friend and a member of the community."

Courtney is from Seattle, Washington.

17th January - Jacob      

"I come to Mother Mary for support and comfort during all the challenges of life."

Jacob is from India.

18th January - beginning of Week of Prayer for Christian Unity - Clifton 

"To me Mary is a very, very strong, determined woman who went through so much pain in her life for her son, but she still came through it."

Clifton is from England.

19th January - World Day of Migrants & Refugees - Paulie      

"The Blessed Virgin Mary is my mother, she is my protector, she prays to Jesus for me and I love her very much."

Paulie is from Dominica.

20th January - Enrique      

".."

Enrique is from Bolivia & gives his response in Spanish.

21st January - Veronica      

"Mother Mary is very inspirational to me. I call upon her when I’m distressed, when I’ve got problems, and I speak to her like she's next to me because I know she hears me, and my burden always seems lighter after speaking to her. I've got great faith in Our Lady and I say her rosary every day to remind me that she's the greatest of all mothers and she never abandons her children. Amen."

Veronica is from Saint Lucia.

22nd January - Emilia      

"Mother Mary is somebody very wise to me, I think of her as a very wise woman. Many people might say she’s the first port of call but I think of her as the last hope very often."

Emilia is from Poland.

23rd January - Silvana      

"The Virgin Mary is the person who makes me happy."

Silvana is from Peru.

24th January - Feast of St Francis de Sales - Krzysiek      

"When I think about Mary the thing that's mostly in mind is Cana, where Mary is kind of pushing Jesus into doing his first miracle. His first reaction is that it's not really his time yet .. even though, Mary says 'Ok, just. Do it. People are in trouble.' .. The second story I really like is a family story when my grandmother's sister during World War II got arrested by German soldiers and she was taken to the camp in Częstochowa from where she was supposed to be sent further away .. My grandmother's sister managed to escape the camp .. She went to the cloister, she prayed in front of the picture of the Virgin Mary, then she went to the train station. .. She was on the station, her train arrived and then she got a very, very strong feeling to go back to the cloister to see the Virgin Mary again. She had no idea why she would need to do it but she felt she had to do it. So she went back to the cloister (a 2km walk) and she found her mother there. .. It was a miracle that they managed to meet and they went back home happily."

Krzysiek is from Poland.

25th January - Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul - Claire      

"Mary leads me to Jesus and she leads me to my heavenly Father and for that I love her."

Claire is 26 & from London.

Our Lady of Medjugorje's message to Marija Pavlović on 25 January:

“Dear children! Pray, pray, pray for the radiance of your prayer to have an influence on those whom you meet. Put the Sacred Scripture in a visible place in your families and read it, so that the words of peace may begin to flow in your hearts. I am praying with you and for you, little children, that from day to day you may become still more open to God’s will. Thank you for having responded to my call.”

“Queridos hijos! Oren, oren, oren para que el reflejo de su oración influya en las personas que encuentren. Pongan en sus familias la Sagrada Escritura en un lugar visible y léanla para que esas palabras de paz fluyan en sus corazones. Oro con ustedes y por ustedes, hijitos, para que día tras día estén aún más abiertos a la voluntad de Dios. Gracias por haber respondido a mi llamado."

"Cari figli! Pregate, pregate, pregate perché il riflesso della vostra preghiera influisca su tutti coloro che incontrate. Mettete la Sacra Scrittura in un posto visibile nelle vostre famiglie e leggetela perché le parole di pace scorrano nei vostri cuori. Prego con voi e per voi, figlioli, perché di giorno in giorno siate sempre più aperti alla volontà di Dio. Grazie per aver risposto alla mia chiamata.”

26th January - Simone      

"Mother Mary is the mother of Jesus and she is the most important thing in our life."

Simone is from Dominica.

27th January - Patricia      

"Mary is my mother, the mother of God, our Saviour, Lord Jesus of Nazareth."

Patricia is from Harrow Road in London.

28th January - Feast of St Thomas Aquinas - Deborah      

"Mother Mary is a very important person, the Mother of Jesus and I love her dearly. Amen."

Deborah is from London.

29th January - Rose      

"Our Lady, pray for us. Our Lady of Mount Carmel, pray for us. Our Lady of the Holy Rosary, pray for us. Our Lady Queen of Heaven, pray for us."

Rose is from the Philippines.

30th January - Patrick      

"Mary has always been special. I was in Medjugorje in 2005, my first time there and it was a lovely experience, you know. Yeh, there’s just a feeling of the heart, it just brings you back to the place."

Patrick is from Ireland.

31st January - Feast of St John Bosco - Sandrine      

"I think in my life the presence of Our Lady has been very protective and very good inspiration as a mother figure.

Je suis très reconnaissante pour la Vierge Marie, pour tout ce qu'elle a fait pour moi, pour ce qu'elle représente dans ma vie."

Sandrine is from Martinique in the French Caribbean.