Somethings about Mary in July 2013
Many, many thanks to Anne-Marie, Ava, Barry, Sister Catherine, Dorota, Eleanor, Esther, Frances, Francesca, Grace, Helen, Helena, Jack, Sister Jenefer, John, José-Maria-Julia, Lindsay, Lorna, Maria, Maria-Julia, Marie, Mary, Michael, Nila, Brother Oisín Emmanuel, Rebecca, Rita, Shirley, Simone, Susan & Uzo for giving their 'something' about Mary.
This beautiful Madonna and Child is in the Chiesa di Santa Barbara dei Librai 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, do contact the Totus2us team.
1st July - Michael 
"I think Our Lady loves me more than I do her. She has this interesting way of dealing with me: whenever I contemplate her and I want to express my love for her, she immediately directs me to Jesus."
Michael is from Nairobi, Kenya.
Our Lady's message to Mirjana Soldo, Medjugorje, 2nd July 2013:
"Dear children, with a motherly love I am imploring you to give me the gift of your hearts, so I can present them to my Son and free you – free you from all the evil enslaving and distancing you all the more from the only Good – my Son – from everything which is leading you on the wrong way and is taking peace away from you. I desire to lead you to the freedom of the promise of my Son, because I desire for God's will to be fulfilled completely here; and that through reconciliation with the Heavenly Father, through fasting and prayer, apostles of God's love may be born – apostles who will freely, and with love, spread the love of God to all my children – apostles who will spread the love of the trust in the Heavenly Father and who will keep opening the gates of Heaven. Dear children, extend the joy of love and support to your shepherds, just as my Son has asked them to extend it to you. Thank you."
2nd July - Grace 
"I love Mary as my mother. As a mother, I know what it means to be loved by a mother and so I really treasure her love for me and especially when I say the Hail Mary: ‘Pray for me, especially at the hour of my death.’"
Grace is from Kenya.
3rd July - Feast of St Thomas the Apostle - Uzoma 
"Our Lady is the mother of God, mother of Christ. She’s the one who gives us her son, who gives us Jesus, who gives us love, who gives us life. She’s the one who, for me, is full of all virtue. She gives me hope because I think that God at the start of time envisaged this most amazing person and through her whole life she always had God, had Christ, at the centre of her life and she always chose Him."
Uzoma is 33 & originally from Nigeria, now living in London.
4th July - Lorna 
"Mary, Jesus’s mother, is my mother. I love her. .. I can never find the right words to describe my mother Mary, she’s just compassionate. If I’m in trouble I pray to her, if I’m in need I pray to Mother Mary and I ask her to speak to her son on my behalf. Things usually work out well for me and she's just wonderful and I love her."
Lorna is from Jamaica.
5th July - Sister Catherine 
"Mary is somebody so important for us because she gives her little Jesus, her infant Jesus, who is so small and so vulnerable, she is constantly offering him to us and to everybody, especially to those who are suffering and those who are feeling pain. So the joy of receiving her child, who is God made man, God who became such a vulnerable tiny child - it's the whole mystery of the incarnation of God among us - this is what Mary is going to help us to deepen and to go ever further in our understanding of this wonderful mystery of the incarnation."
Sister Catherine is in the Community of the Little Sisters of Jesus and lives in Hackney, London.
6th July - Feast of Saint Maria Goretti - Esther 
"Mary is my beautiful Mother and my soul companion and I love her dearly."
Esther is from England.
7th July - Year of Faith Celebration of Vocations - Sister Jenefer 
"Mary is a great example and a sister to me, I think. I think that's what she is: a big elder sister, a kind elder sister, and an inspiration, yes, and a friend."
Jenefer is an Ursuline Sister from the UK.
8th July - Rita 
"Mother Mary is our mother, Mother Mary is our helper and our intercessor. So any difficult time, always I pray to my Mother, she is always helping me. I keep faith in her always."
Rita is from Sri Lanka & gives her something about Mary in English & Sinhalese.
9th July - Feast of St Veronica Giuliani - Anne-Marie 
"My relationship with Mary is like that of knowing I suppose having a relative that you don’t know very well, that you want to know more because you know that they are in the background and that they are supporting you and loving you, but you're not quite sure how to love them back, and I want to reach out and love her back."
Anne-Marie is from the UK.
10th July - Jack 
"When it comes to Mary, I have a great devotion to Our Lady of Czestochowa. She sits in my room wherever I go; I bring her with me even when I travel. The image of her, she has a scar from when she was taken out of the church in Częstochowa and stabbed. They've tried to fix it and it always comes back - she chooses the scar, and I think that's beautiful. I think it shows her motherly care for her children: it's a bruised world, a scarred world and she wants to be right there with us. And yet still shows how our scars can be beautiful to the Lord. She's more than a role model, she's an intercessor and she really does show us the true and beautiful way to Christ."
Jack is 26 & from Maryland in the United States.
11th July - Feast of St Benedict, Patron Saint of Europe - Simone 
"The person of Our Blessed Lady means a lot to me because, I suppose in the most basic sense, she's my mother ... Before anything else, she's an example to me of what the Christian is, of somebody who is completely open to what God wanted to do with her life."
Simone is 27, Italian/Polish & lives in London.
12th July - Helen 
"Mary is my protection to me and to my children, to my family. She’s my bride, she’s by my side and she’s my guidance. I’m really lucky to have her in my life."
Helen is from Ethiopia & gives her something about Mary in English & Amrahic.
14th July - Shirley 
"Our Lady - the first thing that comes to mind is when she said to the servants at the marriage of Cana 'Whatever He tells you to do, do it.' And that to me is a prayer, a guidance for us, that whatever the Son tells us to do, to do it. And that brings joy to Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and to our Blessed Mother. O Mary conceived without original sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee."
Shirley is from Dominica.
15th July - Feast of Saint Bonaventure - Francesca 
"I love Our Lady. I love praying to her because it eases my worries."
Francesca is 15 & from London.
16th July - Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel - Frances 
"I love praying to Our Lady for my friends and family and home and my son and all the needs that are in my family that I've been granted many blessings for."
Frances is from Ireland.
17th July - Marie 
"Mary is my blessed Mother. I call on her every day, every minute of every day when something happens to me, when I’m grateful, when I’m thankful."
Marie is from Trinidad & Tobago.
18th July - Rebecca 
"For me Mary is someone who's very close to us who we can always go to to ask her anything, and really does listen to us and grant our prayers or take them to her son."
Rebecca is from the UK.
19th July - Dorota 
"Our Lady is the Queen of Poland and so this is my devotion to her."
Dorota is from Poland & gives her something about Mary in English & Polish.
20th July - José-Maria-Julia 
"..."
José-Maria-Julia is from Argentina & gives her something about Mary in Spanish.
21st July - Feast of St Lawrence of Brindisi - John 
"Our Lady means so much to me."
John is from Cork in Ireland.
22nd July - Feast of Saint Mary Magdalen - Mary 
"I just love Our Lady to bits and she’s my friend really as well. And I’d just be totally lost without her. I just know many times that I've been in kind of situations that have not been good and it's always been Our Lady that has helped me back out and given me that dignity and that purpose and that worth in life. And I just praise God for Our Lady because she is the Mother of the Church and I just praise her for that."
Mary is from Manchester in the UK.
23rd July - Nila 
"Mary is our saint isn't she and she always loves everyone else. If you want something you go to her and she always helps you with everything that you need. We always say Mama Mary. She's everyone's patron saint."
Nila is from the Philippines.
24th July - Barry 
"Mary, our sweet mother of our Saviour Jesus Christ. When in times of sorrow or stress, go somewhere quiet and speak and pray to our Mother Mary, and always remember, Mary is not just for Christmas but for life. Amen."
Barry is from North Cornwall.
25th July - Feast of Saint James - Brother Oisín Emmanuel CFR 
"Asked to speak what Our Lady means to me, I would say: a dear and close friend, the closest friend outside of the Trinity; a mother that I can always run to and cling to and hold on to; and in my walk with Christ, she is my example, she is the one I learn how to become a Christian more than any other saint. She's the one who teaches me to be silent in suffering, teaches me how to pray, teaches me to be attentive to God and to others, teaches me to be patient, teaches me to be generous and teaches me to love."
Brother Oisín Emmanuel is from Ireland and is a Franciscan Friar of the Renewal.
Our Lady of Medjugorje's message to Marija Pavlović, 25 July 2013:
“Dear children! With joy in my heart I call all of you to live your faith and to witness it with your heart and by your example in every way. Decide, little children, to be far from sin and temptation and may there be joy and love for holiness in your hearts. I love you, little children, and accompany you with my intercession before the Most High. Thank you for having responded to my call.”
“¡Queridos hijos! Con alegría en el corazón, a todos los invito a vivir su fe y a testimoniarla con el corazón y el ejemplo en todas sus manifestaciones. Hijitos, decídanse por estar lejos del pecado y de las tentaciones, y que en vuestros corazones estén la alegría y el amor por la santidad. Yo, hijitos, los amo y los acompaño con mi intercesión ante el Altísimo. Gracias por haber respondido a mi llamado."
"Cari figli! Con la gioia nel cuore vi invito tutti a vivere la vostra fede ed a testimoniarla col cuore e con l'esempio in ogni modo. Decidetevi figlioli di stare lontano dal peccato e dalle tentazioni; nei vostri cuori ci sia la gioia e l'amore per la santità. Io, figlioli, vi amo e vi accompagno con la mia intercessione davanti all'Altissimo. Grazie per aver risposto alla mia chiamata.”
26th July - Feast of Ss Joachim & Anne (Mary's parents) - Susan 
"Mary our Blessed Mother for me is everything, she’s my whole world: Our Lady of Lourdes, Our Lady of Fatima, Our Lady of Mount Carmel. We pray the rosary each day, with my mother and the rest of the family, for her help and her guidance especially with our youth and our elderly, and the poor, for everyone. Mary is there to put her arms around us, to help and guide us. Amen. Mary, pray for us. Amen."
Susan is from England.
27th July - Vigil of WYD / JMJ Rio de Janeiro - Maria-Julia 
"Our Lady for me is like a friend and a mother to whom I daily speak, asking for lots of things and saying thank you for lots of things. But it is something that I do with a lot of naturalness as I speak with someone very human. I am always comforted by her."
Maria-Julia is from Argentina & gives her something about Maria in English & Spanish.
28th July - WYD / JMJ Rio de Janeiro - Helena 
"Mary means a lot to me because she’s such a good role model for women because she gave up her life for the Lord and just said like ‘Your will be done.’ And she just did, without any questions really. And she was so chaste and so pure and loving, and she's just such an inspiration. Any time I feel like I'm struggling or anything, I just have to look at a picture of Mary and just think, 'That's what I'm doing it for. I'm doing it for Jesus.' And she brings me so much closer to him."
Mary is 20 & from England.
29th July - Lindsay 
"For me, as a convert to the faith, I often feel inhibited in loving Mary completely and I have to constantly remind myself that she is not a queen that is unapproachable, terrifyingly beautiful, but a queen that is maternal and one that understands the value of the hidden life that I find myself in, and an example of serving God in that humble and quiet place."
Lindsay is 31 & from Portland, Oregon in the US.
30th July - Ava 
"To me Mary is the perfect version of Our Lord and a good example for little kids. That is what she means to me."
Ava is from the United States & is 8 today - happy, blessed birthday to you, dear Ava ♥
31st July - Feast of St Ignatius Loyola - Eleanor 
"I love Mary because she’s my patron saint."
Eleanor is 6½ and from the United States.