Totus Tuus - Totus 2us

Many, many thanks to Sister Agatha PCC, Aisling, Sister Amata PCC, Annette, Anthony, Sister Beatrix PCC, Mother Damien PCC, Father Darren LC, David, Sister Elizabeth PCC, Esther, Euan, Mother Francesca PCC, Francisco, Helena, Josephina, Sister Juliana PCC, Julius James, Kristina, Lida, Magnus, Marcela, Mark, Martha, Mina, Ray, Sister Ruth PCC, Sean, Thai Van, Sister Yolanda PCC & Zulema for giving their 'something' about Mary.

_{You can subscribe to Totus2us's Something about Mary podcast / download the free mp3s here on itunes or here from Totus2us's web feed. Plus, you can download individual mp3 recordings by right clicking where you see this diamond ♦}

_{If you'd like to give your something about Mary,
please do contact the Totus2us team.}

1st May - Feast of St Joseph the Worker - Magnus       ♦

_{"I think of Mary as a very, very brave and strong and gentle person ...In some ways I think of her as a spokesperson for the poor, especially through her Magnificat, through her beautiful prayer of praise and her prayer of incredible hope .. Through her words and through her life, I think she shows us how to believe, and that things can get better. She shows us how to have faith in our good and loving God, and I think again at Medjugorje she invites us to make that choice, about whether to be people of hope and whether to be people who put her son Jesus at the centre of our lives like she did and does always. So, more than anything, I suppose when I think about Our Lady, I have a huge, huge sense of gratitude to her for her constant presence in my life and for her never giving up on me when I go astray, when I forget what's important, when I forget her Son, when I sin. I have such a sense of gratitude for her patience, for her never tiring of inviting us again back, for never giving up on us, for never making us feel bad about ourselves. Those are my thoughts on Mary, my mother."}

_{Magnus is 42 and from Scotland. He started Mary's Meals in 2002, which now provides daily meals in school for over 400,000 children in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe.}

2nd May - Thai Van       ♦

_{"Our Lady is our mother, no matter where we are from but wherever she is, she is our mother. I have the great privilege to meet her in person with my rosary, when I am in trouble, when I am in difficulties. The rosary helps one, as said by the late John Paul, it is the power of the rosary, each chaplet that we say, Our Lady, our mother, is there."}

_{Thai Van is from Vietnam & gives his 'something' about Mary in English & Vietnamese.}

3rd May - Esther       ♦

^{"Mary means a lot to me. She is my real mother and I always talk to her, you know, like my mother. Any time I want anything, I always call on her."}

^{Esther is originally from Nigeria.}

4th May - Aisling       ♦

^{"It was all through Mary that I came to know Jesus and she is part of my life every day. She is my model, a model of a pure heart, of a perfect woman, of a mother, of love and she is who I strive to be like."}

^{Aisling is 21 and from Scotland.}

5th May - Lida       ♦

_{"In Colombia we love Mary as our mother.. In May, every day we pray the rosary and this is the way we bring happiness to each one of our houses in the month of May - it is even more special during this time because we feel her presence closer to us and we kind of thank her back for all the blessings she brings to our own houses."}

_{Lida is from Colombia - she gives her something about Mary in Spanish and her son, Eduardo, gives the English translation.}

6th May - Julius James       ♦

^{"I regard Our Lady as my mother, my spiritual mother… To me she is a very real person in a very real way; not a theological idea of the Catholic Church."}

^{Julius James is from the island of Saint Lucia.}

7th May - Mina       ♦

^{"I believe in Our Lady because I consider her as our mother and as our advocate and I trust her in all my life."}

^{Mina is from the Philippines.}

8th May - Annette       ♦

^{"I feel Our Lady's love and presence every day and she has brought me closer to Jesus and has given me jobs for me to do for her. I have experienced heaven through her and it makes me long more for heaven."}

^{Annette is from London.}

9th May - David       ♦

^{"What Mary means to me is family."}

^{David is 29 and from Cork in Ireland.}

10th May - Francisco       ♦

^{"Holy Mary has the biggest heart that a woman has ever had on this planet, and I love her a lot and she is my last resource."}

^{Francisco is from Ecuador, and gives his algo acerca de María in English & Spanish.}

11th May - Kristina       ♦

^{"St John, when he was at the foot of the Cross, Jesus said to him 'This is your mother' and so Mary is our mother.  She is there not just for us Catholics but for everyone who needs her, she is there as a mother."}

^{Kristina is from England.}

12th May - Mark       ♦

_{"In regards to Our Lady, I've just learnt over this past couple of weeks while searching for a way to prayer and contemplative prayer that, if we pray through Our Lady, things seem to work better. Basically, if Christ came into this world through Our Lady, then it is by going through Our Lady again that we get towards Christ and towards God."}

_{Mark is 26 and from Thailand.}

13th May - Feast of Our Lady of Fatima - Ray       ♦

_{"I think initially that I was kind of a little bit suspicious about praying to Our Lady, because of a certain maybe Protestant mind-set. But I discovered the rosary and I discovered a real, profound peace and joy in the rosary."}

_{Ray is in his 30s and from England.}

14th May - Sister Agatha PCC       ♦

_{"Mary has always been for me in my Christian and more specifically my religious life, the icon of what I know and desire with all my heart to become, another Mary: a woman full of the spirit, a woman of prayer, a woman open to others, carrying all the burdens and sufferings to the Cross and remaining under the Cross, when at any specific time on my journey that has been God's will.  I cannot imagine my Christian journey without Mary and, with my whole heart and soul, I have invested so much trust and so much hope that at the end of my journey, it will be through the prayers of Mary that I will obtain heaven and union with my Lord."}

_{Sister Agatha is a Poor Clare Sister at Ty Mam Duw, in North Wales.}

15th May - Mother Damien PCC       ♦

_{"The Father sends the Word and Mary is moved and conceives Christ through the Spirit; and it is the Spirit who dwells within her, within Christ, that moves her to become that handmaid of the Lord, that enables her to continunally hear the word. And as she stands under the cross, she is able to carry that suffering through the voice of the Spirit, and therefore at Pentecost she is there ready and open to receive the Spirit with the newborn Church."}

_{Mother Damien is a Poor Clare Sister at Ty Mam Duw, in North Wales.}

16th May - Mother Francesca PCC       ♦

^{"As Poor Clares we call on Our Lady as bride of the Holy Spirit because, as St Luke tells us, when the angel declared unto Mary, it was through the Holy Spirit that she conceived Our Lord.  And in the Franciscan Order it has always been held that she was venerated as the bride of the Holy Spirit. All new life begins with Mary."}

_{Mother Francesca is Abbess emerita of the Poor Clare Sisters in enclosed community at Ty Mam Duw.  She is from near Gelnhausen in Germany.}

17th May - Sister Elizabeth PCC       ♦

^{"I consecrate myself to Mary every morning. I entrust myself to her, and those I love. I have great confidence in her intercession, in her love and in her motherly protection."}

_{Sister Elizabeth is a Poor Clare Sister in enclosed community at Ty Mam Duw in North Wales.}

18th May - Sister Amata PCC       ♦

^{"Mary surrendered everything to God, everything."}

_{Sister Amata is a Poor Clare Sister in enclosed community at Ty Mam Duw in North Wales.}

19th May - Sister Ruth PCC       ♦

_{"She walked unflinchingly enfolded in the sweeping firestorms of His Spirit's space, engulfed in His tremendous, timeless love.  It probed her heart with flame and found it true, unscarred my sin, unmarred by evil's taint. God's tornado Spirit swirled to rest in her still centre, concentrating there the living flame of His immensity to form a fragile speck, destined to raise the poor wrecked world to sunshine once again." - from Sr Ruth's poem 'Fiat'.}

_{Sister Ruth is a Poor Clare Sister in enclosed community at Ty Mam Duw and comes from New Zealand.}

20th May - Sister Beatrix PCC       ♦

_{"Our Lady was my constant companion because I could turn to her at any time, through many difficulties, and it was she who brought me into the Church because like a good mother she brought me to her Son. I went to Lourdes on an all night vigil in my early 20s ... and in the grotto in the early hours of the morning I gave my life entirely to Our Lord."}

_{Sister Beatrix is a Poor Clare Sister in enclosed community at Ty Mam Duw in North Wales.}

21st May - Sister Yolanda PCC       ♦

_{"It doesn't matter which shrine you look at, which story of apparition you hear, Our Lady is always urging us to pray, and perhaps the one that comes to mind the most to me is Lourdes, where she said 'Pray for sinners.' So, if I put Mary and the Holy Spirit together, the answer to the equation is we must pray."}

_{Sister Yolanda is a Poor Clare Sister in enclosed community at Ty Mam Duw in North Wales.}

22nd May - Sister Juliana PCC       ♦

_{"Sr Elizabeth looked at the statue and said 'Our Lady is one of us.' And suddenly it came home to me that Our Lady was one of us, like us, that she lived an ordinary life full of love, and my whole attitude, my whole life changed in that what Mary had once done, I too could do."}

_{Sister Juliana is a Poor Clare Sister in enclosed community at Ty Mam Duw in North Wales.}

23rd May - Feast of Pentecost - Father Darren LC       ♦

^{"I've been very aware that Mary is the one who leads us to Jesus and, as a priest, I know that is my mission and I ask my mother every day to make me a vessel, an instrument, like the hem on Jesus' cloak."}

_{Father Darren is 32 and from Ireland.}

24th May - Marcela       ♦

_{"Mary for me is like a lovely mother who always, always is ready to listen to us and to pray for us, always there for us. So go to her, ask, talk to her, be in touch with her."}

_{Marcela is from Argentina and gives her algo acerca de María in English & Spanish.}

25th May - Helena       ♦

_{"I don't think I realised just how much Our Lady meant in my life until my mother died on 15th August. She was then buried on Feast of the Queenship of Our Lady. So Our Lady suddenly in my life became very, very special."}

_{Helena is from England.}

26th May - Josephina       ♦

^{"Mary is for me my mother."}

_{Josephina is from Mexico and gives her algo acerca de María in English & Spanish.}

27th May - Zulema       ♦

_{"As a mother of 5, sometimes I feel that I need some strength and I need to know a way to follow in my life.  I need her and, when I pray to Mary, I find what I am looking for - I have her love and her strength, and I feel more sure about my goal in my life and about my commitments with my family and the community in which I am living."}

_{Zulema is from Spain and gives her algo acerca de María in English & Spanish.}

28th May - Euan       ♦

^{"Mary is the motherly guardian of Jesus .. and at the same time she takes care of us because she is our mother as well."}

_{Euan is 18 and from Britain.}

29th May - Martha       ♦

^{"For me Mary is my mother, my confidante, is the person who approaches me more to Jesus. She is somebody that I can trust that in the smallest, small hole that she has when she is crossing her hands, I can actually make myself enter this small hole and make myself safe and comfortable. She is everything that I want and that I love."}

_{Martha is 40 and from Mexico; she gives her algo acerca de María in English & Spanish.}

30th May - Trinity Sunday - Sean       ♦

^{"She protects us so much and she keeps us close to the heart of Jesus.  I'd recommend praying a daily rosary if you can, give everything to Mary. There's a great consecration prayer by St Louis Montfort, and if you say that consecration prayer every day, you're giving everything to her and she takes that  seriously, our mother, and she will take care of us. And she makes the greatest saints, the greatest of heroes.  She makes heroes and gave birth to the greatest of heroes, Jesus Christ."}

_{Sean is 31 and from England.}

31st May - Feast of the Visitation - Anthony       ♦

^{"I actually love Our Lady and what really makes me happy about her is what Elizabeth said to her when she visited Elizabeth, that blessed is she who believes the word the Lord told her would come to pass."}

_{Anthony is from Nigeria.}