Somethings about Mary in May 2017
Many, many thanks to Begina, Carl, Carolina, Catarina, Chinapa, Christiana, Eric, Fra Eunan, Grazziella, Gustav, Heather, Javier, Father Jimmy, Jo, John, José, Maria, Marie, Marion, Mica, Myriam, Paul, Rosa, Selam, Sergio, Smret, Sol, Sonia, Wendy, William & Yvette for giving their 'something' about Mary this month.
This statue of Our Lady of Fatima in the Catholic parish church in White City, London.
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, contact the Totus2us team.
1st May - Feast of St Joseph the worker - Carl 
"With Mother Mary, it’s like having your loving, considerate, protective mother there. So when I think about walking into the kitchen she puts her arms around my side and I can see the concern and love on her face, that she would actually speak my case before I would get in any trouble, and she would stand up for me and look after me. And that's the way I feel it is with her being in front of Jesus and the Father, where I've done things wrong and I feel bad, that she would actually speak on my behalf."
Carl is from England.
Our Lady's message to Mirjana Soldo, Medjugorje, 2nd May 2017:
"Dear children. I am calling you to pray, not to ask for but to offer sacrifice - sacrificing yourself. I am calling you to reveal the truth and merciful love. I am praying to my Son for you, for your faith which is all the more diminishing in your hearts. I am imploring Him to help you with the divine spirit as I also desire to help you with my motherly spirit. My children, you must be better. Only those who are pure, humble and filled with love sustain this world - they are saving themselves and the world. My children, my Son is the heart of the world. He should be loved and prayed to and not always betrayed anew. Therefore you apostles of my love, spread the faith in the hearts of people by your example, your prayers and merciful love. I am beside you, I will help you. Pray for your shepherds to have all the more light, so as to be able to illuminate all those who live in darkness. Thank you."
2nd May - Feast of St Athanasius - John 
"What Our Lady means to me is the mother of Jesus who is my Lord and my God, the centre of my life and everything. He loves her infinitely and amazingly shares her with all of us - so she is my mother too and yours. We can pray through her to Jesus and, if we ask her in humility, she will ask her Son for us. 'Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.'"
John is from England.
3rd May - Feast of the Apostles Ss Philip & James - Father Jimmy 
"I have a great devotion to Our Lady .. I have been to Lourdes over 40 times - I’ve brought groups to Lourdes every year for the past 42 years, since I got ordained (one year I went twice)."
Father Jimmy is from county Kildare in Ireland.
4th May - Feast of the Holy Martyrs of England and Wales - Marion 
"Mary means a lot to me. I've been in Medjugorje thinking a lot about the relationship with Mary: the need we have for a mother who is always there, who loves us more than we can ever realise and the strength that gives us to know how loved we are. In the family of God, I think the mother figure is very important and obviously her link to Jesus is amazing - that they're always combined. So I feel that I will be walking with Mary and talking with Mary for the future and just wanting to experience her as my mum and to trust her in everything and ask for her help at all times. It's wonderful, wonderful gift that she gives us and, yeh, I'm going to go forward with Our Lady. Amen."
Marion is from the United Kingdom.
6th May - Fra Eunan 
"Mother Mary is the way we describe Mary in Ireland and she is a very dear mother to us. There was a song sung this evening in St George's Cathedral ‘Vergin Tuto Amor’ which means "Virgin full of love' and I don't think there can be any higher expression in relation to Mary than that."
Fra Eunan is from Ireland.
7th May - Sol 
"Mary has been very important to me because I think her spirit is something very motherly and very protective."
Sol is 20 & from Argentina. She gives her response in English & Spanish.
8th May - Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, Pompeii - Catarina 
"For me, Mary is a mother, she is my heart.
Maria è il mio cuore."
Catarina is from Florence, Italy.
9th May - Jo 
"Mary to me? Wow! She’s too big to just put into words but I’ll try: she’s intercessor, she's in my life every day, she is my help, she is my way to Jesus."
Jo is from the United States.
10th May - Feast of St John of Avila - Myriam 
"Our Lady is for me a mother, sister. Our Lady is for me somebody I trust, somebody who cares for me, somebody I thank my mother for teaching me about.
La Virgen María para mí es una mamá, es una amiga, es a quien en quien confío completamente"
Myriam is from Colombia.
11th May - Sergio 
"For me Mary is somebody who always protects me and helps me with anything that I ask of God."
Sergio is 19 & from Brazil; he gives his response in English & Portuguese.
12th May - Gustav 
"I think Mary is very important to me and she always has been because it's very easy to pray to her because I consider her like a mother. I've been thinking a lot about her because we have a friend who passed away last Thursday, very young (our age), and I was thinking about his mother and how Mary has gone through the same thing in a way. So I think it's very good for us to pray to her now because she can understand very well how that pain is."
Gustav is 20 & from Brazil; he gives his response in English & Portuguese. Please pray for the repose of the soul of Alessandro, whose funeral is in Brazil tomorrow, the feast of Our Lady of Fatima.
13th May - Feast of Our Lady of Fatima, 100th anniversary of the 1st apparition & the canonization of Jacinta & Francisco - Maria 
"Mary for me is everything.
Nossa Senhora é tudo para mim."
Maria is from Portugal.
14th May - 5th Sunday of Easter - Begina 
"Mary is my heavenly mother. I know that, no matter what, she is always going to be there for me and I just love her so much. I don't know how to explain how much I love her and she's always leading us to Jesus."
Begina is from the Philippines.
15th May - Carolina 
"Our Lady, she saved my life twice. .. Our Lady she protects me all the time.
La Madonna è nel mio cuore perché mi protegge sempre, sempre, sempre."
Carolina is from Italy. It's her birthday today so here's wishing you a very blessed, joyous, happy birthday, dear Carolina!
16th May - Rosa 
"Maria - she’s my Mum, she’s Mum of everyone."
Rosa is from Cape Verde and gives her response in English & Portuguese.
17th May - Eric 
"Our Lady is a mother who brings us closer to Jesus and she's a protector."
Eric, who's 27, was born & brought up in Kuwait.
18th May - Feast of St Leonard Murialdo - Mica 
"Our Lady is the perfect model of obedience: saying yes even when we don't understand, just responding to the Lord and submitting to Him in his will."
Mica is 26 & from Canada.
19th May - Sonia 
"For me, Our Lady is the Mother that Jesus gave us to look after us on this journey. So every opportunity I have to go on a pilgrimage, to say thank you or to ask her for something, I tend to do. And I feel very contained by her love and the reassurance that she's walking with us and she knows how difficult the journey can be at times. So it's always a feeling of thanks towards the one I think of as my Mum."
Sonia is from Argentina & gives her response in English and Spanish.
20th May - Christiana 
"For me, Our Lady - she's always all the woman that I could ever dream of being and, also for me, she's all the mother I've dreamed of as well. And it's my greatest desire to be her daughter and to make her proud."
Christiana is from London.
21st May - 6th Sunday of Easter - Heather 
"Our Lady is my mother and she is the person who brought me back to the Church, after being a lapsed Catholic for many, many years, when I was visiting with my family in Lourdes. It was a great gift, just being in her presence, and I've never looked back since that day when she brought me back into the Catholic Church."
Heather is from England.
22nd May - Feast of Saint Rita - Chinapa 
"When I think of Our Lady, she’s my heavenly mother, she gives warm hugs, warm kisses, warm embraces and I can come to her with absolutely anything that's on my mind and that's a burden. And she fills me with immense peace and love and she calms me. Our Lady for me is a way to Jesus, she brings my prayers directly to Jesus and I'm so thankful to have Our Lady in my life."
Chinapa is from London.
23rd May - William 
"I’ve loved Our Lady or she’s loved me, I should say, all my life. And every time I've got myself into trouble (this is going back nearly 70 year) when I've asked her, she's always pulled me back out of it. All my life she's done that and that's why I've said the rosary today. Every time I ask her for something, she gives me it through Our Lord. Just like the wedding feast at Cana when she said 'Just do what he tells you', and I try to do what Our Lord tells me. I fall down but his crook picks me up again and I start all over again."
William is from England.
24th May - Our Lady of Perpetual Help - José 
"Mary for me is my mother. She's the Mother of the Church and I'm part of the Church and I embrace her as my mother. I grow in friendship with Christ through her. And it's all about this tenderness that a mother has for her child. .. Blessed be God for giving his Blessed Mother to us and thank you to Our Lady for taking us as her adopted children really. She's going to point us to Christ always."
José, who's 26 & from Brazil, gives his response in English & Portuguese.
Our Lady's message to Marija Pavlović, Medjugorje, 25 May 2017:
"Dear children! The Most High has permitted me to call you anew to conversion. Little children, open your hearts to the grace to which you are all called. Be witnesses of peace and love in this peaceless world. Your life here on earth is passing. Pray that through prayer you may yearn for Heaven and the things of Heaven and your hearts will see everything differently. You are not alone; I am with you and intercede before my Son Jesus for you. Thank you for having responded to my call."
“Queridos hijos! El Altísimo me ha permitido invitarlos de nuevo a la conversión. Hijitos, abran sus corazones a la gracia a la que están todos invitados. Sean testigos de la paz y del amor en este mundo inquieto. Su vida aquí en la Tierra es pasajera. Oren para que a través de la oración anhelen el Cielo y las cosas del Cielo, y sus corazones verán todo de manera diferente. No están solos, yo estoy con ustedes e intercedo ante mi Hijo Jesús por ustedes. Gracias por haber respondido a mi llamado."
"Cari figli! L’Altissimo mi ha permesso di invitarvi di nuovo alla conversione. Figlioli, aprite i vostri cuori alla grazia alla quale tutti siete chiamati. Siate testimoni della pace e dell’amore in questo mondo inquieto. La vostra vita qui sulla terra è passeggera. Pregate affinché attraverso la preghiera aneliate al cielo e alle cose celesti ed i vostri cuori vedranno tutto in modo diverso. Non siete soli, Io sono con voi e intercedo per voi presso mio Figlio Gesù. Grazie per aver risposto alla mia chiamata.”
26th May - Selam 
"Our Lady means everything to me. She’s the one who's going to give my message to the Saviour. As a woman she'll understand me. She knows what I'm going through and I always pray for her to ask for what I need, for what I need to do. I've been saying the one thing I want to see in my life is to come and pray, giving thanks, not for wanting things, and that's the one thing I hope she's going to give to me."
Selam is from Eritrea.
27th May - Feast of St Augustine of Canterbury - Grazziella 
"Our Lady to me is very special. She’s really ... I don’t know how to say it, you can’t describe Our Lady. She’s unexpectable, she does things miraculously. And I think if you take your time and pray the rosary and be patient, she'll do wonderful things for you too."
Grazziella is 14 & from the Ivory Coast.
28th May - Ascension Sunday - Javier 
"I recently had a conversion through a spiritual retreat I went to. I found the mercifulness, the love of Jesus in me, in my life and ever since I've felt the company of Jesus and I've learnt, through Mary, the way to him by looking at her as the Mother of all of us, as we're all connected through the eyes of a mother who looks at her son with no shame, with no bad feelings, she's just there waiting to embrace you. And that gives me the peace and the confidence every day to get closer to her and to Jesus."
Javier is 27 & from Madrid; he gives his response in English & Spanish.
29th May - Smret 
"Mary, I have always loved her from my heart. She’s like my mother, my sister, my everything."
Smret is from Eritrea.
30th May - Paul 
"I think Our Lady is perfectly summarised in Luke’s Gospel and the key to the whole of her Magnificat, the fourth line, where she says "Henceforth all generations will call me blessed." And with that comes our commitment to Mary: that if we give her true reverence, being the Mother of God, it opens the doors to our relationship with God. It's something quite remarkable really because through this she becomes our mother on earth and in the world to come, in heaven, where we will have eternity, where all praise, all worship, all adoration will be to God. And really preparation for that comes with our earthly life and following Our Lady's example. So the key is the Magnificat, following Our Lady's example and learning to live through that total confidence in God. And I always think that when you read the Magnificat, you can imagine Our Lady being very joyous in what she's saying and that's really what we need in our lives. We need joy and through that joy we come to a deeper understanding of her, and by understanding her and how she lived her earthly life that brings us closer to God."
Paul is from London.
31st May - Feast of the Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth - Yvette 
"I've always seen Mary as a mother figure and I always refer to her as Mother Mary because I've always felt her a mother to me. Since I've had my own house, I've always had a statue of Mother Mary in my house, even when I wasn't a Christian. And then I became born-again, but I was in the Protestant faith. I still kept a statue of Mother Mary in my house, even though it's not really the done thing with Protestants to have a Mother Mary statue in your house. And then eventually, look, she has led me to Catholicism and now I'm a Catholic. And I'm just getting more and more graces and blessings from her, and finding more and more good things from her. That's Mother Mary for you - she's my mother!"
Yvette is from England.