Somethings about Mary in November 2010
Many, many thanks to Berenice, Celeste, Daniel, David, Domitilla, Elena, Ericson, Felicia, Felicity, Gwendoline, Imelda, Jacob June, Janet, Joanne, Father John Edwards, Joseph, Lawrence, Lolita, Maite, Manuella, Manuella, Maria, Maria Concetta, Nelly, Okey, Olivia, Patti, Rodolphe, Sophia & Theresa, for giving their 'something' about Mary.
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If you'd like to say your something about Our Lady, please do contact the Totus2us team.
1st November - Feast of All Saints - Maria Concetta
"In the institute, we have a special devotion to Mary, she is the one who gives us the trust to become saints, since our goal is to become saints. So we invoke Mary under the title 'Our Lady of trust' give us trust to become saints. So Mary is for us a model, a way in any situation in life, in any difficulty, we look at Mary, she gives us really the trust with her smile to go on in life no matter what the difficulties will be. I would like to conclude with a prayer we say a 1000 times a day: 'O Immaculate Heart of Mary, true model of every holiness, give us trust to become saints.'"
Maria Concetta is from Sicily.
3rd November - David
"The Blessed Virgin Mary is like another mother: you feel like that maternal bond of all the praying that she does and all the love that she has bestowed through all the generations. She's someone who is so great to turn to in your moments of need, just saying the Hail Mary and asking for her help."
David is 20 and from Great Britain.
4th November - Imelda
"My devotion to Our Lady has matured over the years and I love her humility."
Imelda is from Ireland.
5th November - Manuella
"Our Holy Mother guides my life, my friendships, my work and my choices of every day."
Manuella is from Rome; she gives her qualcosa su Maria in English & Italian.
6th November - Father John SJ
"What does Our Lady mean to me? There are 2 obvious things. The first is that she was the mother not of a very good man, but of Almighty God - the second person of the Trinity became man in her body. Now He could have redeemed us in any way He chose; actually, He chose to depend on this young Jewish girl saying yes. Now she was not the cause of our redemption - the precious blood of Jesus is the cause - she is the condition and Jesus chose to use her as a condition... So, that continually amazes me and means that we should be so grateful to her and see that in everything her Son does, there is somehow a touch of her as well; the humility of God. Second thing about Our Lady that always moves me is this: for the last 400 years or so, God seems to have used her as a sort of prophet to teach. And one extraordinary teaching she gave in Portugal in 1917, at a place called Fatima."
Father John Edwards is a Jesuit priest based at Farm St in London.
7th November - Maite
"For me Mary is like a mum .. Mary is someone you can ask for help and she is a great help every day."
Maite is 22 and from Spain; she gives her 'algo de María' in English & Spanish.
8th November - Elena
"For me, Mary is a beautiful friend and a mother. I often talk with her and ask her counsel for my life, for my job, for my relationship with colleagues, and with parents and family and friends. I speak to her really like a friend who can help me every time.
Per me Maria è una splendida cristiana amica."
Elena is 28 and from Italy.
9th November - Olivia
"Mary to me is a source of strength and beauty, and every time I've needed her she has been there for me and given me so much strength and warmth and love, and I just think she is beautiful."
Olivia is 31 and from England.
10th November - Okey
"I believe strongly that Our Lady of Perpetual Help plays a major role in the life of each and every one of us who are her devotees."
Okey is from Nigeria.
11th November - Ericson
"What Mary is to me basically is very personal. She is a representation of my Mum who I love very much.. She symbolizes my devotion to the Lord, I constantly pray to her for guidance or intercession for whatever requests I have. So she is a very big part of my life."
Ericson is from the Philippines.
12th November - Patti
"When I think of Our Lady I think of her as a model of perfect trust in God. If the original sin was the sin of wanting to know good and evil and wanting to be like God and if Mary was conceived, as we are taught, without the stain of original sin, then she doesn't suffer from that obsessive human desire to know what's going to happen next. Therefore she can accept the extraordinary things that happen, the painful things that happen, with what seems to us to be super-human calm. She keeps all these things, as scripture tells us, and ponders them in her heart. Because of her trust in God, she knows that God has a plan and that God's will will be done."
Patti lives in London.
13th November - Jacob June
"When I was young I joined the group of the Legions of Mary and it was from there that I learned the greatness of our Blessed Virgin Mary …Our Mother Mary has helped me so much. By reciting the rosary I have really received grace and that was what really made me want to join the seminary... My life is entrusted to Mary and Mary is totally ours ... So in my life with Mother Mary, I am trying to be in that kind of purity, that kind of blessedness because all of us are called to holiness."
Jacob June is 24 and from Kenya.
(apologies for the quality of this recording ...ringing a mobile phone in Kenya from skype - not ideal! but so worth listening carefully)
14th November - Nelly
"I respect the Virgin Mary as the Mother of God and I believe when she prays for us, God really listens to her. And every time I pray to ask her help to pray for me, I know she listens to me and all that I ask from her, I receive all the gifts from God."
Nelly is from the Philippines.
15th November - Lolita
"Mama Mary is very, very precious to me because Mama Mary, especially Mama Mary of Medjugorje, is the one who helped me to go back to God. She is our mother, she helps us so much. And everything that you need, just go to Mama Mary and she promises something: she will help you - that's the way she did it with me."
Lolita is from the Philippines.
16th November - Joseph
"Mama Mary brings me closer to God through prayer."
Joseph is from the United States.
17th November - Maria
"I see my dearest Mother Mary as my own mother, my maternal mother, my image of a mother for the whole world. She blesses me with love and all the graces, and how I should be as a woman, and how I should be to my children."
Maria is from the Philippines.
18th November - Lawrence
"Mary is someone who is very, very real and very approachable, which is so soothing and so enjoyable to have her by my side, overlooking me throughout my life."
Lawrence is 32 and from the United Kingdom.
19th November - Janet
"I want to tell everybody I am very happy because I know Maria, and I want to know her more because she helps me. I feel her help in every day of my life. I love Maria and Jesus."
Janet is from Colombia and gives her 'algo de María' in English & Spanish.
20th November - Domitilla
"I had a very nice experience with the protection of the Blessed Holy Mother. In Mexico we venerate her a great deal, and we believe that she is with us the whole time - when you don't know what to do, you ask her for guidance and she will give it to you ... Always, when I feel lost, I ask her for help and she is with me, all the time."
Domitilla is from Mexico and gives her 'algo de María' in English & Spanish.
21st November - Feast of Christ the King - Celeste
"Mary became our bridge to Jesus and Jesus to us. Our Blessed Virgin Mary prays to Jesus for the needs of all people. And she teaches us to pray, she gave us the holy rosary, the Hail Mary, which show us the way who is her son Jesus Christ.
I personally receive a lot of graces from Our God through Our Blessed Mother Mary, by reciting my daily rosary. I can truly feel and experience the power of this prayer: it strengthens my faith to God, to Mary and to the Catholic Church, It sharpens my conscience day by day and, by continuously praying the holy rosary, changes my whole life being and leads me to know Jesus more, to love Jesus more and to be with Jesus. My day will not be complete without the rosary. It is the source of my well being, happiness and peace. Even though I am tired the whole day, I make sure that I pray the holy rosary every night before I go to sleep. I love and thank Our Blessed Mother Mary for all the blessings and graces I received from heaven through Her."
Celeste is 27 and from the Philippines.
22nd November - Theresa
"Mary to me is this wonderful role model for all women."
Theresa is from Scotland.
23rd November - Felicity
"Our Lady to me, when I am saying the rosary, I think of her sufferings along with Our Lord's sufferings. We don't hear about her sufferings but it's the sufferings of a mother. And she is the Queen of suffering but she is also the Queen of forgiveness and the Queen of Peace and my Queen."
Felicity is from the UK.
24th November - Felicia
"I have my great devotion to her and she has always helped me in my whole life in everything I do, in making decisions, how I should go ahead in my life and helping me not to be afraid to face all my troubles, my trials and my future. And I see through Mary I have connected to God and to Jesus and to the Holy Spirit. .. Mary is to me every model of faith, every model of holiness, and every model of love that God wants us all to have to have eternal life."
Felicia is 33 and from Nigeria.
25th November - Manuella
"Since I was young, I know I have grown up in a Catholic home, and my mother used to gather us every evening. She made it a routine for us to say the rosary every day .. For me, growing big and moving away from them, it has always remained with me. I know Mary is my mother, I always have that devotion to her, I love her despite everything, and she has seen me and my family through so many things."
Manuella is from Cameroon.
26th November - Berenice
"Our children are our gift and if we have an example of how to hand a gift back to God then surely it is Our Lady, who taught us how to relinquish and how to trust."
Berenice is from the United Kingdom.
27th November - Gwendoline
"I feel very blessed to have Our Lady as my mother and I try and think as much as I can and remember in the day what she was like as a mother to Jesus - how loving and how kind and patient, the infinite joy she must have had when she was with her son, and try to think of how she would have responded in certain situations she would have been faced with as a mother, so that I could try my hardest to imitate her.. She is so loving and kind and wants so much to bring us, her children, to her son. She is a wonderful mother to everyone and I call on her whenever I need her. She always responds with love and kindness."
Gwendoline is from England.
28th November - Daniel
"What I find most interesting about Mary is her universality. I discovered Mary by the fact that her son said on the Cross 'Behold your mother' and wasn't just speaking to the beloved apostle but to the whole world. Just seeing Mary depicted in so many different pictures, in so many different cultures, as a mother, but in so many different ways, with so many different faces, just shows that Christ gave her as a gift. Through her yes and through her humility she accepted herself as this gift and He gave her to the world so that we might have one of our own to pray for us next to him. That just fascinates me and deepens my devotion all the more."
Daniel is 22 and from the United States.
29th November - Rodolphe
"For a long time I didn't know who Mary was. I mean, I had a personal relationship with Jesus, and the Father and the Holy Spirit. Then 2 years ago I went on a pilgrimage in Bosnia and I really experienced the love of Mary as a mother. And it was really new to me and it really changed my relationship with Mary and helped me pray the rosary every day.
Pendant longtemps je connais pas vraiment qui était Marie. J'ai eu une relation personelle avec Jésus, avec le Père et l'Esprit Saint. J'ai fait un pèlerinage marial en Bosnie et là j'ai pris conscience de l'amour de Marie comme Mère de Dieu et Mère de tous les hommes et le chaplet a pris un autre sens pour moi et j'ai pu le prier tous les jours."
Rodolphe is 36 and from France.
