Totus Tuus - Totus 2us

Somethings about Mary in October 2010

_{Many, many thanks to Alvaro, Anne, Anne-Therexe, Anthony, Brother Camillus, Carmen, Sister Catherine, Cynthia, David, Dawit, Donnatella, Frances, Heidi, Kamel, Kristina, Lauren, Lidia, Magdalene, Maria Isabel, Maria Luisa, Martha, Mary, Father Michael, Patricia, Robert Francis, Silvia, Steven, Suzanne, Teresa, Theodore & Toyin for giving their 'something' about Mary.}

_{This image of Mary, Mother of Consolation, has recently been restored by Marianna Fonzo & Jan Michelini, and was reinstalled in the Church of Maria della Scala, in Rome, on 15th October, the Feast of St Teresa of Avila.}

_{"Mary, Mother of Consolation and our Mother, Eternal Wisdom and Model of Virtue, in you God is well pleased and through you has given to the world Salvation Incarnate. Give us your protection and illuminate our path towards the Light of the Kingdom of God. Console us in life's difficulties and intercede for us."}

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

1st October - Feast of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus - Heidi      

_{"The Blessed Mother, to me as a mother, is such an inspiration because having  put her faith in God in the way she did, to be able to accept the fact that Jesus would have to die on the Cross and die for all of our sins and stand by and watch this and allow this to happen gives me such great inspiration as a mother with my child. To put faith in God and to know that no matter what trials come our way, you just have to put your faith in God and let Him lead the way and guide you. Even though it might not work out the way you intend, there is a reason for it and Mary helps me to see that every single day in all that I do. And I love her and thank her so much every day for her Son."}

_{Heidi is from the United States.}

2nd October - Magdalene      

_{"Mary has always served as a role model to be a woman for me but I only realised how moving the way she loved was when I started to pray to her more often. I have always been hearing that Mary is very close to Jesus and we all know that. But what I didn't really know was how the way she loves Jesus can be imitated by us. When we realise how humane and tenderly she loves Jesus and she loves us, then we would realise that we are all called to do the same."}

_{Magdalene is 22 and from China; she gives her response in English & Mandarin.}

3rd October - Maria Luisa      

_{"Holy Mary is an example of purity, of love, of care, and of happiness. She is an example for me in life and I always get strength by thinking of her and thinking how she led her life. So, yeh, I get touched by thinking what she means to me, she means a lot."}

_{Maria Luisa is 34 and from Brazil; she gives her algo sobre Maria in English & Portuguese.}

4th October - Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi - Steven      

_{"I know that what I experienced was the divine love of the Blessed Mother and that the feelings I felt that day were just a drop of what was part of a larger river but that drop was enough to transcend all the joy and peace I had ever felt in my life and in a moment I knew what my heart had been created for. As I unpacked what happened over the following weeks I realised nothing I had been pursuing mattered in comparison to what heaven had to offer me. I feel like God gave me a second chance at life through the intercession of the Blessed Mother. I am indebted to this day for what God has continued to do and how Him and His Mother have continued to lead me to where I am now .. where my goal was once to become a Hollywood director, now it's to become a saint."}

_{Steven is 23 and from the United States; he has created the SUPERB website Why I'm Catholic.}

5th October - Lauren      

_{"I read St Louis de Montfort's book 'True Devotion to Mary' and realised that Mary is such a strong role model for women today and I really look to Mary as one of the greatest intercessors we have as Catholics. She is just so beautiful. As a young adult I find it difficult to watch the media and see women portrayed as just objects and seeing young girls looking up to these models and actresses who are not great role models. And yet we have this beautiful image of Mary, who just is such a wonderful, wonderful person who we can pray to and we can look at her life and see her sacrifice and her ability to say yes to God, which was just so amazing. We are just so blessed to have Mary."}

_{Lauren is 22 and from the United States.}

6th October - Frances      

_{"It was most definitely Our Lady who showed me how to bring out in my son everything that a mother should."}

_{Frances is from London.}

7th October - Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary - Brother Camillus      

_{"We always should remain faithful to the rosary if we can and at least, if we don't pray the rosary, to have the blessed rosary on our person, it could save us on our last day … I always thank Our Lady for that special grace, her answer to my request, to my little prayer. "}

_{Brother Camillus of the Order of St Camillus is 86 and from Ireland.}

8th October - Dawit      

_{"Mary is a light, Mary is for all of us, for all Eritreans, for all the people over the world, Mary is a very important in our lives."}

^{Dawit is 30 and from Eritrea; he gives his something about Mary in English & Tigringya.}

9th October - Feast of Bl John Henry Newman - Father Michael      

_{"Mary, she is the Queen and our Mother; always guiding us, always near us, always at the foot of the Cross, always at the foot of the altar... Newman wrote these very, very beautiful words which I think we should share: "This is why the Blessed Virgin is called powerful, nay, sometimes all powerful, because she has more than anyone else, more than all the angels and saints, this great pervading gift of prayer. No-one has access to the Almighty as His mother has, none has merit such as hers. Her Son will deny her nothing that she asks and herein lies her power. While she defends the Church, neither height nor depth, neither men nor evil spirits, neither great monarchs, nor craft of man, nor popular violence can avail to harm us. For human life is short but Mary reigns above as Queen for ever.""}

_{Father Michael is a priest in Uruguay, originally from London. It's his birthday on this 1st feast of Blessed Cardinal Newman.}

10th October - Patricia      

_{"As I see it, Our Lady came into my life and totally changed me. And also she taught me to love, to love and accept being loved. I think sometimes we forget that we need love, and she loves us so much. Allowing her to love us, you know, and to bring us to Jesus. And that is her main aim - to bring people to her Son. And I just see her as somebody who shows you how to love her Son and to draw you out of whatever confinement you find yourself in, she draws you out and brings you to Jesus. She is a mother, and that is what we really need to know - that she is our mother."}

_{Patricia is from Ghana.}

11th October - Toyin      

_{"Mother Mary symbolizes purity, absolute purity for me."}

_{Toyin is from Nigeria.}

12th October - Kristina      

_{"Our Lady for me who is the one who should inspire us to move closer to Jesus. It is hard to separate Our Lady from Jesus, because Our Lady doesn't move, like she doesn't appear in Fatima, in Guadalupe, if Jesus did not allow her to. And even in my life I find it hard to separate them because Mary has always been the inspiration to move closer, to walk closer to Jesus."}

_{Kristina is 23, from the Philippines and now residing in New Zealand.}

13th October - Anne      

_{"Our Lady for me is a mother: she cares for us, she loves us, she watches over us. She is the mother of our Saviour who is the redeemer of the world, and she gives us Jesus to love and to serve, and she's the best mother in the world."}

_{Anne is 30 and from England.}

14th October - Anthony      

_{"As a young adult, I joined a Catholic youth group and began to develop a friendship with Jesus. But because I did not have a good relationship with my mother, I never took to Mary naturally. So in my life as a Catholic, it was Jesus who led me to Mary! .. As my relationship with Mary grew, I started reading more Catholic material on her and the more I read, the more I fell in love with her. I found listening to what Mary had to say was as important as gazing at her – so I have a big collection of Marian icons in my computer – especially from the Byzantine school. As a young man exposed to all the temptations of an over-sexualized world, I found such healing in gazing at Mary’s beautiful and tender face. The more the beauty and worth of women was distorted, the more I had to look at Mary’s icon. I feel most of what she obtained for me as a young person is simply through this silent gazing."}

_{Anthony is from India and now resides in Dubai. This picture of Mary in a Saree is Our Lady of Velankanni, from the largest Catholic pilgrim shrine in India. It is the site where Mary appeared to a Hindu boy (and more later) in the 16th century. You can read the fascinating story here.}

15th October - Feast of Saint Teresa of Avila - Teresa      

_{"Saint Maria is the best Mum, she loves everyone and you have to trust her with everything."}

_{Teresa is from Poland and gives her something about Mary in English & Polish.}

16th October - Cynthia      

_{"Mother Mary to me is a great weapon - she is the one that shows us how to get to Christ."}

_{Cynthia is from Nigeria & is the mother of Theodore & Anne-Therexe.}

17th October - Theodore      

_{"Mary means the mother of Christ to me. She helps me with everything."}

_{Theodore is 8 and from Nigeria.}

18th October - Anne-Therexe      

_{"The thing I love about Mary is that, when the angel came to her, she didn't think 'O my gosh, what am I going to do', she just said 'I'll follow God and do what He says I should do.' And she is a really nice woman and she's never made a sin which I want to follow and she's my role model."}

_{Anne-Therexe is 10 and from Nigeria.}

19th October - Martha      

_{"Mary is really my mother and she is very near and behind me all the time, all the minutes of my life. To be Christian, the first thing necessary is to be a little child. I am a little child of Mary and I have just to go to the embrace of my mother and just really often tell her all my things, all that I have in my heart; like a daughter to her mother, with a really deep confidence. And the mother listens to you like a mother, with lots of love, and she brings you to her son, Jesus, and teaches you to love Jesus with more and more deepness and more and more love. ..}

_{Sono felicissima di avere una mamma così bella, così presente, così vera, e per me è tutto.."}

_{Martha is 31 and from Italy.}

20th October - Robert Francis      

_{"My personal view on Our Lady is a sense of warmth and comfort that we can take through a conversation within our hearts and a stirring of our soul with her."}

_{Robert Francis is 25 and from England.}

21st October - Suzanne      

_{"Our Lady to me is my Mum. I think she is really the perfect model of how best to love people as a young woman today."}

_{Suzanne is 26 and from Ireland.}

22nd October - Donnatella      

_{"Mary is my mother, my sweet mother, and of course it's not possible not to love her - she helps me to know and to love Jesus.}

_{Maria, La Madonna, mia madre, come la madre di tutti, è la madre, la dolce madre, che ci aiuta.."}

_{Donnatella is 'only' 77 and from Rome; she is a member of the Pro Sanctity Movement, whose prayer to Mary is
"O Immaculate Heart of Mary, true model of every holiness, give trust to become saints."}

23rd October - Alvaro      

_{"Mary is like my mother, as well as the mother of Jesus. We are brothers of Christ and also He is our God, so she is a really special person in our Catholic faith."}

_{Alvaro is 20 and from Colombia; he gives his algo de María in English & Spanish.}

24th October - Carmen      

_{"For me the Virgin Mary, Our Mother, is the person who I come to as a mother for help and to thank her for all the happiness that she has given me in the world."}

_{Carmen is from Peru; she gives her algo de María in English & Spanish.}

25th October - Kamel      

_{"The Virgin Mary is my mum, basically. I converted some time ago and I was always close to that town in Poland which is called Czestochowa, where many miracles have happened through the Virgin Mary and that place has a beautiful church which is known around the world. I went there one day, I just prayed, like I didn't really pray, I didn't really believe, I just asked "God, if you exist, Virgin Mary, if you exist, show me the truth." And there were 3 of us, not one of us believed at that time and in that year all 3 people converted through Mary and her blessed heart. And now every day I am just finding her power, her faith, and her humble and quiet heart, and how much she shows me the way to Christ and how wonderful she is to me. And it is very interesting because I just find out the way to pray through the rosary, which I was like so stubborn not to do for more than a year and a half."}

_{Kamel is 30 & from Poland; he gives his coś o Maryi in English & Polish.}

26th October - Lidia      

_{"I went to Medjugorje and my life changed… Mary helps me today, every day, forever.}

_{Io sono andata a Medjugorje e questa esperienza m'a cambiato totalmente la vida."}

_{Lidia is from Sicily.}

27th October - Mary      

_{"I can't imagine my life without Mother Mary being with me. I'm here first of all to tell her how much I love her, she means the world to me; to thank Jesus for everything that is happening to me, for being next to me."}

_{Mary is from the Lebanon.}

28th October - Maria-Isabel      

_{"Mary is a mother, a second mother who takes care of me and who is going to take care of me during my whole life."}

_{Maria-Isabel is from Spain; she gives her algo de María in Engish & Spanish.}

29th October - David      

_{"I love Our Lady. For me she has always been an intercessor, a big, big intercessor."}

_{David is 24 and from Uganda.}

30th October - Sister Catherine      

_{"For me, Our Lady is the Mother of the Church, she is the first disciple, and she was a woman of silence, she pondered things in her heart and she lived the message."}

_{Sister Catherine is from Ireland and is a Sister of Mercy.}

31st October - Silvia      

<sub>"Mary is the most important person in my life because she is my reference about love. Love is the most important thing in my life, in the life of every single person. Mary touched me, she is a teacher about love and she improves my way of loving. I want to learn from her to love people, to love life, to love everybody in my ordinary life. She is the milestone in my life and I know she observes me in everything in my life. I know she cures every aspect of my life and I can consider her as the basis of my life. I think she is the peace of my life .. I love to pray to her as the Queen of Peace and everybody can ask her for peace in the heart .. Mary is very present in these moments of the history of the world. She is very concentrated in what is happening in this world and she is not indifferent to our destiny.. I firmly believe that she can influence in a very important way the destiny of humanity in these moments.

Maria è la maestra d'amore"</sub>

_{Silvia is from Rome.}