Totus Tuus - Totus 2us

Margarete       

_{"I lost my mother when I was about 7 years old and the Virgin Mary always presents my mother. In Mary, when I pray to her, I always see my mother and the Virgin Mary together, and that comforts me a great deal."}

Markus       

_{"Mary for me means a relationship, to a woman who is my mother and who is able to talk to me and tell me little things."}

<sub>Markus chose Saint Nicholas on The Incredibles     in English   & in German

"St Nikolaus is important to me because of all the works he did and the wonders he worked. He was the bishop of Myra, and he was famous for helping the poor and giving in a very secret way .. Thinking about St Nikolaus is about this saint who did something very secretly, with lots of love and was happy that the honour for what was done was given to God."</sub>

Sister Mary Magdalene      

_{"Mary always remained a little bit a stranger to me but I told her 'You can try to become my friend, I'm open to it' but I didn't really know how to approach her myself. Then something very significant happened to me on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, 8th December. It was a period in my life in which I felt much wounded and hurt, and I was aware of some painful experiences in my life. We did a little procession to one of the statues of Mary in our mother house and, walking there, all of a sudden I realised in my life, in my soul, there is a space, there is an area which is simply healed, is complete, because Christ is living there. And it's not going to be destroyed by anybody and by anything, and it's especially not going to be destroyed by myself. And it was something which made me understand what I was celebrating on that day, 8th December: that Mary, the Immaculate Conception, is showing to us what we are going to be, what we are going to live. That we're not going to play around anymore with sin, that we're going to be healed eventually. And there's something in me already, through the presence of the Lord, that gives me a taste of that big promise in our lives."}

Matthias      

_{"Mary for me is the sum of the Church and every action inside of the Church, like prayer, every thing I do it with Mary and Mary is always my guide and my companion when I pray or whatever I'm doing."}

Maximilian      

_{"Mary is for me like a second mother, the Holy Mother, and she always takes care of us. And whenever something is wrong or you have problems, you can go to her, talk to her, and she is always listening and will try to help."}

_{Maximilian gives his something about Maria in English & German.}

Milona       

_{"In Medjugorje I met Our Lady in a new way. I knew her in my early life through Fatima and  there was always a little corner of paradise that stayed in my heart after a day in Fatima. But here I met her as who she really is and she was just simply for me the beginning of a new life. Because what I met was a woman that is so close to us and so motherly, and motherly in the most securing way that .. I didn't know this was possible. A mother that never wants us to worry; she always makes me understand 'Do not worry. I am the Queen. I am there. There will be a way out.  Pray, pray and trust and be at peace.' She has taught me that there is not one moment of the day that I'm not being looked after, that I'm not being looked at. And I went through some very, very difficult moments, where I felt I was in absolute pits of darkness and nearly despair. But yet there came the moment when I couldn't anymore, there came a light and I could breathe again. So she for me she is like the breath of fresh air every day that brings me a God that she knows, the living God who is close, close, close. So she for me is a wonderful bridge between us humans, because she's like us and she's also the fruit of what her son did for us like in advance. And so she knows it all, she knows the strength of decision, she gives us all the secrets, all the mysteries of her relationship with the Lord, she gives it to us. And this is what I just love about her, because she's totally unselfish - she would be, wouldn't she - but she says it's all out of dear love for the Lord and  for you, my children. So she gives everything to us that He has given her ... She for me is the deepest joy and a sign of hope and she gives me strength every single day and I just praise the Lord for having such a mother and for having her to us."}

_{Milona lives in Medjugorje and works with Mary's Meals.}

Miriam       

_{"For me, it’s a really big grace to be here in Rome during the last days of the pontificate of Pope Benedict. He was a real father for me, because he was a holy man and he knew how to love the faith. ..I started to read what he said, to get to know him better because I studied for 9 months in Rome. I was there every Sunday at the Angelus and it was just so good to hear him and to hear his interpretation of the Gospel, to hear how he’s living his prayer life. Like he told us during the last audiences, and now in the last audience when he was so personal, when he really told us how his heart, how he loves God and that he feels that the Church is alive, the Church is young. We are not alone, he’s not alone, because God is with us. It was so touching and if felt like ‘yeh, there’s hope, there’s a great hope for us’."}

Monika     

_{Monika's choice for Word on the Street is Ecclesiastes 3: 11 - Finally I considered the task God gave to the humans: he made everything fitting in its time, but he also set eternity in their hearts, although man is not able to embrace the work of God from the beginning to the end.}

_{"This passage is really a calling to trust in God and in His plan for us; and also to humble ourselves in recognising that He is the creator and we the creation, and that we cannot always know or understand His will. But trying to follow His plan makes us free from sin and from the false ideologies of our time, as well as freeing us from the desire to be our own god, but opens our selves to His love for us and to receive His Spirit in order to build His community here on earth."}

Nicolaus      

_{"Mary helps us every day."}

_{Nicolaus gives his something about Mary in English & German.}

Norbert      

_{"Holy Mary is of course the Mother of Jesus Christ and for me the one with whom I like to find Jesus."}

_{Norbert gives his something about Mary in English & German.}

Patrick      

_{"I see Our Lady as the most beautiful woman, always in mind that she is the Mother of God and that she is the only person besides Our Lord who was without sin. And I always look to her as a loving child and I always ask her for advice and guidance, that she guides me to the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ."}

_{Patrick gives his something about Mary in English & German.}

Patrick       

_{"If you want to get to know Jesus really, then you should focus on Mary who is very close to us, and just give yourself to her and ask her for guidance and that she may lead us and you to her son, who is Our Lord Jesus Christ."}

_{Patrick gives his verrückt nach Maria in English & German.}

<sub>Patrick chose Saint Faustina Kowalska on The Incredibles      

"My favourite saint is St Faustina because her intimate relationship with Our Lord has really opened up a lot of things that I did not really know about Our Blessed Lord. Her prayers, or the prayers she received from Jesus Christ, are so powerful and remind us about the message of mercy, which should always be the focus of our faith, and that we can all get close to Our Lord even though we are all sinners, and that we shouldn't despair and always have hope."</sub>

Regina Maria Angela      

_{"Mary means a lot to me. She has always been my mother and I always find that her coat is a protection for me and my family."}

Stefan      

_{"Mother Maria for me is the door to Jesus and the door for hope, the door for love, and it's my home."}

_{Stefan gives his something about Mary in English and German.}

Father Sylvester      

<sub>"Mary is for me mostly the Mother of Mercy because she is the mother of the King of Mercy and brings Him to us.

Maria ist die Mutter der Barmherzigkeit."</sub>

Ursula      

_{"I want to say to Mary 'I'm so thankful that you said yes to the angel.'"}

_{Ursula gives her something about Maria in English & German.}

Ursula      

_{"I can't imagine my life without Our Lady, without Our Christ .. She is my teacher, she is the person who helps keep me on line, who shelters me, who has built up my life since I connected to her."}

_{Ursula gives her something about Maria in English and German.}

Veronica       

_{"My Lady is like a very wise, lovely person with a massive coat; there's a German song, a hymn, where it says 'Mary, spread your coat so we can all seek shelter underneath it.' This is exactly the picture I have of Our Lady: she is ever-forgiving, very patient and very, very big with a massive coat."}

_{Veronica gives her verrückt nach Maria in English & German.}

Father Wolfgang SAC      

_{3 2us on Saint Vincent Pallotti: "Men and women, priests, religious, lay people, they all came together and had one only goal: to spread faith and enkindle charity, as Pallotti wrote quite often. And how? Well, they were the ways of new evangelisation. What he wanted was that among Catholics their faith would come alive again. And then a second goal he had, to spread the faith among people who had never heard of Christ. And the third point, works of charity. And when we ask what was his charism, what was his great idea behind it? I would say that he clearly saw that sanctity and apostolate belong together. You cannot be an apostle without really striving for sanctity and you cannot become a saint when you close your eyes to the needs of the others. You have to be an apostle in order to be a saint, you have to be a saint in order to become an apostle. And you can evangelise only what you love. That was the great message Pallotti had for us. And when we ask him, what is the foundation of your conviction? Why do you think it has to be this way? Well, he said, we are all created in God’s image and likeness, and God is love, is infinite love, and we should therefore be images of this infinite love of God, we should make His love visible, tangible, in the world of today."}

_{Father Wolfgang Weiss SAC is a Pallotine priest currently based in Rome.}