Totus Tuus - Totus 2us

Abiola      

_{"I love Our Lady. She’s the precious, treasured mother that constantly each time I appeal to her I have this peace of mind and believe that my prayers are answered."}

Father Adeiza       

_{In Man for Others, Father Dominic Adeiza gives the story of his vocation and of the encouragement he received from his own father and from Sister Adelaine, a nun at his junior seminary:}

_{"I give my vocation, the praise of whoever I am today, to all those who have supported me to become a priest of God … I lived in Italy, in Rome, where I studied. For those times I studied in a strange and difficult language, life appeared unbearable but many years down the line it has become a bliss. In totality, my priesthood, the Catholic community, are for me one inseparable figure of love."}

Amaka      

_{"Our Lady has been most wonderful."}

Amaka       

_{"To me Mary is the Lady of Peace and the Lady of Comfort. I go to her every day. I kneel before her and tell her everything I want, I tell her everything I want to do for the day, I present all my difficulties, and I leave there with peace and calmness in my heart."}

Amanda      

_{"I love her wisdom, I love her patience, and I love the fact that she’s a virgin. That’s what I love about Mary."}

Anastacia       

_{"Every time of my life, I rely upon Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, because she is the one who teaches us her wisdom, and more especially, she is the mother who prays to her suffering son Jesus Christ to forgive the world their sins. We pray for her help every day of our lives, that is why she's called Blessed Virgin. She's doing  a lot for us and she is the one who leads us to the Kingdom of God, the Lady at the gates of heaven."}

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."}

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."}

Barbara       

_{"Our Lady to me is the most glorious mother. She has been there since before I was born."}

Bassia     

_{"Mary, she’s a saint .. She’s the mother of Jesus. She has the privilege that God chose her among all virgins. So I'm grateful to know her as a woman."}

Beatrice      

_{"Everything in life, Mary is my pillar - because I call on her first thing in the morning, I ask her to ask her Son to bless me for the day. She's the mother of all mothers, the ark of the covenant. Our Blessed Mother is the Mother of all. She is always there, in times of trouble, in joy, in suffering, in everything you call upon her, she's there."}

Beatrice       

_{"Mother Mary, she's done a lot for me, she means a lot to me and my family. With the four kids I've had, I called upon her when I was in labour and she interceded immediately. If I'm in difficult moments, I call upon her, Our Lady of Perpetual Help, she comes immediately and intercedes. So she's been a great intercessor .. I feel people should endeavour to honour her - whatever you call her, she will be able to listen to you."}

_{Beatrice is the mother of Dabelu, Kosi & Ezinne Maria.}

Charles       

_{"Mary is absolutely important to my faith because she said yes to God and, doing that, everything she has done ever since has been to draw us closer and closer to her son. With her you cannot go anywhere else except going to her son."}

Chika      

_{"The Blessed Virgin Mary is a mother to me, a mother to my family. She has been a wonderful intercessor and a Mother of Perpetual Help."}

Sister Chinedum       

_{"When Angel Gabriel came to Mary, saying 'You will conceive', the mother of Our Lord took it quietly and pondered it in her heart; she took it as the will of God that way. So, really, Mother Mary, is a role model to my life. So that's why, wherever I'm going, I carry the rosary with me."}

_{Sr Chinedum is a sister with the Holy Family Sisters.}

Christiana      

_{"Whenever we’re in difficulty and we pray fervently to God through Our Lady, we always receive a solution, and that is why I'm always in love with her, going to her statue, going to pray to her, everyday. I encourage people to try her: nobody goes to her and comes back empty handed. I love Our Lady."}

Cordelia      

_{"Mary is such a wonderful mother that in times of need and sorrow and when I am going through distress, I just imagine myself laying in her arms the way our Christ Lord Jesus laid when he was a baby, and I look to her to comfort me the way she did comfort Jesus as a baby. And I'm so grateful to have her to do that."}

Cynthia       

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

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

Dabelu       

_{"There's a lot that the Virgin Mary has done for me - she has given me loving parents and good sisters and siblings. She's like a mother to me, a first mother. She takes my family so well I think I should keep singing her praises."}

Danielle      

_{"There is no me, kind of thing, without Jesus and Jesus has given Mary to me as a mother and I'm going to accept her as my mother, who loves me."}

Danni      

_{"Mama Mary is someone that has been in my life since I was younger but I really just prayed to her because I was told that she helped me so I just prayed, but I wasn't really there ... but there was a doubt in me. When Sister Cecilia was telling the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe and she was talking about how scientists could actually come and take a look at this cloak and see that Mama Mary isn't actually drawn on, not painted on, it's a miracle, I'm like, 'She's just there!' She listens to you, she wants to draw you closer to her Son's heart. It's amazing!"}

Dorathy      

_{"Our Blessed Mother Mary is very dear to my heart and she has been a loving mother. She is a mother who never forgets us, no matter how unfaithful we are to God she is always there, and each time we call upon her she is always there to answer us and also assist us in pushing our prayer to Our Lord Jesus Christ, her son."}

Edwin      

_{"Mother Mary is the great mediatrix of all graces. Mother Mary is the go-between us and our Lord Jesus Christ. Without Mother Mary we would not know what divine intervention is. Mother Mary accepted and said 'yes'. By saying yes, she brought succour to the world. By saying yes she made mankind realise that God loves us. By saying yes, she said yes to God and God is happy about it and we are happy about Mother Mary. Mother Mary is a wonderful mother."}

Elizabeth       

_{"Our Lady is a gift. She's a mother. She's a friend to me. I started my devotion to her long ago and she's never let me down. I know that she's the path to Christ because Christ came through her. .. She's always there praying for the Church and for everybody who calls upon her. She doesn't refuse us anytime and she doesn't fail. She's our protector."}

Elizabeth      

_{"Our Mary is all and all for us."}

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."}

Ezinne Maria       

_{"I want to say thank you to Mother Mary and I want to say one Hail Mary for what I've said now: Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of hour death. Amen."}

Felicia      

_{"I have my great devotion to Mary 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."}

Femi      

_{"Mother Mary is the mother of us all, she helps us in all things and I've prayed to her three times today already!"}

Florence      

_{"What I know about Mary is that she is the virgin that gave birth to our Saviour Jesus Christ. And she is the most humble lady and our mother who prays for us every day. So it is good for us to thank her for giving us Christ."}

Florence       

_{"Mary is my mother and I pray that every other person will recognise how close she can be to everybody - she is a real mother."}

Franca      

_{"I love Mother Mary because a mother who sees her son beaten and bleeding and does nothing to fight is wonderful and she should be loved and emulated."}

Francis      

_{"I have a serious devotion for Our Blessed Lady."}

Father George      

_{"Our Lady is a special woman in the sense that she is the one through whom God gave us His Son, His only Son. And she is an exemplary Christian mother in the home. We see in her a humility which no other woman had ever shown and lived. She is duty conscious and prayerful. She does everything with humility."}

_{Father George Nze Muoba was influenced on his road to the priesthood by St Francis of Assisi, his parish priest Monsignor Joseph and by Pope John Paul II}      

<sub>"St Francis lived a life of humility, he attended to the needs of the poor, he lived a life of chastity. Because also of his humility after his diaconate ordination he refused to be ordained a priest because, according to him, when a priest celebrates Mass, he conceives Christ during that Mass and then gives birth to Him and then he gives Him to people and as a human being, he didn't feel worthy of that honour and so he stopped as a deacon.

My parish priest, Monsignor Joseph, he was down to earth when he was with us, he served us as a servant, he took care of our spiritual needs and he was just like a sheep shepherd.

And John Paul II, he said 'Totus Tuus', that is 'I am totally yours' and that is seen in his life. Even when his health was telling on him he was still struggling to serve the people and that is the spirit of the good shepherd, which Christ exemplified. The lives of these 3 people have been influencing my life, influencing my parish work as a priest. I continue to pray to God that He will continue to give me the grace to try to live as they did, so as to draw souls to God and at the end of the day to inherit the Kingdom of God."</sub>

_{Father George is currently the provincial chaplain for the Divine Mercy Devotion and archdiocesan chaplain for the Catholic Charismatic Renewal of Nigeria, and has written '50 Days with the Holy Spirit (my greatest friend)'.}

Georgina      

_{"Our Lady is our mother any day. She’s there for us all the time. When we have any trouble, we come to her, the problem is solved."}

Helen      

_{"For me, Mary is love. And that’s the only word I will say: just love, pure love."}

Helen      

_{"Our Lady, she's everything: she’s our mother, she’s always there to intercede for us. So whenever I pray I call upon her to intercede for me and she has never ever failed me. Never!"}

Ifeaneyi      

_{"Holy Mary is the mother of Christ."}

Ivan      

_{"Mary is the Mother of Christ .. so she is the person who brought our Saviour to us and I love her for that."}

Father James Mary       

_{"I have discovered that my priesthood has been influenced by Our Lady. I have a particular devotion to her and any time I’m in a problem, I run to the Blessed Virgin Mary. And I also believe so much in divine providence. Believing in divine providence means that when things are hard, when there are no resources or talents around, God will always provide. .. What makes the priest is spirituality and conformity with the grace of God and the divine will. The priestly life is not a life of what makes our pleasure or riches, it is a life of following Christ, in accordance with Philippians ch 2 v 5-11: ‘Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not consider himself equal to God. He stripped himself of all human dignity and became obedient unto death. For this reason God has exulted him and at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow.’  So no matter whatever problems that come before us in the priestly life, we must revert back and move closer to Jesus on our knees, through intercession. Then we will be able to realise our priestly goal: it is a call to service."}

_{Father James Mary Okunbor is currently studying in Rome.}

Julie      

_{"I've had great devotion to Our Lady, particularly before and after my son's death 7 years ago. He prayed a lot to Our Lady. After his death I've come to adopt her as my mother, Comforter of the Afflicted, because of the way she has appeared to me in so many ways, not real apparitions as such but touching my heart. Any time I think of Richard, I think of Our Lady and the sorrows she went through at the foot of the Cross and it always takes a lot of the pain away from my heart .. I know that she also gave a lot of courage to the apostles in the Upper Room so that makes her Help of Christians, because that was the beginning of the Church."}