Totus Tuus - Totus 2us

_{3 2us by Father Alexander Sherbrooke:}

_{"What happened in Lourdes, as then as today, Our Lady came to those who were suffering greatly because of poverty, illness, brokenness in their lives. Our Lady comes to teach us and to lead us to her Son Jesus. She wants to show us the way to understand that we are loved unconditionally by God."   ♦}

_{3 2us by Monsignor Leo Maasburg:}

_{"Sickness and suffering are a big puzzle to human beings. We're all created for health - health is the normal state of man. But sickness and suffering are a reality of our life, nobody can avoid it completely, it will hit everybody at a certain moment in their life. Since we believe that for God there is no trash, everything he has permitted he can use for a good end, the secret of suffering and of sickness reveals a big mystery, a mystery of God's greatness. I believe this was the reason of Our Lady's appearing on 11th February 1858 to Bernadette Soubirous."    ♦}

_{Marien, from France: "I try to pray the rosary at least every day and it’s a true help and a true feeling of being loved by Christ through his mother, Mary."      ♦}

_{Collette, from England: "I've been to Lourdes since a little girl and I have a great connection with that place and the peace Mary gives you as our mother, no other person can do that. And it's not about her, she does it to bring us to the Lord, to show us her son, and that's the greatest gift any mother could give somebody: the gift of Our Lord and Saviour."      ♦}

_{Marie, from the Philippines: "Our patron is Our Lady of Lourdes in our parish in Lucena City. This is my first time to come to Lourdes and I've felt Mama Mary is full of graces on us. She's our mother and we love her very much."      ♦}

_{Nida, from Lebanon: "I came to Lourdes from Lebanon to thank Our Lady because she makes with me so many miracles.  She is the Queen of my heart and the Lady of our family. And she is the mother of the creature and the Creator. Thanks for this Saint Mary, mother of Jesus Christ."      ♦}

Pope John Paul II's prayer to Mary

_{As we turn to Mary Most Holy, let us pray together with Bernadette: "Good Mother, have mercy on me; I give myself entirely to you, that you may give me to your dear Son, whom I wish to love with my whole heart. Good Mother, grant me a heart all aflame for Jesus".}

_{Hail Mary, poor and humble Woman, Blessed by the Most High!
Virgin of hope, dawn of a new era,
We join in your song of praise, to celebrate the Lord’s mercy,
to proclaim the coming of the Kingdom and the full liberation of humanity.}

_{Hail Mary, lowly handmaid of the Lord, Glorious Mother of Christ!
Faithful Virgin, holy dwelling-place of the Word, teach us to persevere in listening to the Word,
and to be docile to the voice of the Spirit, attentive to his promptings in the depths of our conscience
and to his manifestations in the events of history.}

_{Hail Mary, Woman of sorrows, Mother of the living!
Virgin spouse beneath the Cross, the new Eve, be our guide along the paths of the world.
Teach us to experience and to spread the love of Christ,
to stand with you before the innumerable crosses on which your Son is still crucified.}

_{Hail Mary, woman of faith, First of the disciples!
Virgin Mother of the Church, help us always to account for the hope that is in us,
with trust in human goodness and the Father’s love.
Teach us to build up the world beginning from within:
in the depths of silence and prayer, in the joy of fraternal love,in the unique fruitfulness of the Cross.}

_{Holy Mary, Mother of believers, Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us. Amen.}

_{(You can read this in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese & Spanish.)}

_{Sister Beatrix PCC (in enclosed community at Ty Mam Duw in North Wales): "Our Lady was my constant companion because I could turn to her at any time, through many difficulties, and it was she who brought me into the Church because like a good mother she brought me to her Son. I went to Lourdes on an all night vigil in my early 20s ... and in the grotto in the early hours of the morning I gave my life entirely to Our Lord."       ♦}

_{Dino, from England: "I have a devotion to Our Mother - I made my First Communion in Lourdes and she is a special person that always stays with me."       ♦}

_{Rosamund, from England: "Our Lady brought me to the Catholic Church, on a visit to Lourdes. And so, for me, she is my mother and I turn to her when I am in need and ask her to bring me closer to her son, Our Lord."      ♦}

_{Fiona, from England: "It has been just such an incredible blessing in my life to be part of this parish trip to Lourdes for the last 22 years as a helper with the elderly who we take with us... The Lourdes week for me is the week around which the whole of the rest of my year revolves. And very year I 've gone I have learnt more and more about the love of Our Lady, and the really special place she has for us as our intercessor, and she has become my first port of call for intercessory prayer. And I think of it really very much like just asking one of my friends to pray for me, but the difference is that this particular friend has got a very special place in the heart of God, and we know how much He will listen to her and how much He will react to anything that she asks of Him. And it's a real honour for us to be able to give her that special place in the hearts as well."        ♦}

_{Elizabeth, from the United States: "At my university in the United States there is a small replica of Our Lady of Lourdes and I like to go and light a candle to Our Lady of Lourdes ... Ever since I was little I have always loved praying to the Blessed Mother; my favourite prayer is the Memorare."      ♦}

_{Patrick, from England: "We all prayed very fervently to Our Lady of Lourdes and miraculously he was cured … I sincerely believe that it was thanks to the intercession of Our Lady that he is now healthy and happy."      ♦}

_{Nicholas, from England: "I think that Our Lady is a very powerful intercessor. In all times of need, I turn to her. I especially find her help most powerful in Lourdes, but also here at home."      ♦}

_{Esther, from the Philippines:"I'm here in Lourdes to see the Blessed Mother again and I'm so happy to be here."       ♦}

_{Francesca, from England: "To me Mary is not only a physical but also spiritual healer and provides us with love, strength and courage in times of need. I'm a firm believer that she guides us on our journey through life, unseen, unheard, but listening to our every word."      ♦}

_{Sister Bruna (a Salesian Sister of St John Bosco), from Italy: "St John Bosco wouldn't stop praying the rosary with the boys because the rosary is a biblical prayer. That's what Our Lady of Fatima, Our Lady of Lourdes had - the rosary. The rosary is to pray to God. And meditating on the mystery is just like you read a description in the mystery of Jesus. So, when the family used to pray together saying the rosary, the family that prays together, stays together. So we have to revive our faith in the rosary, we have not to be ashamed. We don't need to preach, it's the way we live our life, and not to be afraid to say our faith in the rosary. Repetition is good; repetition revives the mind. We get bored with repetition, not with the rosary. And then Our Lady is there to guide us to her Divine Son and we have to remember every time she appears, it is with the rosary."      ♦}

_{Sister Maria (a Sister of Mercy), from Ireland: "I feel Mary is a loving caring mother and I always feel she is with me at all times, in times of joys and sorrows, in times of darkness and light. And when I minister in the hospital, I have a great devotion to Our Lady of Lourdes and I feel she's helping not only myself, but all the sick who are in deep pain and distress. And when we say the Hail Mary, it is powerful, and the Lourdes holy water. So I thank God for Our Lady, and I feel she's with me for the rest of my life, I praise you Lord, through Mary our Mother of Mercy. Amen."      ♦}

_{Bernadette, from England: "Having the name of Bernadette brought me to a very close affinity with Our Lady of Lourdes. I could completely identify with that encounter - looking at Bernadette in her simplicity and in her poverty and in her weakness, I could identify that from my own experience. And she was open to hear the word of Our Lady speaking to her heart. And when I put myself into Bernadette's shoes and I look at Our Lady, I see heaven and earth meeting."       ♦}

_{Father Rod OSB (a Benedictine monk & priest at Worth Abbey), from England: "Mary has always been with me, at times perhaps I was unaware of her gentle, loving presence, but I think, as I look back on my life, I see her gentle love, her guiding hand beside me, watching over and guiding me. In a remarkable way I think that awareness came upon me when I first visited Lourdes, where her presence there touched me deeply and began for me a journey that I guess I hadn't expected I'd be making, this journey towards monasticism and the priesthood, that journey of responding to the still, small voice of the Lord. And that continued, a growing awareness of how Mary was there alongside me, always guiding, gently encouraging, And at remember too my first pilgrimage I made, back in 1989, when I arrived in Medjugorje for the first time on 1st January, the feast day of Our Lady Mother of God. And how, from the very first moment, those first hours, I was aware that here in this place, in a remarkable way that Mary has touched with her presence. Over the years as I have returned there, I've found a source of strength on my journey, a source of strength in my ministry, a source of encouragement and of real joy. So now when I return, I return there because I have as sense in quite a remarkable way, returning to be alongside, to be with, to spend time with the Blessed Mother, our mother, the mother of Our Lord.  It's as if within that place, her presence can be felt, when our hearts are open to receive her love. And in receiving that love, we're aware that she's calling us not only closer to her heart, but always, through her heart ,to the heart of Jesus, her son, our Lord, our Saviour. It's as if in our own day, Mary has been given to us as such a wonderful gift, given to us that our hearts may be opened not only to her presence but through her to the presence of the Lord."      ♦}

_{Sister Yolanda PCC (a Poor Clare Sister in enclosed community at Ty Mam Duw), from England: "It doesn't matter which shrine you look at, which story of apparition you hear, Our Lady is always urging us to pray, and perhaps the one that comes to mind the most to me is Lourdes, where she said 'Pray for sinners.' So, if I put Mary and the Holy Spirit together, the answer to the equation is we must pray."      ♦}

_{Joao Paulo, from Portugal: "So I decided that year (2007) to go to the shrine of Fatima, to the shrine of Lourdes and to shrine of Our Lady of Medjugorje. And I said 'This time I'm going as a pilgrim and not as a tourist.' And since that moment my life has completely changed, 100%. From that moment I start looking for Mary, for Jesus, for God - all my life completely changed. After my first visit to Lourdes (which was so beautiful as well - I received so many graces there), I went to Medjugorje for the first time and Medjugorje was an experience I will never forget. First time I went there, I came back full of faith and first thing was - I have to go to Mass more often. Suddenly, after 6 months, I was going to Mass daily."      ♦}

_{Ruth, from the UK: "I went to Lourdes for the first time when I was 16, where I was very deeply moved by Mary's presence in the Grotto and the stillfulness of the Grotto at night. "       ♦}

_{Monica, from Ireland: "Our Lady for me means the first holy person I ever heard of. My mum taught me to pray to Mary when I was 2 or 3 years old. As I've grown up, I've continued to love her and look to her, and when I was very ill 3 or 4 years ago I was invited to go to Lourdes."       ♦}