Totus Tuus - Totus 2us

NIGERIA

Pope John Paul II was a pilgrim in Nigeria in 1982 and 1998.

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."}

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."}

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.}

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."}

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."}

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."}

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."   ♦}

_{Fr George Nze Muoba is currently the provincial chaplain for the Divine Mercy Devotioin and archdiocesan chaplain for the Catholic Charismatic Renewal of Nigeria, and has written '50 Days with the Holy Spirit (my greatest friend)'. He was influenced on his road to the priesthood by St Francis of Assisi, his parish priest Monsignor Joseph and by Blessed John Paul II:}

_{"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."       ♦}

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."}

Kelechi       ♦

_{"For me, Our Lady is my mother, she is my intercessor, she is always there for me in any time I am in trouble or need."}

Kosi       ♦

_{"I thank Mother Mary for what she has done for me."}

Leonard       ♦

_{Leonard's Word on the Street is Psalm 91 - You who live in the shelter of the Most High, who abide in the shadows of the Almighty, will say to the Lord, "My refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust."}

_{"It's my favourite passage because to me it represents hope."}

Lucy       ♦

_{"For me Our Lady is a very special person because she embodies what it means to serve God. She was given a task and she accepted; and even though she had questions, she asked her questions and when they were answered, she accepted without any further ado and she never turned back. Throughout the life of Jesus, we see her in different ways supporting him and just being there for him."}

Margaret       ♦

_{"I guess not having my parents here, Mary has been my parent. She has been there for me every time I've needed her. I would say she is everything that you could go to when you don't have anyone."}

Margaret       ♦

_{"I know Mary is there always, interceding for all of us. She is the mother of everyone."}

Sister Mary Benedicta OP

_{"Mary is my strength, my confidence, the cause of my joy."      ♦}

_{"World Youth Day Madrid has been a wonderful experience for me but what stood out in all of this for me was experiencing the universality of the Church, the whole world coming together, united in one faith, in one love, praying with the Holy Father who is the Vicar of Christ."        ♦}

_{Sister Mary Benedicta is a Dominican Sister of St Joseph and lives in community at St Dominic's Priory in England (with Sister Hyacinthe).}

Nonso       ♦

_{"Our Lady is the reason why we are all here. She accepted the huge responsibility of being the mother of Jesus Christ. Her example is the perfect human example that we should follow. Our first human step towards God is Mary."}

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."}

Paul       ♦

_{"When I think of Mary I think of her as a very, very caring, a very, very compassionate and loving mother and a route to Our Lord Jesus for us all."}

Paul       ♦

_{"For me, Our Lady is very special. She is an example, in terms of accepting wholly and fully God's will, without any hindrance or second thoughts."}

Patrick       ♦

_{"I pray to Mary every time I can as much as possible because she strengthens me and my family. So she's like my mother so to speak, well my spiritual mother, I guess."}

Father Peter      ♦

_{Father Peter, from Onitsha archdiocese, was inspired by the witness to the priesthood given by Father James, his childhood parish priest, and by Blessed John Paul II:}

_{"As a young boy I observed him meeting people in their situations of life in their various houses. He usually visited us in our homes, so by that, his presence among the people of God, I was highly inspired. I started from there the idea of being a priest because, due to his disposition to people, to meet them in their various situations, people loved him, so I had an expectation that one day I would be like him ... his attitude towards the people of God made me want to become one and I am happy to be a priest. And I can't say everything without John Paul II, his personality .. He influenced me how he shepherded the people of God of his own time, he used everything, even at the point of his death. Some people said that he should step down, he asked them 'Did Christ step down at the point of his agony?' He continued to be at the cross, to carry the cross until the appointed time and now he has been glorified as one who has triumphed. So I pray that God will give me that same spirit, to understand people and come down to their situation and lift them up and lead them to God, because our ultimate end is going to God, so whatever we do on earth will have meaning only when we lead people to God because that is our final destination and I pray through the intercession of Blessed John Paul the Great I will be one like him now and after, to the glory of God, through Christ our Lord."}

Theodore       ♦

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

Theresa       ♦

_{"Mary has played an important role in my life. There was a time when someone was very sick - I didn't know where to go, I didn't know whom to turn, he was sick mentally. All I could do was to bring out my rosary and put it on him. And he was saying 'Oh, there's something burning me in this rosary.' I was a bit scared and he took the rosary and threw it away. I rushed to my parish church to tell the priest and the priest said 'Keep on praying the rosary because God is going to heal him through that rosary, through the power of the rosary.' And indeed he was admitted into the hospital a few days after that, and when I went to the hospital I put the rosary under his pillow, and to my surprise I went there the following week and he had that rosary on him and he was telling everybody that he was healed by this rosary. Even though he wasn't a Catholic then, he said he was healed by the power of that rosary and since then I think he has been carrying that rosary about. So Mary prays for us all the time, she plays an important role in my life, in my family's life as well. So I will always honour Our Lady wherever I am."}

Toyin       ♦

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

Valentina       ♦

_{"Our Lady means so much to me; she's a mother above all mothers. As  a mother, she's always there: in time of sorrow, in time of joy, in time of hope, in time of anxiety, she's always there to look up to. She has undergone everything so she understands whatever the problem is we say to her, and she's always there, not only in time of problems, but she is always there for us as a mother, to guide and to lead us, to direct us and for us also to follow her example of motherhood."}

Valentina       ♦

_{"One of the things that has made me feel that Mary is so important in our lives is seeing what she passed through during the Passion of Our Lord. It is very difficult for a mother to watch the Son being treated, suffering, all for our sins. That strengthens our faith, that saw a mother so close to her son, who has seen her son suffer so much, would really not fail to help us to get favours, if they are for our own good, through her son Jesus Christ."}

Vicky       ♦

_{"I am so happy and so glad that God has given us our mother Mary as an intercessor, as a loving mother who watches over us and who prays for us all the time."}

Victoria       ♦

_{"We thank God for our Mother Mary. If you don't love Mary, you don't have a mother. The more you love Mary, your mother is Mary, because you are born from her. And we thank her for all the graces that wer are receiving from her. "}