Totus Tuus - Totus 2us

_{Ephesians 3: 17: that Christ may dwell, through faith, in your hearts, being rooted and founded in love .. - "It has recently struck me that in my day to day life, to be founded and rooted means to be really connected with God in the day to day things, and to do everything that I can, every action, every thought and word with love, and to keep that connection with God through prayer, through the Sacraments"     ¤}

Sister Agatha PCC     ¤

^{"Mary has always been for me in my Christian and more specifically my religious life, the icon of what I know and desire with all my heart to become, another Mary: a woman full of the spirit, a woman of prayer, a woman open to others, carrying all the burdens and sufferings to the Cross and remaining under the Cross, when at any specific time on my journey that has been God's will.  I cannot imagine my Christian journey without Mary and, with my whole heart and soul, I have invested so much trust and so much hope that at the end of my journey, it will be through the prayers of Mary that I will obtain heaven and union with my Lord."}

_{Sister Agatha is a Poor Clare Sister at Ty Mam Duw, in North Wales.}

Aisling   ¤

^{"It was all through Mary that I came to know Jesus and she is part of my life every day. She is my model, a model of a pure heart, of a perfect woman, of a mother, of love and she is who I strive to be like."}

Alan ¤

_{The Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32) - "It was one of the first things I heard in the Church, in the Mass, when I came back after many years away.. Although it is very familiar, it offers something very different every time I read or meditate on it."}

Alanna   ¤

^{"All I want to say about Our Lady really is about her love and her attentive ear to Our Lord. I guess what she means to me is a good example of a Christian and, with her Immaculate Conception, an example of what we're supposed to be."}

Father Alexander        ¤

_{Fr Alexander's Man for Others is Father Michael Hollings. "What you saw with Michael was someone who was in love with God and wanted to take other people to God. For those of us who came into the radar of Michael, he has left an enduring memory which is probably summed up by that simple adage that we are called to be here for people. If we are here for people, we are being like Christ, because Christ was always here for people, Christ was always present to people, even those who rejected him, those who turned their back on him, Christ was permanently present. Michael endeavoured to walk the same way and as he did so he was able to touch many with the love of Jesus."}

_{Fr Alexander Sherbrooke is parish priest of St Patrick's, Soho Square in London, where SPES - St Patrick's Evangelisation School is based. He has also given 3 2us on Our Lady of Lourdes.}

Alicia

_{"What Our Lady means to me is absolute serenity always, always completely composed and ready to listen to anything without being disturbed by it, but yet total compassion and sympathy and understanding."}

Alison

^{"Mary is the person I speak to in times of greatest need, to intercede with my prayers."}

Sister Amata PCC    ¤

^{"Mary surrendered everything to God, everything."}

_{Sister Amata is a Poor Clare Sister in enclosed community at Ty Mam Duw in North Wales.}

Andrea     ¤

_{"I think of Our Lady overshadowed by the Spirit and also praying with the Apostles before Pentecost, and I see her as the one who draws the Spirit down on us all."}

Andy     ¤

_{"For me, Christmas is the Eucharist. At the Annunciation, God becomes man, the Word becomes flesh and at Christmas, to me it's exposition - the Lord, as happens every time there's Mass, is exposed and shown to the world. And it's just an amazing thing, that God, even though we're all in all our sins, willed in mercy that we didn't deserve, to come down and be with us, to forgive us and give us the grace we need to go back to Him. And all we need to do is to avoid wrong and to do what is right and to trust in Him."}

Andy   ¤

_{Andy's 'Man for Others' is his old parish priest:}

_{"In terms of his preaching, I always felt he had a very positive view of humanity; I think he was largely inspired by St Vincent de Paul - very much that thing of putting contemplation into action. I was always struck really by the good news that I heard from him, very much about salvation rather than condemnation."}

_{Andy is a seminarian at Allen Hall.}

Angela       ♦

_{"My understanding of Mary has really grown; of her being not just a mother who's there to support me but a mother who's there to encourage me and lead me. And I've been really growing in the knowledge of her as that first disciple. She's just so awesome because she leads us, she leads the way to her son."}

Angela      ¤

^{"Blessed Mother I wouldn't do this for anyone else! I went to Medjugorje in 1987 and I didn't want to go at all but you got me there by hook or by crook and you really changed my life there and my love for you just keeps growing now and I just thank you."}

Angela

_{"Our Lady for me is the one person I'd pray to continually as the Mother of God. I think she obviously understands the trials of iife and had her sufferings with her Son Jesus."}

Anna      ¤

^{"I'm passionate about Mary. I didn't become so consciously though until my mid-twenties because I had the wrong ideas about Mary, and then I suddenly realised that she was the most wonderful, passionate, warm, loving woman that had ever lived."}

Anna

_{"When I'm heading for the finish line but fail it's Mary who picks me up through her prayers and takes me forward to Jesus, to her Son."}

Anna      ¤

^{"Mary kind of stands out from the crowd and she is always there and she has to go through so much hardship but she gets through it and she's like a role figure."}

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    ¤

^{"Mary is just a cozy, wonderful, all-embracing, understanding woman, who suffers the same as all the rest of us, who happened to love God more than most of us, who had great faith and great love, and who has been sent to be our mum really… and she's the mother of us all."}

Anne      ¤

^{"Mary to me is above all else a comforter and I ask her all the time to go and comfort all my friends who need help, just so that they can feel wanted and loved."}

Anne-Marie      ¤

^{"Mary to me is a lot of bright colours and smiles, and always thanking and praising people who do good.  And she is like a light to me, and full of goodness.  And she is like a bunch of flowers that won't ever dry up or wilt or die because she keeps on shining and spreading the word of God to everyone."}

Annette   ¤

^{"I feel Our Lady's love and presence every day and she has brought me closer to Jesus and has given me jobs for me to do for her. I have experienced heaven through her and it makes me long more for heaven."}

Annie   ¤

_{"There is a special little ceremony that any child, any little group, can do and that is the crowning ceremony of Our Lady to honour her as Queen of the May."} 

_{Annie ends her description of the crowning ceremony of Our Lady, by singing the hymn:}

_{Bring flowers of the rarest, bring blossoms the fairest,
from garden and woodland and hillside and dale;
our full hearts are swelling, our glad voices telling
the praise of the loveliest flower of the vale.}

_{O Mary, we crown thee with blossoms today,
Queen of the Angels and Queen of the May. (x2)}

_{Their Lady they name thee, their mistress proclaim thee.
Oh, grant that the children on earth be as true
as long as the bowers are radiant with flowers
as long as the azure shall keep its bright hue.}

_{Sing gaily in chorus, the bright angels o'er us
re-echo the strains we begin upon earth;
their harps are repeating the notes of our greeting,
for Mary herself is the cause of our mirth.}

Anthony

_{"I love Jesus and Mary."}

Father Anthony Doe

^{"Advent is the time when we pray that the Holy Spirit will move deeply and mysteriously in the hearts of all of us; will prepare that place where Jesus can be born deep within our own lives, our own spirits, our own hearts, as he was born in the life of his mother Mary."}

^{Father Anthony is a priest of Westminster archdiocese and lives next to the Carmel in North London.}  

Anton       ♦

_{"Apart from Our Lady being one of the major figureheads of the Church and an important part of my life in the sense that I pray to her daily in the rosary, she played a big role in my life for 6 months when I was in a place called Medjugorje, where I was able to deepen my relationship with Our Lady and really experience her love as a mother, but also as someone who is able to offer comfort and joy and peace and pretty much every good measure of life all in one."}

Antony

^{"I'm no longer scared about death because in the Hail Mary it says 'pray for us now and at the hour of our death' and I know that if Our Lady is praying for me at the hour of my death, all will be well."}

Anu   ¤

_{"I've never thought specifically about Mary, but the whole idea of spirituality is just something that hits you in a place like a church, where everything else seems so much smaller and insignificant, and you can just come to terms with yourself and what's going on; everything just seems far more peaceful."}

Father Augustine Conner CFR

_{"Mary has played a very big part in my journey towards the priesthood and in the priesthood."}

^{3 2us on the Baptism of Our Lord: "In Jesus Christ, true man and true God, we discover who we are and why we exist.  We discover that we were made through him and for him.  We discover that we are made in his image and likeness.  That we are his brothers and sisters and beloved sons and daughters of the Father filled with his Holy Spirit and destined to share his glorious resurrection.  We discover that each of us is eternally loved and chosen and shares in the very dignity of God."}

_{Father Augustine is a Franciscan Friar of the Renewal, and is currently based at their friary in Bradford, England.} 

Barry      ¤

^{"When I speak to Our Lady, I call her 3 things: I call her 'my Love, my Mother and my Queen'."}

Sister Beatrix PCC    ¤

^{"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."}

_{Sister Beatrix is a Poor Clare Sister in enclosed community at Ty Mam Duw in North Wales.}

Becca     ¤

_{"To me Christmas is about hope. It's about the hope that we have in Jesus because obviously Jesus was born at Christmas. Even though Christmas these days is like really secularised I still think we see some of that hope at Christmas time, because at Christmas everyone wants to give and be really nice to each other and you see people like sending off shoe boxes with presents in and homeless shelters like having Christmas things, and I think the hope we have when Jesus was born, there is still that hope at Christmas time."}

Becky     ¤

_{Wisdom 1:1 - Love uprightness you who are rulers on earth, be properly disposed towards the Lord and seek Him with simplicity of heart. - "I think it really gets to the heart of Christianity - in order to properly follow Christ, you have to love him and seek him and actually nothing else matters."}

Benedict    ¤

_{"I think Mary is special because she is the mother of Jesus, son of God."}

Brother Benedict Joseph CFR     ¤

_{Proverbs 3: 5 - Trust in the Lord with all your strength and lean not on your own understanding - "Because I want to give my whole heart to the Lord and not lean on my own weak humanity. So give praise to the Lord at all times."}

Benjamin      ¤

^{"I started to get into the life of St John Bosco and he spoke a lot about how he was taught to salute Mary 3 times a day and how his faith was tied to the Eucharist and to Mary. So I started to gain a lot more respect to Mary and started to read into the prayers myself."}

Berenice     ¤

^{"Our children are our gift and if we have an example of how to hand a gift back to God then surely it is Our Lady, who taught us how to relinquish and how to trust."}

Bernadette    ¤

^{"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."}

Bernadette

_{"Our Lady helps me be pure and kind and loving; she's the world's most perfect example."}

Bernadette     ¤

_{Matthew 5: 10-12 - Blessed are you when people persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you on my account; rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven - "This sums up quite a lot of your life because there are loads of times when people do persecute you… and it really reminds you not to take it to heart but just to believe in what you know is true."}

Bethanie 

_{"Mary is a stepping-stone to Jesus."}

Brian     ¤

^{"The words that come into my mind are those of St Thérèse of Lixieux who said "She is queen and mother, but she is more mother than queen." And throughout my life that's what I have always found her to be and always there in the joys and the sorrows and the difficulties and the thanksgivings and someone who is there with us, our mother who loves us."}

Father Bryan    ¤

^{"There's no doubt about it at all that Mary is important for me because she does God's holy will and, when I try to do that too, I find peace, joy and love. So I want to do, as much as possible, with Mary God's holy will."}