Somethings about Mary in October 2013
Many, many thanks to Alessandra, Alessandro, Alice, Anna, Anne, Anthony, Barnie, Caroline, Celia, Chris, David, Father Des, Estefania, Father Fernando, Genevieve, Georgina, Helena, Luis, Mabel, Maile, Maria, Sister Maria Goretti, Sister Mary Hilary, Niall SJ, Paolo, Patricia, Rosario, Salvatore, Sorin, Susan, Timothy & Zachary for giving their 'something' about Mary.
This statue of Our Lady of Fatima is in the Chiesa di San Benedetto in Rome. The original statue of Our Lady of Fatima was brought from Fatima for the day dedicated to Mary in the Year of Faith - 13 October 2013 - when, in St Peter's Square, Pope Francis consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
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1st October - Feast of St Thérèse of the Child Jesus - Genevieve 
"Our Lady in my life is a very special mother ... She’s been helping my family a lot and I know that we are blessed through Our Lady."
Genevieve is from Wellington in New Zealand.
Our Lady's message to Mirjana Soldo, Medjugorje, 2nd October 2013:
"Dear children; I love you with a motherly love and with a motherly patience I wait for your love and unity. I pray that you may be a community of God's children, of my children. I pray that as a community you may joyfully come back to life in the faith and in the love of my Son. My children, I am gathering you as my apostles and am teaching you how to bring others to come to know the love of my Son; how to bring to them the Good News, which is my Son. Give me your open, purified hearts and I will fill them with the love for my Son. His love will give meaning to your life and I will walk with you. I will be with you until the meeting with the Heavenly Father. My children, it is those who walk towards the Heavenly Father with love and faith who will be saved. Do not be afraid. I am with you. Put your trust in your shepherds as my Son trusted when He chose them, and pray that they may have the strength and the love to lead you. Thank you."
2nd October - Feast of our Guardian Angels - Mabel 
"Our Lady is sweet, is our mother, all the day round is our sweet mother and I love her. Amen."
Mabel is from Nigeria.
3rd October - Anthony 
"It is in the Bible that we go to Jesus through Mary. Our Lady never abandoned Jesus. She's a great example really of being there for us. So if we want to go close to Jesus, we can go to Mary. Children usually go to their mothers, and so we go to Mother Mary because she is also our mother as she is our Lord Jesus' mother. We give thanks to Jesus through Mary, and through her most powerful intercession we can get many graces."
Anthony is from the Philippines.
4th October - Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi - Maria 
"For me, Our Lady is our mother. I am so grateful to have Our Lady as our mother because our Lord Jesus said, when he was dying, to John ‘this is your mother' and to his mother 'this is your son'. I receive in the name of John Our Lady as my mother too. So I'm so grateful first of all to our Lord Jesus for giving us his mother. And I come to ask our Lord Jesus any favour by Our Lady. That is what I always do because I know she interceded at the wedding feast at Cana when the wine was finished, I know she will intercede for anyone who comes to her."
Maria is from Angola & gives her response in English & Portuguese.
5th October - Feast of Saint Faustina Kowalska - Chris 
"Mary is protrectress, Mary is intercessor, Mary is mother, Mary is caretaker, Mary is hope for the present age of history, Mary is (as Fulton Sheen talked about) the world's first love, she's the woman that God fell in love with and I'm not sure that anyone can merit a higher title than that. So Mary is unique in my life and I think unique in the life of the world and the life of every human being whether they know it or not. She's everyone's mother, she's Queen of the universe, Queen of the cosmos, the devil's worst enemy and God's greatest ally. And so pray the rosary, turn to Our Lady for help, ask her for all your needs, use the miraculous medal, find out more about devotion to her and love her very much because she loves you more than you can imagine."
Chris is 26 & from the United States of America; he works at the National Shrine of Divine Mercy.
6th October - Sister Mary Hilary 
"The rosary has always been part of my life and I come and pray here every day [in the chapel of Our Lady] either before or after Mass, and ask her to keep me very close to her son. "
Sister Mary Hilary is from Dublin, Ireland.
7th October - Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary - Rosario 
"Mary was the woman who God chose to let God become flesh for his plan of salvation for everyone, so Mary is essential in God's plan for our salvation."
Rosario is from Colombia & gives her response in English & Spanish.
8th October - Patricia 
"Maria gives me her hand every day."
Patricia is from Spain & gives her response in English & Spanish.
9th October - Feast of Blessed John Henry Newman - Barnie 
"Mary was full of grace; she was not full of herself."
Barnie is from Great Britain.
10th October - Sister Maria Goretti 
"The Virgin Mary is my mother because I rely on her."
Sister Maria Goretti is from Burkina Faso and gives her response in English & Bambara.
12th October - Niall 
"When I was about 25, I started praying the rosary and again the rosary introduced me to Scripture and the mystery of what happened 2000 years ago. So when I say that I really trust Mary, in funny way she never really shows up herself, but whenever I do Marian things, like pray the rosary or go to Marian places, like I've been to Lourdes, Fatima, Medjugorje, special things happen and I grow in my love of God, and my trust in God grows and my joy grows, and I'm always just left with this flavour of Mary that she's been around in some way, even though I'm not looking directly at her, her trace is left there and it's a wonderful, motherly trace."
Niall is 31 & from Ireland.
13th October - Marian day in Year of Faith & Consecration of the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary by Pope Francis - Timothy 
"I fell in love with Our Lady at Fatima and the beautiful manifestation of her Immaculate Heart which Cardinal Cerejeira, Patriarch of Lisbon, said was given to the world in order to save it. And that’s what she said at Fatima, that’s why the children saw the vision of hell: not to frighten them but to establish in the world devotion to her Immaculate Heart because God wants to save them from that terrible loss of Himself through that devotion. So this is the centre of the meaning of Fatima. Can you imagine anything more beautiful? It's the Immaculate Heart of Mary alongside the Sacred Heart of her divine Son. When the request came for the consecration of Russia there was a vision of the Holy Trinity. Lucia was in the chapel, she saw the Trinity, she saw Jesus on the Cross, she saw the Precious Blood coming out of his side into a chalice suspended in the air and from his left arm came down the words 'Grace and Mercy' and on the altar Our Lady was standing there displaying her Immaculate Heart. And she said, on 13 June 1929, 'The moment has come when God asks the Holy Father to consecrate the world, Russia, to my Immaculate Heart.'"
Timothy is from Exeter in England.
15th October - Feast of St Teresa of Avila - Anne 
"Mary to me is a life lived without fear, a life totally in the trust and care of God. A yes beyond all yeses, a yes without a second thought, a total trust and faith in the providence and care of God. Forever, throughout the whole world, throughout the whole Church, till the end of time, Mary stands alone: God’s great yes, humanity’s great yes."
Anne is from County Mayo in the west of Ireland.
16th October - Feast of St Margaret Mary Alacoque - Father Des 
"For me, Mary is that place of hospitality where she makes space for another person and in doing so of course she encounters Christ and then not only does she make space but she brings forth the Christ to those that she meets. For me that's a beautiful invitation to us to make space in our lives for those who are really on the edge, for those who no-one else wants, and in doing so we bring forth Christ not only to ourselves but we manifest him to the wider world."
Father Des is a Montfort Missionary from England.
17th October - Feast of St Ignatius of Antioch - Maile 
"I stumbled upon the ceremony today [at St Peter’s Basilica] and I feel very honoured that I was here to witness Mary [Our Lady of Fatima]. It was a gorgeous day, the sun at one point came in and the crown, her jewels, were like shining and beaming light when the sun was coming in over the Basilica and it was gorgeous and I am so happy I was here. A once in a lifetime experience, I'm so grateful."
Maile is 23 & from Hawaii.
18th October - Feast of St Luke, the Evangelist - Zachary 
"We’re here in St Peter’s Square and I feel really blessed that we were brought here. We weren’t necessarily planning on coming but something brought us here and I’m really honoured and feel very blessed to have come. I feel like there was a moment there when Mary was brought in front of us and it was magical, you know, it was a very beautiful moment here in the square. I'll never forget it."
Zachary is 22 & from Hawaii.
19th October - Feast of Ss John de Brebeuf, Isaac Jogues, Noël Chabanel - Susan 
"The thing that struck me from yesterday being here [at the reception of Our Lady of Fatima for the Consecration of the world] was how tiny Our Lady’s statue was in this vast area and the power that something so relatively small had on so many people in such a large environment. There was something in that which was a sense of the antithesis of the world that we see which is big and beautiful and bold, and yet it was small and beautiful and more powerful than anything else that was here."
Susan is from England.
20th October - Father Fernando 
"Our Lady is my mother and I love her.
La Santísima Virgen es mi madre, es nuestra madre."
Padre Fernando is from Chile.
21st October - 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."
Georgina is from Nigeria.
22nd October - Feast of Blessed John Paul II - Caroline 
"I live with Mary a lot and she's in my every day life. I met her when I was in Czestochowa for the World Youth Day in 1991, and then she was all the time with me.
J'aime particulièrement les sanctuaires de Laghet et Notre Dame à la rue du Bac à Paris où il ya la médaille miraculeuse et j'ai toujours une médaille sur moi de Marie."
Caroline is from Luxembourg.
23rd October - Celia 
"I went to Europe, to Rome, to help my people, because I work with children in a village with drug addiction and alcohol. I believe that this trip is very, very good because I meet with Mary, I meet with Jesus and I meet with John Paul II, because the Holy Spirit flies around for some place, and the few with faith is important, because God is the one who makes the miracles. "
Celia is from Argentina.
24th October - Estafania 
"For me, Mary is the person who brings you closer to Jesus, who really does miracles, and who is really the heart of the family who helps the family pray together."
Estafania is 28 & from the US.
25th October - Sorin 
"La Madonna, I trust, I trust."
Sorin is from Romania & gives his something about Mary in English & Romanian.
Our Lady of Medjugorje's message to Marija Pavlović, 25 October 2013:
“Dear children! Today I call you to open yourselves to prayer. Prayer works miracles in you and through you. Therefore, little children, in the simplicity of heart seek of the Most High to give you the strength to be God’s children and for Satan not to shake you like the wind shakes the branches. Little children, decide for God anew and seek only His will – and then you will find joy and peace in Him. Thank you for having responded to my call.”
“Queridos hijos! Hoy los invito a abrirse a la oración. La oración hace milagros en ustedes y a través de ustedes. Por eso, hijitos, en la simplicidad del corazón, pidan al Altísimo que les dé la fuerza de ser hijos de Dios y que satanás no los agite como el viento agita las ramas. Hijitos, decídanse nuevamente por Dios y busquen sólo Su voluntad, y entonces encontrarán en El alegría y paz. Gracias por haber respondido a mi llamado."
"Cari figli! Oggi vi invito ad aprirvi alla preghiera. La preghiera opera miracoli in voi e attraverso di voi. Perciò figlioli, nella semplicità del cuore cercate dall’Altissimo che vi dia la forza di essere figli di Dio e che satana non vi agiti come il vento agita i rami. Decidetevi di nuovo, figlioli, per Dio e cercate soltanto la sua volontà e allora in Lui troverete gioia e pace. Grazie per aver risposto alla mia chiamata.”
26th October - Vigil Celebration of the Family - Salvatore 
"Affidiamo tutti noi alla Madonna che ci aiuti tutti giorni, nelle nostre famiglie. I nostri padri, le nostre madri, i nostri figli e figlie, affidiamo a Lei, Madre di tutti noi."
Salvatore is from Italy & gives his qualcosa su Maria in Italian.
27th October - Year of Faith Day of the Family - Alice 
"For me Mary is a great source of comfort and inspiration, inspiring in her own right but also through other people, such as Mother Teresa and indeed my own mother, both of whom possess very many of the qualities that Mary possesses. I've been lucky enough to have a trip to Rome during which I've felt particularly inspired as Mary is clearly so present, in every street, every church, every area of the city, which has been truly amazing."
Alice is 29 & from England.
28th October - Feast day of Saints Simon & Jude - Alessandro 
"I would like to ask Mary for her blessings for all my family and for all the families of the world.
Voglio chiedere la benedizione di Maria per la mia famiglia, per tutte le famiglie del mondo."
Alessandro is from Italy.
29th October - Paolo & Alessandra 
"..."
Paolo & Alessandra are from Brazil & give their response in Portuguese. They are married & in the movement Equipes de Maria.
30th October - Helena 
"We are very happy to make part of the Equipes of Nostra Senhora because it helps us very much in our walking in holiness. Our Lady helps us every day and we are very happy because of that."
Helena is from Brazil.
31st October - Anna 
"Maria è la nostra Mamma celeste che sempre ci ama e ci custodice per tutta la vita."
Anna is from Rome.