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AUSTRALIA

Our Lady Help of Christians has been the patron saint of Australia since 1844. St Mary of the Cross MacKillop was officially named a second patron in 2013. For many years St Francis Xavier & St Therese of Lisieux were also patrons of Australia but their patronage was removed when Australia ceased to be a mission country in 1976.

Three Popes have been pilgrims to Australia:
St Paul VI in 1970;
St John Paul II in 1986 and 1995;
and Benedict XVI in 2008 for World Youth Day Sydney.

Here below are responses to Totus2us podcasts given by Australians
- many thanks to you all   ♥

To download the free mp3 Totus2us audio recordings, right /double click on the light blue play buttons.

Albert      

"Mary is God’s greatest gift to me. Without her I wouldn’t have Christ, without her I wouldn't know Jesus the way I know him. All that He has given to me He gives to me through her. She is one of the first people I speak to in the morning, she's the last person I speak to before I go to bed. She's in a word my Mum and I love her."

Ashley      

"At World Youth Day Mary showed me to the Catholic Church and she is the reason I became a Catholic."

Bernadette      

"I really thank God for that and pray that Mary can be a more visible presence in my life."

Bianca & Jared      

Bianca - "We have a huge dedication to Our Lady - we’re both consecrated to Jesus through Mary (St Louis de Montfort). And having a big love for her, she has taught me how to love Jesus and how to be a good woman, a good wife, and someone who leads me the way to Jesus. And I always pray to her to teach me how to love her Son even more."
Jared - "For me, Our Lady is my mother and she helps me to live purity and helps me to live simplicity. She's always there for me when I need her, and she shows me how to live in love with her Son and she keeps me close in times of difficulty."

Bianca & Jared gave their somethings about Mary while on honeymoon in Rome. This is the beautiful prayer on the back of their wedding card:
Most merciful Father, as we remember today the union of Bianca & Jared Yee in Holy Matrimony, we humbly ask that you protect & guide them through the joys & challenges of their marriage. We ask that you grant them joy, peace, understanding & many gifts of the Holy Spirit as they travel along this sacred path toward their heavenly home. Safeguard their bodies and souls, that they may be ever united as they were on their wedding day. Help them to love freely, completely & selflessly as you have loved them.
Bless them with the gift of children that their love may be fruitful & life-giving & that they may build the kingdom of God on earth. Protect their virtue and bind their family together by your grace & love that they may be ever faithful to you & to each other. Through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary & all the saints, guide & protect them all the days of their lives. Amen.

Father Christian      

"The one constant was that prayer of the rosary and my love and devotion of Our Lady, and also of the Mass too. It was in and through that prayer that I began to hear the Lord's call, it was a delicate tug at one's heart's strings, I guess you could describe it as, and an attraction towards the priestly life, which made me eventually leave the legal practice. I worked as a lawyer for a couple of years but it wasn't what I was meant to do, I felt this attraction and a call to the priestly life. So that was what I began to do and it was with the help of a good priest from my archdiocese, the vocations director, who helped me to discern more clearly what the Lord was asking me to do and, as part of that process of discernment, I went to Calcutta to work with Mother Teresa's sisters and it was there that I saw for the first time very clearly what the Lord was asking me to do."

Father Christian Irdi is a priest of the archdiocese of Perth

Diana       

"Mary to me is not only the Mother of the Church, she is a model for imitation, particularly around the gifts and the fruits of Our Lord. When it comes to humility and grace to offering ourselves up wholly to the Lord, she's someone I seek to imitate, as well as a mother to seek counsel in."

Elaine      

Elaine was first introduced to John Paul II when a friend recommended she read his Letter to Women, which deeply impressed her. Then another friend recommended she read his Theology of the Body. She remembers thinking 'Wow. I can't believe it. I've found the meaning to life. This is just incredible.' She just knew it was the truth and wished she'd known about it growing up. One of the many great lessons she learnt from reading lots about John Paul II was his compassion and dignity for all human life. Her JPII quote is -

"True compassion leads to sharing another's pain.  It does not kill the person whose suffering we cannot bear."

Brother Felice CFR      

Brother Felice, a Franciscan Friar of Renewal, chose John 15 for his Word on the Street - Abide in me and I in you.

"For the reason that it's a call to be united with Jesus; that he comes to live in our hearts, that Christ lives in our souls and He asks us to come and live in him."

Florencia      

"For me Mary is mostly a mother with everything that that means, looking after me."

Florencia gives her something about Maria in English and Spanish (she was born in Argentina).

Father Greg      

"One night I decided I would go and kneel down right in front of the Blessed Sacrament and I simply asked God if He wanted me to be a priest, but without holding anything back for myself for the first time, I just wanted to listen. And at that moment I had a very special experience. It's not for want of saying that Our Lord appeared to me or Our Lady appeared to me in a vision and said I was going to be a priest. It was in some respects even more supernatural because it felt as if for a few moments God focused his attention on me and I'd never felt more loved, never felt more certain about my Catholic faith and, for whatever reason, I'd never felt more certain that God created me to be a priest."

Father Greg Morgan is a priest of the archdiocese of Sydney, currently (2017) in his fourth year of studies in England.

Joanne       

"Whenever I'm in trouble I pray to Mary, and she comes and helps me straight away. I've heard one saint say that she anticipates your problems and your needs before you even do and she's always there, and that's been my own experience with her."

Joanne was a pilgrim to Chapel of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal in Paris      

"While I was there I prayed several rosaries, attended several Masses, and at the end of the day I really felt like a new person, completely spiritually refreshed and renewed, all my problems were put into perspective and I just made a resolution that I should once a month put some time aside to do a little pilgrimage, even if it’s just to my local church."

Karla      

"Mary is my mother. I know that she's always there."

Kevin      

"There’s real truth in this saying that if everyone went to confession there’d be hardly any need for psychologists any more because I really find that not only do I find that I’m spiritually cleansed but this process of examining my conscience helps me to see what is true in my life and what is false, and where I am living according to what is good, even according to the standards of the world. Basic things like, Am I living well in my relationships with other people? Am I being honest in my dealings with people? Am I working as I should? Am I examining my daily life for where I can be better? These things are very human things, not just Catholic things. So for me the Sacrament of Confession is not just a source of grace and spiritual nourishment but it's a real way to live my life in truth. Praise the Lord."

Louisa      

"I love Mary dearly. For me she is the perfect woman. I remember reading somewhere that she was the most beautiful woman who ever lived and I think it was more about the contents of her heart and her yes for the Lord that made that beauty so strong - that's what I see in her. I see her as the perfect example for every woman, for every mother, but most especially for someone who wants to faithfully follow Jesus and say yes every day to the Lord. "

Mairin      

"Mary is there to bring us to Jesus, in a relationship with him, and to help us to lead a better life, with a motherly touch."

Margaret       

"For me, Our Lady is the person who is there to go to whenever you have a problem. She is just a great resource and a great comfort and you feel when you go to her you'll get an answer, you'll get some kind of response from her, so it's never in vain that you go to her and tell her your problems."

Mary      

"I have a particular devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe .. the story of Guadalupe is a story of hope and it's always something I like to remember when I have worries or concerns; it's also a particularly beautiful image of Our Lady."

Sister Maureen      

"Mary is very important to me. I was dedicated to her even from a baby and from my First Communion I was taught to say 3 Hail Mary's in honour of Our Lady's purity, which I did all through my teens, every night."

Maureen      

"Mary is secure, secure prayer."

Sister Melissa-Ann      

"Mary to me is my mother who I keep dear to my heart."

Olivia      

"For me Mary is just so incredibly beautiful because of her absolute strength in letting God enter into her and her ultimate submission to Him."

Patricia Mary       

"I just am so grateful for her mercy, because she never said 'You can't come' or 'I haven't time' or 'You really haven't behaved properly'. It's not like that at all. And we have that longing, we have that longing for God, and we have a hole and it needs filling, and God is the only one that can fill that, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. And we are blessed that we have the Mother that they gave to us, and she is, she is everything and she does lead us to Jesus. She's like our little guide. Thank you Mary, thank you Mother. Ave Maria!"

Patricia is English but has spent the last 28 years in Australia.

Patrick      

"To me Mary is obviously the Mother of Jesus and our mother, and probably the best person to go to when you want to get closer to Jesus. Her intercession is very powerful and she'll always lead you back on the right path."

Peter      

"When I pray I always say three Hail Marys and one Our Father."

Raul      

"Mother Mary to us is like our mother. My mother has passed away so I know that she is gone to a good life but my mother now is Mama Mary."

Sister Rita      

"As I grew older I really fell in love with the Lord but Mary was always there as a mother."

Rochelle      

"I am very grateful for the guidance that the Holy Family and God have given me and my family."

Stephen      

"Mary for me is like my other mother in heaven, who watches over us and she watches over also those that I love and keeps us close to her heart."

Vicky      

"Mother Mary is very special to me."

Victoria      

"What I like most about Pope St John Paul II is his smile, for one, his smile and his personable face - he’s a good person and there’s a lot of reassurance in that face. And you can see, over the decades, the pictures of him with all sorts of people - they’re looking at him and he’s looking at them, and he’s really got that look of love and that look of generosity of time."

If you'd be up for giving your something about Mary,
please do get in touch with the Totus2us team

- as well as hopefully bringing you joy,
you'd be really helping Totus2us   ♥

St John Paul II took his motto Totus Tuus from this quote:

'Totus tuus ego sum et omnia mea tua sunt.
Accipio te in mea omnia. Praebe mihi cor tuum, Maria.'

'I am totally yours and all that I have is yours.
I accept you for my all. O Mary, give me your heart.' - St Louis de Montfort