TOTUS TUUS - "MARY, I AM TOTALLY YOURS."
The motto of Pope John Paul II contains within it the theology of the Entrustment of the Third Millennium. "Mary I am totally yours! You, who are the Mother of Jesus and our Mother, form us into images of your Divine Son." As we begin the Third Millennium of the Christian era our world desperately needs this entrustment, an act which begs the grace to reform and renew human hearts. Only in this way can the Third Millennium become a Civilization of Love, rather than a culture of death.

The Entrustment of the Third Millennium will take place within the context of the pilgrimage of the Catholic Bishops to Rome for their Jubilee Day. At 10:00 a.m. (4:00 a.m. Eastern) on Sunday 8 October in St. Peter's Square, the assembled bishops will concelebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass with Pope John Paul II. After Holy Communion, the Pontiff will go before the image of the Virgin of Fátima and make the act of Entrustment.

ACT OF ENTRUSTMENT TO MARY MOST HOLY
1. "Woman, behold your son!" (Jn 19:26). As we near the end of this Jubilee Year, | when you, O Mother, have offered us Jesus anew, | the blessed fruit of your womb most pure, | the Word made flesh, the world's Redeemer, | we hear more clearly the sweet echo of his words | entrusting us to you, making you our Mother: |
"Woman, behold your son!"
When he entrusted to you the Apostle John, | and with him the children of the Church | and all people, | Christ did not diminish but affirmed anew | the role which is his alone as the Savior of the world.
You are the splendor which in no way dims the light of Christ, for you exist in him and through him.
Everything in you is fiat: | you are the Immaculate One, | through you there shines the fullness of grace.
Here, then, are your children gathered before you | at the dawn of the new millennium.
The Church today, through the voice of the | Successor of Peter, | in union with so many Pastors assembled here | from every corner of the world, | seeks refuge in your motherly protection | and trustingly begs your intercession | as she faces the challenges | which lie hidden in the future.

2. In this year of grace, countless people have known | the overflowing joy of the mercy | which the Father has given us in Christ.
In the particular Churches throughout the world, | and still more in this centre of Christianity, | the widest array of people have accepted this gift.
Here the enthusiasm of the young rang out, | here the sick have lifted up their prayer.
Here have gathered priests and religious, | artists and journalists, | workers and people of learning, | children and adults, | and all have acknowledged in your beloved Son | the Word of God made flesh in your womb.
O Mother, intercede for us, | that the fruits of this Year will not be lost | and that the seeds of grace will grow | to the full measure of the holiness | to which we are all called.

3. Today we wish to entrust to you | the future that awaits us, | and we ask you to be with us on our way.
We are the men and women | of an extraordinary time, | exhilarating yet full of contradictions.
Humanity now has instruments | of unprecedented power: | we can turn this world into a garden, | or reduce it to a pile of rubble.
We have devised the astounding capacity | to intervene in the very wellsprings of life: |
man can use this power for good, | within the bounds of the moral law, | or he can succumb to the short-sighted pride | of a science which accepts no limits, | but tramples on the respect due | to every human being.
Today as never before in the past, | humanity stands at a crossroads.
And once again, O Virgin Most Holy, | salvation lies fully and uniquely in Jesus, your Son.

4. Therefore, O Mother. like the Apostle John, | we wish to take you into our home (cf. Jn 19:27), | that we may learn from you to become like your Son.
"Woman. behold your son!" | Here we stand before you | to entrust to your maternal care | ourselves, the Church, the entire world.
Plead for us with your beloved Son | that he may give us in abundance the Holy Spirit, | the Spirit of truth which is the fountain of life.
Receive the Spirit for us and with us, | as happened in the first community | gathered round you in Jerusalem | on the day of Pentecost (cf. Acts 1:14).
May the Spirit open our hearts to justice and love, | and guide people and nations | to mutual understanding and a firm desire for peace.
We entrust to you all people, | beginning with the weakest: | the babies yet unborn, | and those born into poverty and suffering, | the young in search of meaning, | the unemployed, | and those suffering hunger and disease.
We entrust to you all troubled families, | the elderly with no one to help them, | and all who are alone and without hope.

5. O Mother, you know the sufferings | and hopes of the Church and the world: |
come to the aid of your children in the daily trials | which life brings to each one, | and grant that, thanks to the efforts of all, | the darkness will not prevail over the light.
To you, Dawn of Salvation, we commit | our journey through the new Millennium, | so that with you as guide | all people may know Christ, | the light of the world and its only Savior, | who reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit | for ever and ever. Amen.

ABOUT MARY OUR BLESSED MOTHER
"The Mary that we know as Catholics," is the Mother of God, because She is the Mother of Jesus the Son of God who is One with the Father, and who is also man and God. We are very fond of Our Lady because She is our refuge and our help. She was given to us at the foot of the cross to be our Mother, when Our Lord said to John: "Behold your Mother." This humble woman who marked the transition between the Old Testament and the New Testament, when She gave her fiat to the Lord is Our Mother. "Let it be done to me according to your Word" she said to the angel Gabriel, teaching us to do the Will of God.

We call Mary "Our Lady," a title that next to "Our Lord" means a great deal of respect, and She deserves all the honors that can be given, because She is the Mother of Our Savior, the cause of our Joy and because She is our Heavenly Mother. According to the Protoevangelium of James, a first century manuscript describing the early events in the life of Jesus of Nazareth, Mary was pledged to service in the Jewish Temple at Jerusalem in fulfillment of a pledge made by her parents to an angel who visited them prior to her conception. She went into service at the Temple at the age of three and served there for ten years. She took a vow of life-long chastity while in Temple service. At the age of thirteen, she was sent home by the Temple priests to be betrothed to Joseph, a Nazarean carpenter. The Blessed Virgin Mary conceived Jesus by the Power of the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:26-35). She remained a virgin after the birth of Jesus, because this is the unique dignity of Mary for being the Mother of God.

She was involved in the life of Jesus throughout His ministry. She cared for Him as an infant (Matt 1:18-2:23); she looked for Him in the Temple when she thought He was lost (Luke 2:41-49); she cared for Him through adolescence (Luke 2:51-52); she interceded with Him at the wedding at Cana (John 2:2-5); she worried about Him as He began His ministry (Matt 13:46); she was at His cross when He was crucified (John 19:25-26); and she prayed with the other followers of Jesus after His ascension (Acts 1:14).

Mary’s role at Cana illustrates the importance in which she is held by her Son. Mary, God’s humble servant, noticed that the wedding no longer had any wine and brought this to the attention of her Son. He responded to her admonition, "They have no wine." (John 2:3) by willingly doing something miraculous. Her last recorded words in the Bible, "Do whatever he tells you." (John 2:5) signify her full expectation that her Son would do the miraculous by causing nature to bend to His will. She was and is full of faith in Him; she was His first disciple. It is during Mary’s presence at the Cross that her future role in the development of Christianity is unveiled. "When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved, he said to his mother, ‘Woman, behold your son.’ Then he said to the disciple, ‘Behold, your mother.’"(John 19:26). The use of the word 'woman' in this context is unusual. Jesus, like any loving Jewish son of His time, would address His mother with more affection than the use of 'woman' seems to indicate. However, Jesus is quoted at the crucifixion and at the wedding at Cana as referring to His mother as 'woman'. This is likely a reference to the Genesis description of the savior, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel" (Gen 3:15). In this statement, God promises humanity salvation through the woman of Genesis; her offspring will crush the head of the serpent. This is Jesus’ way of reminding all that He is the salvation promised by His Father. He reminds us that God always keeps His covenant. By giving His mother to the disciple at the Cross, she becomes the Mother of all Jesus’ followers and the Mother to His Church. It is in this role that she has occasionally appeared to the pious throughout history.

MARY AS TYPE OF THE CHURCH
Her privileged office as Mother of God unites the Blessed Virgin with the redeemer Son, and together with her singular graces and gifts unites her also in an intimate way with the Church. The Mother of God is a type of the Church, as Saint Ambrose taught, in the order, that is, of faith, love and perfect union with Christ.
In the mystery of the Church, which is itself rightly called mother and virgin, the Blessed Virgin Mary played a leading role, providing an example as virgin and mother m an eminent and unique way. In faith and obedience she brought forth on earth the very Son of the Father: She who knew not man was overshadowed by the Holy Spirit. As a new Eve she believed, not the serpent of old but the messenger of God, with a faith wholly free from doubt. She gave birth to the Son, appointed by God to be the firstborn among many brothers, tat is, among those who believe; with a mother’s love she cooperates in their birth and development.
The Church contemplates the depth of her holiness, imitates her charity and in fidelity brings to completion the Father’s will; she herself becomes a mother through the word of God received in faith. Through preaching and by baptism she brings forth to new and everlasting life children conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of God. She is herself a virgin, preserving with integrity and purity the faith she has reposed in her Spouse. She imitates the mother of her Lord, and by the power of the Holy Spirit treasures with virginal purity faith in all its fullness, hope in all its certainty, love in all its sincerity.
In the person of the Blessed Virgin the Church already possesses the perfection by which it stands without spot or wrinkle; but the faithful still strive to grow in holiness as they conquer sin. So they lift up their eyes to Mary, shining above the whole community of God’s elect as the pat-tern of virtue. As the Church lovingly reflects on her and contemplates her in the light of the Word made man, it reverently enters more deeply into the surpassing mystery of the incarnation and takes on more and more the likeness of its Spouse.
Mary, because she has entered intimately into the history of salvation, in a certain sense gathers up in her own person the great truths of the faith and awakens their resonance when she is the object of preaching and veneration; she summons the faithful to her Son, to his sacrifice and to the Father’s love. In seeking to further the glory of Christ, the Church becomes more and more like Mary, its exalted type, as it continues its progress in faith, hope and charity, seeking and fulfilling the divine will in all things.
So also in its apostolic task the Church rightly looks to the one who bore Christ, Christ who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin in order that he might also be born and grow in the hearts of the faithful. In her whole life this virgin mother showed herself as an example of that motherly love that must animate all who share in the apostolic mission of the Church for the re-generation of mankind.
(From the dogmatic constitution on the Church of the Second Vatican Council)

O VIRGIN, BY WHOSE BLESSING ALL NATURE IS BLESSED!
Blessed Lady, sky and stars, earth and rivers, day and night - everything that is subject to the power or use of man - rejoice that through you they are in some sense restored to their lost beauty and are endowed with inexpressible new grace. All creatures were dead, as it were, useless for men or for the praise of God, who made them. The world, contrary to its true destiny, was corrupted and tainted by the acts of men who served idols. Now all creation has been restored to life and rejoices that it is controlled and given splendour by men who believe in God.
The universe rejoices with new and indefinable loveliness. Not only does it feel the unseen presence of God himself, its Creator, it sees him openly, working and making it holy. These great blessings spring from the blessed fruit of Mary's womb.
Through the fullness of the grace that was given you, dead things rejoice in their freedom, and those in heaven are glad to be made new. Through the Son who was the glorious fruit of your virgin womb, just souls who died before his life-giving death rejoice as they are freed from captivity, and the angels are glad at the restoration of their shattered domain.
Lady, full and overflowing with grace, all creation receives new life from your abundance. Virgin, blessed above all creatures, through your blessing all creation is blessed, not only creation from its Creator, but the Creator himself has been blessed by creation.
To Mary God gave his only-begotten Son, whom he loved as himself. Through Mary God made himself a Son, not different but the same, by nature Son of God and Son of Mary. The whole universe was created by God, and God was born of Mary. God created all things, and Mary gave birth to God. The God who made all things gave himself form through Mary, and thus he made his own creation. He who could create all things from nothing would not remake his ruined creation without Mary.
God, then, is the Father of the created world and Mary the mother of the re-created world. God is the Father by whom all things were given life, and Mary the mother through whom all things were given new life. For God begot the Son, through whom all things were made, and Mary gave birth to him as the Saviour of the world. Without God's Son, nothing could exist; without Mary's Son, nothing could be redeemed.
Truly the Lord is with you, to whom the Lord granted that all nature should owe as much to you as to himself. (A sermon by St Anselm)

MARY, MOTHER OF CHRIST AND MOTHER OF CHRISTIANS
Mary bore only one Son. In heaven, he is the only-be-gotten of the Father; on earth, likewise, he is the only-begotten of his mother. She is the only virgin mother and glories in having borne the only-begotten of the Father, embracing that same only-begotten of hers in all his members. Therefore, she is not confused when she is called the mother of all in whom she recognizes her Christ brought to full stature, or in whom she knows he is continually growing.
The first Eve is not so much a mother as a stepmother, since she handed on to her children an inheritance of certain death rather than the beginning of light. She is indeed called the mother of all the living, but she is more truly the destroyer of the living or the mother of the dead, since the only fruit of her child-bearing was death. And as Eve was incapable of fulfilling the vocation of her title, Mary consummated the mystery. She herself, like the Church of which she is the type, is a mother of all who are reborn to life. She is in fact the mother of the life by which everyone lives, and when she brought it forth from herself she in some way brought to rebirth all those who were to live by that life.
Thus the Blessed Mother of Christ, knowing that she is the mother of all Christians by reason of this mystery, shows herself a mother also by her care and loving attention. For her heart is not hardened against these children as if they were not her own; her womb carried a child only once, yet it remains ever fruitful, never ceasing to bring forth the fruits of her motherly compassion.
If the servant of Christ by his care and heartfelt tenderness gives birth to his little children again and again until Christ be formed in them, how much more is this true of the very mother of Christ? Paul begot his children by preaching the word of truth through which they were born again; but Mary, in a manner far more holy and godlike, begot them by giving birth to the Word himself. I do indeed praise the ministry of preaching in Paul, but far more do I admire and venerate the mystery of generation in Mary.
Then again, is it not true that her children seem to recognize her as their mother? They manifest a kind of instinctive devotion which faith gives them as second nature, so that first and foremost in all their needs and dangers they run to call upon her name just as children run to their mother’s breast. So I think it is quite reasonable to understand of these children the promise of the prophet to her: Your children shall live in you, provided that the prophecy is always understood to refer principally to the Church.
Actually we already dwell in the help of the mother of the Most High; we do live in her protection, as if under the shadow of her wings. And afterward by participating in her glory we shall be cherished as if we were in her bosom.
Then a single cry of rejoicing and thanksgiving will be heard addressed to this mother: The dwelling place of all of us who rejoice and are glad is in you, holy Mother of God.
From a sermon by blessed Guerric of Igny, abbot (Sermo I, in Assumptione beatae Mariae: PL. 185, 187-189)
Mary has conceived a child by the Holy Spirit; she will give birth to a son. He will save his people from their sins.
His glory will reach to the ends of the earth; he will be peace. He will save . . .

MARY AND THE CHURCH
The Son of God is the first-born of many brothers. Although by nature he is the only- begotten, by grace he has joined many to himself and made them one with him. For to those who receive him he has given the power to become the sons of God.
He became the Son of man and made many men sons of God, uniting them to himself by his love and power, so that they became as one. In themselves they are many by reason of their human descent, but in him they are one by divine rebirth.
The whole Christ and the unique Christ - the body and the head - are one: one because born of the same God in heaven, and of the same mother on earth. They are many sons, yet one son. Head and members are one son, yet, many sons; in the same way, Mary and the Church are one mother, yet more than one mother; one virgin, yet more than one virgin.
Both are mothers, both are virgins. Each conceives of the same Spirit, without concupiscence. Each gives birth to a child of God the Father, without sin. Without any sin, Mary gave birth to Christ the head for the sake of his body. By the forgiveness of every sin, the Church gave birth to the body, for the sake of its head. Each is Christ's mother, but neither gives birth to the whole Christ without the cooperation of the other.
In the inspired Scriptures, what is said in a universal sense of the virgin mother, the Church, is understood in an individual sense of the Virgin Mary, and what is said in a particular sense of the virgin mother Mary is rightly understood in a general sense of the virgin mother, the Church. When either is spoken of, the meaning can be understood of both, almost without qualification.
In a way, every Christian is also believed to be a bride of God's Word, a mother of Christ, his daughter and sister, at once virginal and fruitful. These words are used in a universal sense of the Church, in a special sense of Mary, in a particular sense of the individual Christian. They are used by God's Wisdom in person, the Word of the Father. This is why Scripture says: I will dwell in the inheritance of the Lord. The Lord's inheritance is, in a general sense, the Church; in a special sense, Mary; in an individual sense, the Christian.
Christ dwelt for nine months in the tabernacle of Mary's womb. He dwells until the end of the ages in the tabernacle of the Church's faith. He will dwell for ever in the knowledge and love of each faithful soul.
(A sermon by Blessed Isaac, Abbot of Stella)

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