TOP CHAT

Tricia Bolle chats to Ruth about her vocation as a missionary in Asia and the work of St Francis Xavier Missionary Society: "If God wants something to happen, he just needs his people to step up to do it and He will work through you. You shouldn’t be daunted by the fact that you don’t know the Bible well or the Catechism well or whatever you feel called to teach that you’ve never done before. Trust in God. If He’s calling you to this, He will give you what you need to do and the Holy Spirit will work through you and make it happen. So have faith in God because God has faith in you.” Music by Mike Mangione. Visit Totus2us.com for much more - dedicated to Our Lady, it has been inspired by our holy Papas - St John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Pope Francis.

Father Peter Walters chats to Ruth about his apostolate in Colombia with street-children and the charity Let the Children Live: "The story really starts back in 1982 when I was a student and I was interested in South America and I saw a cut price deal on an air fare to Colombia and I thought 'Great. I'll go there." And I went over there on holiday and that was when things started to happen. I got stuck over there because I had a problem with my ticket and I couldn't come back when I wanted to. I could only afford to eat once every two days and one day when I wasn't eating I bumped into a group of children who were begging in the street. Once they realised that I hadn't got any money when they asked me for money and that I was hungrier than they were, they decided to adopt me and they shared their food with me and looked after me. Their kindness, their humanity, moved me enormously. ... For me the encounter with the children was actually a very spiritual thing because I felt that somehow through them God was reaching out to look out for me where I was thousands of miles away from home. I'd got myself into a silly mess, it was all my own fault, and yet I wasn't alone, and yet God was caring for me through these children. And it made me think 'Why wasn't anyone doing anything to help these children?'" Music by Mike Mangione. Visit Totus2us.com for much more - dedicated to Our Lady, it has been inspired by our holy Papas - St John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Pope Francis.

Emily, from England: "So when you're at university, university is not really a place that accepts a prolife viewpoint, because they're seen as these incredibly 'liberal' - and by liberal they mean like left wing and pro-abortion - places. And so if you're a pro-life student, you can feel quite isolated and if you want to go into any kind of student politics, you find yourself alienated very quickly and ostracised. So the idea of the Alliance of Pro-Life Students was to be like an umbrella organisation so that any pro-life student society can go to the APS for help, can find out what their legal rights are, can get in touch with other students across the country. So it's basically getting students in contact with one another, making sure they know their rights, making sure they know they're not alone and making sure they have the tools and the training that they need to be effective pro-life advocates on campuses today." Music by Mike Mangione. Visit Totus2us.com for much more - dedicated to Our Lady, it has been inspired by our holy Papas - St John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Pope Francis.

Jesuit Father Dominic Robinson chats to Ruth about his trip to Northern Iraq with Aid to the Church in Need, the genocide there and the hope of the people: "They cannot stay in the refugee camps in Erbil forever. They want to go back to Mosul, to Qaraqosh, to the little villages in the Nineveh plains where in August 2014 they were driven out. What we encountered there, with these people, with the clergy, with the government officials who we met as well in the Kurdistan regional government, was above all hope. And this always is a surprise .. When you actually meet people who in the most terrible situations in which they've been separated from their families, from their careers, children's education has been disrupted ... and you hear people say 'We want to stay here. This is our homeland. Christianity has been here since the time of St Thomas and it's our country and we want to go back to our homes and practice our Catholic faith or our Orthodox faith or the religious minorities in the coutnry, Yasidis, Turkmen, these other groups, 'We want to practice our faith in freedom', then it affects you. You realise that this is something that you've got to take back. That there is something deep within these people in the most tragic of circumstances which is driving them on. So that was what the trip was really about. .... The sooner that we can have the international community be clear that what has happened, especially since 2014 but which has been building up since Saddam Hussein fell in 2003, to be clear that this is a genocide, it is on religious grounds, then the sooner we can start rebuilding." Music by Mike Mangione. Visit Totus2us.com for much more - dedicated to Our Lady, it has been inspired by our holy Papas - St John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Pope Francis.

Kris Sladewski chats to Ruth about his St Francis's Tour pilgrim bike ride, from Palermo (in Sicily) to Rome and Assisi, then over the Alps and back to Southampton, in memory of Debbie Rooke and raising money for the wonderful charity Mary's Meals: "When I went to the shops people would start talking about my beard, then they were intrigued where I was going because seeing someone with my beard was unusual, they would see my bicycle, my dirty clothes (because I had only 2 pairs of trousers for 5 weeks) ... People in the shops, I would pick up items I needed and then I would start conversation with the shop clerk and they would give me food for free. People on the street or on the camping site would approach me and just ask me where I was going and they would just give me money. I set off without any intentions of collecting money on the way and came back with almost 100 euros in donations, which was really amazing." Music by Mike Mangione. Visit Totus2us.com for much more - dedicated to Our Lady, it has been inspired by our holy Papas - St John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Pope Francis.

Dr Theresa Burke (psychologist) chats to Ruth about her work with Rachel's Vineyard and From Grief to Grace, and their treatment models for trauma: "It's a wonderful process that removes the barriers and lifts the veil of all the lies and restores truth to who we are before God and restores the truth of our love for our children, for ourselves even. Because people who've been abused and hurt so badly end up hating themselves and then they end up in very self-destructive, self-punishment cycles, and all this is just not what God wants for us. He wants us to live. He came that we might have life and have it to the full. I think a lot of people learn to just tolerate how it is, they learn to live with it, 'Alright, this isn't what I wanted for my life but I can kind of get by.' And they settle. And the Lord doesn't want us to settle, He wants us to seek. So all theses opportunities for healing, even if you think 'Oh, I've learned to live with this abortion' or 'My abuse sucked but I can carry on'. That's not what He wants, He wants us to be better than we were before the injury. Can you imagine that? Better than we were before that happened! And that is what healing does - not only does it strengthen you in the places of weaknesses but then you can use all that horror to help others. Which is why this program has spread all over the world, because it has been spread by people whose lives have been changed. It hasn't been spread by the top-down authorities, it's the grass roots in the trenches, those who are suffering, who have so much to teach us and who in their humility and in their brokenness really reveal the power of God. That's the blessing and that's the grace." Music by Mike Mangione. Visit Totus2us.com for much more - dedicated to Our Lady, it has been inspired by our holy Papas - Blessed John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Pope Francis.

Stephen B Whatley, chats to Erin about his work as an artist and his most recent exhibition in Westminster Cathedral: "Even many, many years ago, at the beginning of this evolvement of my work into much more expressive work, I would stand back from those early paintings and think, even though I was in pain and was depressed a lot of the time, my work is not reflecting that. And now I realise what it is reflecting is that, even though it was a terrible tragedy, it didn't block the love that's in my heart. So I think that my work comes predominantly from prayer but it comes from the love in my heart, the colours, and, I mean, humbly I think they must as well have come from God because I literally, as I say, feel rendered hopeless and helpless at the beginning, and depend on God for direction. So, yes, I think ultimately love is the thing, the great thing." Music by Mike Mangione. Visit Totus2us.com for much more - dedicated to Our Lady, it has been inspired by our holy Papas - Blessed John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Pope Francis.

Collette, from England: "Nightfever started in 2005 with World Youth Day in Cologne. It was a response to the Holy Father’s visit and it has since spread across cities across all of Europe. It came to England last year, firstly to London and we brought it to Birmingham. It was Frankie Mulgrew who encouraged me to go and talk to my parish priest and get it running. It's a very simple concept. So, on a Saturday evening we go into a busy church, maybe by a high street or where there are a lot of nightclubs and pubs, a priest will expose the Blessed Sacrament for us, the church is lit by candles, there's gentle music in the background, there'll be priests available for confession, and then we send the young people out into the streets with a candle simply to ask people to come into the church and light a candle. And then we let Jesus, present in the Blessed Sacrament, do the rest of the work." Visit Totus2us.com for much more - dedicated to Our Lady, it has been inspired by our holy Papas - Blessed John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Pope Francis.

Norman Servais from South Africa chats to Ruth about his background as a film maker and his present project working on Awestruck Global, a new Catholic hub / network / space, which has loads of potential with it's RSS streaming. Visit Totus2us.com for much more. Totus Tuus - All Yours - was the motto of Blessed Pope John Paul II to Mary. Our Lady is also everything to us - Totus2us.

This 'chat' was not originally intended to be heard other than by Erin-Thérèse (from the Totus2us team) to help with the article she was writing about Totus2us. She pulled the trick of an article out of her hat with such charm and aplomb (and a determination that wasn't to be dodged) that Ruth (also from the Totus2us team) couldn't fail but cave in! Once recorded (over skype with a deep-breathing computer), Erin and her darling husband and mother then gave the shpeel that others might like to hear something about the story of Totus2us. So here it is, in great thanksgiving for 1000 somethings about Mary and 3 years of Totus2us. Happy Birthday, beloved Mother Mary, and THANK YOU for being Totus 2 us. Totus Tuus! Visit Totus2us.com for much more. Totus Tuus - All Yours - was the motto of Blessed Pope John Paul II to Mary. Our Lady is also everything to us - Totus2us.