Totus Tuus Introduction
Totus tuus ego sum et omnia mea tua sunt.
I am all yours and all that I have is yours.
The Latin motto “Totus tuus” or “Totally yours” generally can be considered in relation to Mary. At the same time though, if one consults the source of this motto, True Devotion to Mary, de Montfort considers “I am yours” in relation to both Jesus and Mary, while simultaneously stressing “To Jesus through Mary.” While they could be considered distinct concepts, Mary does not keep anything for herself but gives it all to her Son. If you give everything to Mary, she will give it to Jesus. Thus True Devotion to Mary is a worthy and perfect devotion to Christ.
Fr. de Monfort's exploration of this concept can be reviewed in the following readings from True Devotion to Mary.
#179 Oh, how happy is the man who has given everything to Mary, and has entrusted himself to Mary, and lost himself in her, in everything and for everything! He belongs all to Mary, and Mary belongs all to him. He can say boldly with David: "Mary is made for me" (Cf. Ps. 118:56); or with the beloved disciple: "I have taken her for my own (John 19:27): or with Jesus Christ: "All that I have is thine, and all that thou hast is Mine." (John, 17:10).
# 216 Our Blessed Lady will fill you with great confidence in God and in herself: (1) because you will not be approaching Jesus by yourself, but always by that good Mother; (2) because, as you have given her all your merits, graces and satisfactions to dispose of at her will, she will communicate to you by her virtues and will clothe you in her merits, so that you will be able to say to God with confidence: “Behold Mary Thy handmaid: be it done unto me according to Thy word” (Luke 1:38); (3) because as you have given yourself entirely to her, body and soul, she, who is liberal with the liberal, and more liberal even than the liberal, will in return give herself to you in a marvelous but real manner, so that you may say to her with assurance: “I am thine, holy Virgin; save me” (Cf. Ps. 118:94); or as I have said before, with the beloved disciple: “I have taken thee, holy Mother, for my own.” You may also say with St. Bonaventure: “My loving and redeeming Mistress, I will have confidence and will not fear, because you are my strength and my praise in the Lord...I am altogether yours, and all that I have belongs to you!” And in another place: “O glorious Virgin, blessed above all created things! I will put you as a seal upon my heart, because your love is as strong as death.” “Lord, my heart and my eyes have no right to extol themselves, or to be proud, or to seek great and wonderful things. Yet even at that, I am not humble; but I have lifted up and encouraged my soul by confidence; I am like a child, weaned from the pleasures of earth and resting on its mother’s lap; and it is on that lap that all good things come to me.” (Cf. Ps. 130:1-2). What will still further increase your confidence in her is that you will have less confidence in yourself. You have given her in trust all you have of good about you, that she may have it and keep it; and so all the trust you once had in yourself has become an increase of confidence in her, who is your treasure. Oh, what confidence and what consolation is this for a soul who can say that the treasure of God, where He was pleased to put all He had most precious, is his own treasure also! It was a saint who said she is the treasure of the Lord.
#217 The soul of our Blessed Lady will communicate itself to you, to glorify the Lord. Her spirit will enter into the place of yours to rejoice in God her salvation, provided only that you are faithful to the practices of this devotion. “Let the soul of Mary be in each of us to glorify the Lord: let the spirit of Mary be in each of us to rejoice in God. Ah! When will the happy time come, said a holy man of our own days who was all absorbed in Mary—Ah! When will the happy time come when the divine Mary will be established Mistress and Queen of all hearts, in order that she may subject them fully to the empire of her great and holy Jesus. When will souls breathe Mary as the body breathes air? When that time comes, wonderful things will happen in those lowly places where the Holy Ghost, finding His dear spouse, as it were, reproduced, in souls, shall come in with abundance, and fill them to overflowing with His gifts, and particularly with the gift of wisdom, to work miracles of grace. My dear brother, when will that happy time, that age of Mary, come, when many souls, chosen and procured from the Most High by Mary, shall lose themselves in the abyss of her interior, shall become living copies of Mary, to love and glorify Jesus? That time will not come until men shall know and practice this devotion which I am teaching. “That Thy reign may come, let the reign of Mary come.”
The mosaic pictured of the Virgin shown as Mother of the Church can be seen when standing in St. Peter's Square in Rome. Saint John Paul II had this mosaic (modeled after an ancient fresco) installed along with his papal motto Totus Tuus in December of 1981 following his survival of an attempted assassination.
Illustration: Mosaic on the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery inside Vatican City, Saint Peter's Square, Vatican City State, Italy © Antoine Mekary / ALETEIA
