Our Motto - Totus Tuus

Mary, with whom we are united in a profound bond of love for God. When the angel Gabriel appeared to her and asked her to be mother of the Savior, Mary instinctively knew that this was no ordinary request. She knew that her “Yes” could not be by half. It had to be all or nothing. Her response revealed a woman of faith whose “yes” to God was total and was given with all the love of her heart: “I am the handmaid of the Lord. Be it done on to me according to thy word” (Luke 1:38). Of herself, she said “Totus tuus” to God at that moment and throughout her life. She is the one who teaches us to do the same and to live the spirit of that beautiful prayer of consecration. May we be inspired to love totally in her spirit of “Totus tuus.”

Totus Tuus

Totus Tuus was Pope John Paul II's apostolic motto. It means "totally yours" and expressed his strong Marian devotion and his respect for Saint Louis de Monfort and the Mariology in his works. The former pontiff explained the meaning further in his book Crossing the Threshold of Hope where he defines it as not only an expression of piety, or simply an expression of devotion and that it is deeply rooted in the Mystery of the Blessed Trinity.

According to his Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae he borrowed the motto from the Marian consecrating prayer as found in the book True Devotion to Mary by Saint Louis de Montfort. The complete text of the prayer in Latin is: "Tuus totus ego sum, et omnia mea tua sunt" ("I am all Yours, and all that I have belongs to You"). Pope John Paul II once recalled how as a young seminarian he "read and reread many times and with great spiritual profit" some writings of Saint Louis de Montfort and that:

"Then I understood that I could not exclude the Lord's Mother from my life without neglecting the will of God-Trinity"

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