Mary has slowly become part of my life

When I was growing up in Alsace, I had Protestant friends. They sometimes argued with me by using the false clichés about Catholics, namely that we worshiped Mary and the Pope. I would tell them that Jesus had the first place in my life, and that I could live my faith without Mary.

While volunteering in Lourdes, at the Youth Service (I was a student midwife at the time), I met a young Oblate priest of Mary Immaculate and asked him about Mary, the Rosary, etc. He answered that the Rosary was the prayer of the little ones and the poor, and that explanation touched me. I began to pray the rosary in communion with them, being small and poor myself. Like a starting gift from the Lord, the first joyful mysteries seemed to have been made for me and my mission: these mysteries of the announcement of a pregnancy, of the meeting of two pregnant women, and of childbirth, helped me to pray for the women I was in charge of and cared for. Later, during the novitiate, each decade was linked to a word of the Gospel and to an intercessory prayer for specific people. 

Here in the Church of Cameroon, Mary has an important place. The first Catholic missionaries consecrated Cameroon to Mary upon their arrival.

At church, we like to sing this hymn: "The first one on the way, Mary you lead us to say our yes to the unexpected that God sends us... Walk with us Mary, on our paths of faith..." and at the end of mass we dance with "Anna Maria éé", or other songs in the local language.

In the hospital, where the day begins with the prayer of the nursing staff, both Catholics and Protestants pray to Mary. Personally, I often ask her to enlighten me and teach me to deal with all situations in her motherly way, as at Cana, or at the Cross, or in her "attentive listening" to the Word.

Cathy - Testimonial 

www.vavieres.org