Böcker av Florian Kolfhaus

Jesus suffers, because He wants to make us loving persons. He calls us to the imitation of the Cross, because He seeks our friendship. Praying the way of the cross is not just an expression of piety, which will bring tears to the eyes of a pious soul, contemplating-from a safe distance-the suffering of Jesus and one's neighbour. No, it is an invitation to follow along the same path. The goal is to let Jesus speak to me personally, then to climb up the Via Dolorosa of my own life. With him, this sorrowful street transforms into a Via Amorosa, a loving route, at the end of which I can discern that no suffering is meaningless, if it is accepted with a spark of love. Life is not about existing by the skin of one's teeth, but about finding salvation.

Pope St John Paul II chose Totus Tuus as his apostolic motto. A Latin phrase meaning 'totally yours', it expressed his personal Consecration to Mary, based on the spiritual teaching of Saint Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort and the Mariology of his writings. The saintly pontiff defined it as an expression of piety but also of devotion, deeply rooted in the Mystery of the Blessed Trinity. St Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort showed that there is a sure, quick, and easy way that leads to Jesus Christ; this way is Mary.In Totus Tuus, Maria, commissioned by the Institutum Marianum of Regensburg (IMR) and first published in German in 2002, Mgr Florian Kolfhaus recovers the intention of St Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort, and presents it to the readers of our day and age in a timely fashion. This text invites the reader to follow this path to sanctity. It does not require simply to be read, but it needs to be prayed and meditated on in order to lead, step by step, to the consecration to Mary. Whoever offers himself up to Mary through this consecration to her, seeks shelter under the protective mantle of the Virgin, as Jesus Christ Himself did, and tries to model his life according to her example of charity and love of God. Is there something more perfect that we can do in our earthly life and for our eternal salvation? The reader will then become part of the communion of those whom the book presents in nine short biographies: the saints. Saints, like Pope St John Paul II, who have found the fullness of life in Jesus Christ through consecration to Mary.