Carol 
"Mary to me is totally amplified in the Pieta and when I look at the Pieta and see Mary caring for Jesus as a mother, she set such a wonderful example for motherhood and sacrifice and grace and all of those things that are very special and important."
Carolyn 
"I think Our Lady brought me to the Church ... I knew instinctively that I needed to be able to be her friend, that I needed to be able to pray with her and to her, and so I think she has been very important to me. I came to the Church when I was 18 through her intercession and she has been my treasured companion ever since. So, I love her."
Casey 
"To me Mary is always there for comfort, when I need her she’s there to guide me and help me with whatever I need."
Cassie
Cassie has known and loved JP2 all her life, thanks to her mother's trip to WYD Denver in 1993.
JPII quote: "Peace is not a utopia nor an inaccessible ideal nor an unrealisable dream. War is not an inevitable calamity. Peace is possible."
Cheri
"For me Mary is the ultimate role model, she has this love for all of her children - to be so pure for her entire life and to dedicate it to God, no matter how much hurt was there for her. I just remember watching Passion of the Christ, and as much as Christ has done for us, that was the forefront, but what really struck me was her love and her trust in God, that it was always 'God, Thy will be done' no matter how much suffering she was going through."
Chris 
"Mary for me is a woman and a mother that I didn’t think I needed but now I know I absolutely need."
Chris 
"Mary is protrectress, Mary is intercessor, Mary is mother, Mary is caretaker, Mary is hope for the present age of history, Mary is (as Fulton Sheen talked about) the world's first love, she's the woman that God fell in love with and I'm not sure that anyone can merit a higher title than that. So Mary is unique in my life and I think unique in the life of the world and the life of every human being whether they know it or not. She's everyone's mother, she's Queen of the universe, Queen of the cosmos, the devil's worst enemy and God's greatest ally. And so pray the rosary, turn to Our Lady for help, ask her for all your needs, use the miraculous medal, find out more about devotion to her and love her very much because she loves you more than you can imagine."
Chris works at the National Shrine of Divine Mercy.
Chris
"The Blessed Mother is always there for us, she’s always watching out for us, and she wants nothing more than for you to be like John, to just take her into your home. What other better thing can we do than to do what he said on the Cross: 'Behold your mother. Mother, behold your son.' So I encourage you at every step of the way: if you're having trouble, if you're enthused, if you just don't know what to do, go to Our Lady, always stay close to Our Lady, because she'll do nothing more than point you towards her son."
Chris 
"Mother Mary, I respect her and her courage for believing in God when the angel came to her and she trusted God's doing in having Jesus come to life and come to our presence."
Christina
"Our Lady, the Blessed Virgin Mary, to me is truly a mother of perpetual help who carries me always and carries every disciple of her son. She leads always to Jesus. And she carries us so that we can arrive to the beatific vision and be happy in our lives and enjoy Jesus for all eternity."
Christine 
"I think Mary is everything, as St John Paul II would say 'Totus Tuus', and we're all hers and she's all ours, for ever. It's a beautiful thing!"
Christina promotes the message of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati - visit the US website to learn much more about this martyr of love who is so needed in our time.
Christine
"I prayed the rosary as a child every day with my family and when I went to college I quit praying my rosary. After I was married for many years I came back to the rosary because some special prayers were answered through the recitation of the rosary and my husband got a job. After that I had much hope and much joy in Our Lord Jesus because His Blessed Mother was like my mother."
Christine 
"When I think of Mary I think of the details, the things that she did every day: cooking in the kitchen, talking to her neighbours, being a member of a community. And I’m wondering what it must have been like to have her in the community. I imagine she was a very positive person … someone who had a calmness about her .. to do what she did to follow her Son, knowing that He had a path that was so mysterious that she couldn't do anything but follow him and pray for him and try to be the best mother she could."
Christopher
"It's an easy reminder to have rosaries because when I see the rosary I think of our sinless, beautiful Mother and it just makes me more prayerful and spiritual."
Christopher chose St Augustine as his Incredible Saint
"The way he lived his life proves to all of us that God never gives up on any of us. He didn't have a great life and he spent his money on drinking and women. His mother prayed for him every day and night for ever, so that one day he would share in her faith, and he did and he turned his life all the way around and became one of our great saints."
Cody
"To me Christmas is about receiving the love of God. It's just like the day that the world got the most precious gift ever really, which was God-with-us, and so it's about celebrating that love, celebrating His love for us, and as Christians sharing that love with the world."
Collette
"I just love the Blessed Mother because she is my hero and my inspiration in every way."
Father Conrad Osterhout CFR 
"I always go back in a communion of hearts with my confessor, who was a friar, and to my high school years for the strong impetus that they were, to my parents that taught us how to pray so that I would have a longing for prayer, the inspiration comes through those years, and the good Franciscan sisters who taught us, taught us actually to wear our rosaries on our belts as young second graders and so we already had the form of looking like religious even though we weren't religious. So I would say there were many, many opportunities, the strongest being my confessor I guess, who carried me with grace and with Our Lady's prayers to choose the vocation to religious life and priesthood. Amen. Alleluia!"
Courtney 
"I suppose that Mary’s significance in my life is a very positive role of a Christian woman, because you think of the Church as being so masculine and male dominated, but really Mary stands to serve as a model of a Christian woman and a friend and a member of the community."
Dan
"Mary is the first Christian - that's not something I made up, it's from the Gospels. And she was the first to say yes to Jesus, despite all the consequences and that is a model for both men and women. And she is the first apostle; she showed us that in order to bring Christ to others we have to bear Him within us, physically and spiritually. And she is also my mother and there's not much I can say about that because my affection for her is not just theological but it's also human and natural; and I thank God for the peace I have every day for being secure in my mother and my father."
Dan
The Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane - "I feel a very close connection to Jesus in those moments because I feel him suffering with me and I imagine him feeling the sort of difficulties that we feel and knowing that he does that out of love for me gives me a great joy."
Daniel
"What I find most interesting about Mary is her universality. I discovered Mary by the fact that her son said on the Cross 'Behold your mother' and wasn't just speaking to the beloved apostle but to the whole world. Just seeing Mary depicted in so many different pictures, in so many different cultures, as a mother, but in so many different ways, with so many different faces, just shows that Christ gave her as a gift. Through her yes and through her humility she accepted herself as this gift and He gave her to the world so that we might have one of our own to pray for us next to him. That just fascinates me and deepens my devotion all the more."
Deanna
"I pray to Mary to give me strength to follow in her footsteps; to surrender to God and not be afraid; to keep going and just say yes every day."
Don
"I am especially attached to Mary because she is the sweet lady who, with no doubts in her mind, was approached with the situation of being married to Joseph, being found pregnant with child, not understanding fully what was happening to her, but the main point is that she had no misgivings, she had no doubts in her mind that something was moving her to become the first yes person, to say 'yes' to something very important which, for us as individuals, when situations come our way, we often let them pass us by not even considering saying yes to the Lord, yes to what the Lord may want, to what Mary wants, and to what the saints want."
Don 
"If more mothers were like Mary, there'd be a better world."
Doug
"One thing I like about Mary is just how she points us to Christ and, in view of that, I like reflecting on the wedding at Cana, when the servants needed more wine first they went to Mary. In that they were able to get what they needed because Mary brought them to Christ. Also Mary's words 'Do whatever he tells you' so do whatever Jesus tells us."
In Man for Others, Doug, who's 22 & currently studying at seminary in Rome, talks of the witness given by his parish priest who 'raditated the joy of Christ', and of how the Sacrament of Confession was central to his vocation story
"When the priest was giving me absolution, I just felt the really intense call to the priesthood. It was the most powerful I had ever felt God in my life, and I just knew it was from Him, and I had to answer the call even though I had a lot of fears about celibacy and loneliness. I just knew I had to follow His call because He's God and He really cares for me. So, after answering the call, I've come to realise a lot more joy in the priesthood in following the Lord's will."
At Christmas 2012, Doug served for BXVI at Midnight Mass at St Peter's
"It was a very powerful experience ..filled with grace. Just seeing the man, who is old and fragile, this man who the Lord entrusted the Church with, through Peter, Pope Benedict still has the same duties given to Peter: he's given the keys of the Church, he's the rock on which our Church is built, and that strong, central figure of the Catholic Church was incarnate in Pope Benedict and for me it was just good to see that and to see him."