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The United States of America

Pope Paul VI was a pilgrim to the United States of America in 1965. Saint John Paul II followed in his footsteps, visiting the USA 7 times: in 1979, 1981, 1984, 1987, 1993 for World Youth Day Denver, 1995 and 1999. Papa Benedict XVI made a pilgrimage to the USA in 2008.

So many Americans have generously given their response to a Totus2us podcast (a great witness to the beautiful faith among America's young people), they are shown here alphabetically by Christian name:
beginning with A - B, C - D, E - I, J - L, M - Q (here below) and R - Z
- many thanks to you all   ♥

To download the free mp3 Totus2us audio recordings individually, right/double click on the blue play buttons.

If you'd like to visit a Catholic Church or know more about what's going on in your area, a good place to find out more on the web are the diocesan websites - links here.

Madalyn       

"Mary to me is a like a support beam, especially when it comes to relationships and trying to keep that purity and chastity and she is really someone you can look up to in those kinds of situations."

Maile      

"I stumbled upon the ceremony today [at St Peter’s Basilica] and I feel very honoured that I was here to witness Mary [Our Lady of Fatima]. It was a gorgeous day, the sun at one point came in and the crown, her jewels, were like shining and beaming light when the sun was coming in over the Basilica and it was gorgeous and I am so happy I was here. A once in a lifetime experience, I'm so grateful."

Brother Mairesean CSJ      

"In God's Providence, in the way that He's led me, what I've at least been conscious of, is this presence of Mary." 

Brother Mairesean is a brother of the Community of St John (currently based in the East End of London).

Mara      

"The Virgin to me is the holy, perfect mother who we can look up to."

Margaux       

"In my life Mary has always been there trhough so many: from moving from South Africa to the United States, she's been there. I've been very privileged with what I have and who I'm with and she's just always been there. And I'm glad to be a Catholic and how she's a part of the Church."

Sister Maria del Fiat      

"I love Mary because she has been a mother to me ever since I consecrated myself to her. She has also been my spiritual director, my novice mistress, the cause of my perseverance in the spiritual life. For this reason I thank her and I always want to honour her."

Sister Maria del Fiat is from the Community of Servants of the Lord & the Virgin of Matara.

Sister Maria Panagia      

"I’d like just to think of this phrase from St Louis Marie de Montfort, it’s a Latin phrase, “de Maria numquam satis”, and it means about Maria, on Maria, there’s never enough. Which means you can actually never venerate her enough, never sing to her enough, never honour her enough because she’s so high and so celestial and so wonderful, what a wonderful intercessor, that there’s never a limit to how much you can pray to her and be with her and have her as part of your life."

Sister Maria Panagia is a sister of the Community of the Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matará.

Marian       

"I had a lot of scepticism and everything about coming to Medjugorje, and I feel I had a lot of obstacles to overcome and I had a lot of tragedies in my life, and I feel that the Blessed Mother put her hand on my shoulder and brought me here to Medugorje. It has been an eye-opener to see everybody with the Blessed Mother in their heart, and coming that so many miracles have taken place through the Blessed Mother."

Marianna      

"I love Mary. I love people. I love Mary."

Mario St Francis       

"To me the Blessed Virgin Mary is one of the great gifts that Jesus Christ gave to us." 

Mario St Francis went from being a 'Miami playboy" to a lay evangelist - for more info, visit his website.

Mark     

"Mary has had a very big role in my life as the mother of Jesus Christ. She has always had a special place in my heart from when I was young but especially when I went into college I discovered a book written by St Louis de Montfort named 'True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin' which helped me to see the role that Mary plays in all of our lives, whether we know it or not, as she leads us all closer to her son Jesus. And so I'd have to say that definitely through the rosary but praying to her as my mother, as my sister and, one day God willing if I become a priest, as my spouse, Mary continues to spur me on to be more generous in love and to imitate her in leading people to her son Jesus."

Mark      

"What Mary has been to me is always been my mother. I was certainly blessed growing up; the only approved Marian apparition in the US, about 15 minutes east of Green Bay, Wisconsin, and we used to go there for days of recollection  .. I look back to those days and Mary leading me and guiding me even when I didn't know it, and probably in particular leading me to this vocation of the priesthood to follow her son in a very particular way."

Mary       

"I’d like to thank Pope Benedict for all that he has done in the past 8 years as Pope. I think one of the most powerful things or ways that he has had an impact on me is actually with his resignation. It is such an act of humility and self-sacrifice, that he really is showing his love for the Church in a new way. I think I’ll remember him more fondly for this gift that he’s giving to the Church, but I also appreciate his work in the new evangelization and his promotion of that. He has just been such a blessing for the Church and I just hope we get another pope as wonderful as he is. So thank you, Pope Benedict. We love you."

Mary      

"It’s just so nice to have a mother on earth but a mother in heaven just is so much more wonderful you can turn to for anything all the time. And you’re not always with your mother on earth but you’re always in the presence of your mother in heaven. And it’s such a grace to have Mary as a mother."

Mary      

"Mary to me is our mother and she is very special."

Mary     

"My favourite quote is from Our Lady of Medjugorje when she says

'If you knew how much I loved you, you'd cry for joy.'"

Mary      

"I wasn't really especially close to the Blessed Mother until I too became a mum."

Mary      

"Mary protects me with her brown mantle of humility."

Sister Mary James      

"For me Our Lady is really the way that points us to Christ. Our salvation is brought to us through her. And so for me she is really a symbol of humanity and how we're all called to be bearers of Christ as she was."

Sister Mary Mother of Faith      

"Our Lady is our mother and she provides everything when we need it, exactly  how we need it, and in whatever way is most convenient for us to gain eternal life."

Sister Mary Pieta cfr      

"I first came to encounter Our Lady under the title of Our Lady of Sorrows .. I came to understand her at the Foot of the Cross and she showed me that in her intense suffering and her intense sorrow at the Foot of the Cross, through it all she was also Mother of hope .. As she accepted Jesus' body from the Cross, she prepared his body for the resurrection and she does the same for me and for all her children that she accepted at the foot of the Cross."

Sister Mary Pieta is a Franciscan Sister of the Renewal.

Mary-Rose       

"I see Mary as a role model for young women like me and an inspiration." 

Matthew      

"Mary for me is our mother, is our ‘Forever Mother’. I lost my mother a few years ago and I look to Mary as the mother that represents us all."

Matthew      

"We're very excited that Pope Francis, Papa Francesco, expressed his love for Our Lady by going to visit an image of Our Lady in Santa Maria Maggiore, going to pray in front of the ancient image of Salus Populi Romani, the 'health of the people of Rome'. It's an image that so many people have turned to in times of sickness in the city, in times of plague, and Our Lady has always come through for them. .. By being a child in front of Our Lady and really asking for her help, asking for her prayers in front of Our Lord, that’s the way to go in so many different problems that arise in our lives."

Matthew chose Josemaría Escrivá as his Incredible Saint      

"The reason I admire St Josemaría Escrivá, look up to him so much, is because I encountered his writings when I was younger and he introduced me to Our Lord when I was still in school. What really attracted me was his message to look for holiness in the ordinary events of daily living. As a student that was like perfect, because I was involved in sports and family life and friends and school, and so it was like 'Oh, I'm called to be holy even though I'm doing all these other things too.'"

Matthew       

"I know that Mary looks out for me, she loves me and, especially the times when I forget her or might be ungrateful, she still gives abundantly with her love. That is why I feel drawn to her, that is why, even when I stray, I do want to come back to her embrace, because she is the all loving mother which each of her children need."

Matthew describes how Blessed John Paul II had a deep impact on his life      

"I know without a doubt now, with hindsight, that John Paul II was there praying for me. Obviously he's a great intercessor for us in heaven and, without me even knowing, he was leading me across the world to find my home in Ireland where I now work with an evangelisation team. He always had a very special place in his heart for all people from all countries: he didn't see the divisions between them, he saw the beauty of each one."

Matthew      

"When I think of Our Lady, I think of my grandmother. Whenever I pray the rosary, I feel very close to her. She passed away about 16 years ago but when I pray the rosary I feel like she’s right there with me."

Matthew      

"Mother Mary I would have to say is my grandma. She is awesome."

Maura      

"I wasn’t so very close to Mary before and going on this pilgrimage made me realise like just being able to trust her more and more, because she is our mother and she loves us so much and she wants to bring us to her our Lord Jesus. And her mantle, she just wraps you around. So this whole pilgrimage I've just been learning more about her and just to trust her more, and it's helped me to trust Jesus even more. So, trust."

Michael      

"I notice here in Rome there are a lot of beautiful statues of the Blessed Mother and it's nice coming from New York seeing such special devotion to Our Lady because she brought Jesus into the world and she also brings us on that narrow road to heaven. That's always special to remember that, if she brought Jesus into the world that means she brings us into the world that God made for us."

Michelle       

"Mother Mary means to me eternal peace, a stillness, a calmness, someone to strive to be more like." 

Mike      

"The Blessed Virgin is of course the Mother of God and she is the way that we gain access to Jesus, she is our intercessor."

Miranda      

"Mary is the Queen of Peace. She is gentle, kind, warm, loving. She’s nothing but love. She’s my best friend. She is a source of the Holy Spirit and brings us closer to God and brings us closer to Jesus in every moment."

Nathan      

"Jesus Christ died on the Cross for us and Mary was there witnessing it. She was there at the time when he was in the most pain but he did that out of love and she knew that. She gave up her son because of love. If we can't have a devotion to our blessed Mary Mother, who can we have a devotion to?"

Father Nathan CSJ      

"When I was 17 I made the de Montfort consecration and I gave my entire life to God by surrendering it at the same time to the providential care, to the solicitude of Our Lady. And that consecration meant so much to me because, as I journeyed through life, there were many times I wanted to run from God and sometimes regrettably I actually did kind of run from God, because I was scared of what I would lose if I said yes to everything God wanted from me. But the one thing I could never do was run from that consecration I made; there was something about Mary, she was like my lady. In a sense, I mean I could run from God's will but I never wanted to shame her. I think obviously there I am not speaking as a theologian .. but from the heart, Mary kept me in God. My love for her as my lady and my queen was something I never wanted to leave behind and I think that that tender love is something that we can all discover. So that de Montfort consecration I made when I was 17, the total consecration of myself that John Paul II also made - Totus Tuus - well, that in many sense is the reason I am a priest today. Because, in the end, my love for her enabled me to even stand at the Cross next to her and to give my life with her and with Jesus for the salvation of souls. And I know that she can do the same for you."

3 2us on Saint Catherine Labouré      
"That's what Our Lady told St Catherine: God wants to give even more than what you ask for. It's like plunging St Catherine on a spiritual path of desire, saying 'Do you really want to cooperate with God?' then desire for the rest of your life."

Father Nathan Cromley is a brother of the Community of St John. He has set up the Marian Faith Network - a website and community structure "to help young people who want to make and live out the total consecration to Jesus through Mary of St. Louis de Montfort to the fullest extent possible. Totus Tuus!"

Nick      

"As part of living in Europe, I got the opportunity to go on pilgrimage to St Peter’s Basilica in Rome and I think what blew me away the most was getting to pray at the tomb of Blessed John Paul II. My conversion happened in High School when I was about 17 years old, just about a year after he had died, but through the years learning all that he did and his work for the new evangelization and in particular for the youth of the world, I never really realised what an impact he’d had on me until I was there praying at his tomb. I just had this great sense that he had really fathered me in my faith through all the work that he had done for the youth in the Church. So it was a really blessed experience and a highlight of my pilgrimage, for sure."

Nicole      

"The Virgin Mary for me: she’s my queen and my mother, but mostly first my mother. One thing that just strikes me so much about her is not only has she brought me so intimately close to Jesus but, whenever I'm going through a difficult problem, reading Scripture just in any event in her life I'm amazed by how much she has actually experienced what I've experienced. ..  She's experienced so many things that I think it's easy to forget that she was human. Everything that we've gone through she has actually gone through in many concrete ways. So I thank the Lord for her and what a gift that that was the final and last gift that he gave us was her."

Nicole       

"Our Blessed Mother is to me the most loving mother that anyone could ever have, the most perfect mother who wants the best for her children. Because she wants the best for her children, she brings us to Jesus in the quickest way possible. She wants everything for us and so she leads us and makes sure that we are on the quickest and surest path to holiness and to heaven. She holds us in her heart and in her mantle."

Nicole       

"To me Mary is she who points the way. She’s the guide who points the way to Christ."

Noel      

"Mary means to me the dignity and respect that every woman should have."

Patricia      

"For me I guess Mary is about protection and safety, and feeling that no matter whatever challenge you have that somehow you will be looked after and knowing that there's always a way out."

Patt       

"I think about Mary when I say the rosary and I think she does intercede for us and I think it's good to have a personal relationship with her and I think of her as like a mother."

Patti       

"Mary to me is a wonderful role model of being a mother and I have the privilege and blessing of having 4 children, so I look to Mary for her guidance and role model."

Peter      

"Confession is fantastic because I feel, given our human state of imperfection, it’s an invitation from Christ for us to come back and reconcile with Him and to his will."

Father Peter CSJ

3 2us on the Triumph of the Cross      
"If we let ourselves be drawn to Jesus, His Cross even now is lifted up within us."

3 2us on St Thomas Aquinas   
"Love for Christ pushed Thomas Aquinas to devote a tremendous amount of energy to the search for truth, to contemplating the truth and to teaching the truth. He consecrated his intellectual gifts to God and so he's a great model for us of the sanctified mind. His aim was to let himself be taught by God and so he was humble enough to be formed at the school of the pagan philosopher, Aristotle, because he understood that everything that's true, whoever may say it, is from the Holy Spirit."

Father Peter Pitre is in the Community of St John, currently based in Canning Town, London.