Italy - Italia
Below are responses to Totus2us podcasts given by Italians with Christian names beginning with J to Z - Risposte dati dagli italiani con nomi cristiani che iniziano da J a Z - grazie a tutti voi ♥
Jan 
"My relationship with Mary started becoming closer and closer when I went to Medjugorje a year ago. In her I found a mother, I found forgiveness and felt peace, and when I came back to my city that was the only thing that I could think about and look for in the months that came. And I started praying the rosary every day and she started bringing me closer to Jesus, day by day, and what happened next is I started discovering again the sacraments and the Mass."
In his response about Papa Giovanni Paolo II
Jan Michelini talks of how his words and love have inspired and helped him, and of how reading St Louis de Montfort's Devotion to Mary made him think of Karol Woytyla reading the same book while he was an 'underground' seminarian. Jan, a film maker who directed the music video for Olen Cesari's Anema e core, chose a quote from JPII's Letter to Artists.
Blessed John Paul II: "Beauty is a key to the mystery and a call to transcendence. It is an invitation to savour life and to dream of the future. That is why the beauty of created things can never fully satisfy. It stirs that hidden nostalgia for God which a lover of beauty like Saint Augustine could express in incomparable terms: “Late have I loved you, beauty so old and so new: late have I loved you!”
Artists of the world, may your many different paths all lead to that infinite Ocean of beauty where wonder becomes awe, exhilaration, unspeakable joy. May you be guided and inspired by the mystery of the Risen Christ, whom the Church in these days contemplates with joy.
May the Blessed Virgin Mary be with you always: she is the “tota pulchra” portrayed by countless artists, whom Dante contemplates among the splendours of Paradise as “beauty that was joy in the eyes of all the other saints”.
“From chaos there rises the world of the spirit”. These words of Adam Mickiewicz, written at a time of great hardship for his Polish homeland, prompt my hope for you: may your art help to affirm that true beauty which, as a glimmer of the Spirit of God, will transfigure matter, opening the human soul to the sense of the eternal. With my heartfelt good wishes!" - from JPII's Letter to Artists.
Grazie tanto a Jan anche per le registrazioni del Santissimo Rosario e la coroncina divina Misericordia e novena.
....
Sorella Justina 
"I love Our Lady so much because our congregation is the Sisters of Maria Bambina .. From the moment I was born my mother took me to Our Lady to be consecrated to Our Lady, because in my place there is a lot of devotion to this Maria Bambina, the child Mary. So from that moment, my family, we used to say the rosary every evening: my father, mother, my brother, my grandfather, my grandmother, all in the kitchen, we knelt down to say the rosary. And then all my life, even now, when I open my eyes in the morning, my first prayer is the rosary .... Because for me Our Lady is my mother, my protection, my everything. This is a great joy to have our Mother always with us."
Sister Justina of the Sisters of Maria Bambina gives her response in English & Italian.
Lavinia 
"Mary is my light, my hope, and she guides me every day, and she's the warm embrace that I feel every day. Thank you, Mary. I love you!
Maria è la mia luce. Lei è la mia guida e la mia mamma che mi abbraccia tutti giorni. Se c'è forse a Lei io non vivrei con gioia ogni giorno. Grazie Mamma. Ti voglio bene!"
Lidia
"I went to Medjugorje and my life changed… Mary helps me today, every day, forever.
Io sono andata a Medjugorje e questa esperienza m'a cambiato totalmente la vida .."
Luigina
"Due parole sulla cara Madonnina. Ecco tutti noi abbiamo bisogno di una mamma, che ci accolga, che ci consoli e che ci aiuti. Ed anche Papa Giovanni Paolo II, che era così devoto alla Madonna, e che lui dicce che è stata lei che lo aveva salvato. Cosi anche noi dobbiamo riportarci alla mamma di Gesù, perché questo mondo ha tanto, tanto, tanto bisogno."
Maika
"La Madonna è la madre di tutti noi."
Manuella
"Our Holy Mother guides my life, my friendships, my work and my choices of every day."
Manuella gives her qualcosa su Maria in English & Italian.
Manuella
"I don't see why we cannot ask our Mum to protect us and intercede for us. ..
Io prego la Madonna perché interceda per me presso suo filio and presso Dio. .. Lei è una bellissima Mama, è una santa Mama."
Sorella Manuella
"Per me Maria è stata sicuramente come la strada che mi porta subito a Gesù."
Marco
"Our Lady is the mother of Jesus and a massive inspiration for me.
Maria, la mamma di Gesù, è una ispirazione incredibile per me."
Marco 
"I hope to build a family with love and I invoke the help of holy Mary.
Spero che Gesù e la Madonna mi aiutino a costruire una famiglia."
Maria-Angela
"Mary is our mother in heaven.
Maria è la nostra Mamma celeste."
Maria-Concetta
"In the institute, we have a special devotion to Mary, she is the one who gives us the trust to become saints, since our goal is to become saints. So we invoke Mary under the title 'Our Lady of trust' give us trust to become saints. So Mary is for us a model, a way in any situation in life, in any difficulty, we look at Mary, she gives us really the trust with her smile to go on in life no matter what the difficulties will be. I would like to conclude with a prayer we say a 1000 times a day: 'O Immaculate Heart of Mary, true model of every holiness, give us trust to become saints.'"
Maria-Concetta gives her qualcosa su Maria in English & Italian.
Maria-Gracia
"Io prego sempre, prego a casa, prego sempre. Io sono molto devoto alla Madonnina e a Gesù e speriamo il Signore e la Madonnina danno la pace a tutto il mondo."
Maria-Grazia 
"Porto il nome della Madonna e sono molto devota, la amo tantissimo."
Maria-Teresa
"Maria è una dolcissima presenza nella mia vita che mi ha accompagnato col sua amore e mi ha coperto e protetto col suo mantello."
Maria Vittoria 
"La Madonnina rimane sempre una figura potente e luminosa e grandiosa per la salvezza di tutto il mondo."
Mariella 
"Con l’aiuta della Madonna, si ha la forza di perdonare. È lei, s’è fatto tutto lei, bisogno a fidarsi a la Madonna."
Mario
"Penso che Maria è la nostra signora del cielo che ci porta tutti in cielo."
Martha
"Mary is really my mother and she is very near and behind me all the time, all the minutes of my life. To be Christian, the first thing necessary is to be a little child. I am a little daughter of Mary and I have just to go to the embrace of my mother and just really often tell her all my things, all that I have in my heart; like a daughter to her mother, with a really deep confidence. And the mother listens to you like a mother, with lots of love, and she brings you to her son, Jesus, and teaches you to love Jesus with more and more deepness and more and more love. ..
Sono felicissima di avere una mamma così bella, così presente, così vera, e per me è tutto.."
Mattia
"I want with all my heart to love the Virgin Mary, especially recently, because in the past I have been really far away from her love and the love of Jesus and the Father. I hope that through her I may be saved and she can guide me to do what the Father wants us to do in this life, to live as Jesus Christ said we should live. I pray to her and I ask Mary that I can always live full of life, full of joy and it's a lot for me. And I want to love her very, very much."
Mauro 
"I discovered that I have an interesting liaison with Mary because I was born on the day when she gave the scapular to St Simon Stock, an English saint (16 May)... and also I've been to Medjugorje once and from there I started to come back to religion. And now again I've discovered Our Lady of Fatima and all her messages and now I feel much more in peace.
Ho avuto un'esperienza con la Madonna da quando sono stato mali in Italia e sono stata a Medjugorje ... Posso dire che da quando ho riconosciuto Maria la nessima volta mi sta dando molta pace, molto amore per il prossimo."
Mauro 
"My conversion happened through Our Lady…. I am now happily married, I’m fully living my Catholic faith and I owe it all to Our Lady. Thank you, Mary!
La mia conversione sia devota interamente a Maria perché ero lontano e la mia conversione è stata devota al mio viaggio a Lourdes e mentre a Lourdes Maria mi ha toccato, mi ha toccato il cuore, dall'inizio di tutta la transformazione che mi ha portato a suo figlio Gesù Cristo .. Maria sarà sempre parte della mia vita."
Sister Michelina (Giovanna by Baptism) 
"We have always had a great devotion to Our Lady, praying the rosary in the family altogether every evening."
Nico 
"Per me, la Madonna è l'unico essere umano che può avere contatto diretto con Dio, un esempio."
Oliva
"I love Mary because for me she's like my mother. I go to her and tell her everything about me, and I know she already knows but I need to thank her for all that she does for me. At the same time there is always something I want to ask her, because I think she is very near to Jesus and she can be a connection with him, so that I am sure that when I talk to her, he listens too.
Sono devoto di Maria, perché per me lei è la grande madre .. "
Paola 
"I’m a devout Catholic and I found Jesus through Mary. I was out of the Church for many years and through Mary I arrived to Christ. I love her because she is a very motherly figure and she doesn't judge, and because she has been human herself and she has suffered so much while she was on earth she understands very well all the challenges of the current life.
Sono arrivata a Maria fra Medjugorje."
Paola 
"Mary loves the rosary and this is the best gift you can give to her, as well as to be in grace, and to adore Jesus, to go to Holy Communion. The most important thing I think is to live by example in grace because this takes you through all the steps and pray the rosary and I can guarantee you she will save your life and she will show you the way. You can get to Jesus through Mary. It's much easier, it's like stairs. She helps you to go, she covers you with her mantle during the battle with demons, she helps you in everything you need and life is much easier with her."
Brother Paolo
"Our Lady for me, she’s the one who led me to meet Jesus, and she’s the one who really gave me the grace to know Him and to pray to Him and to follow Him. And still every day I open my heart and her heart, so she can bring me, with all my brothers and sisters, my community, to know God and His Son, Jesus, and to worship them; and to be her Son, as she is an example for us. So for me, Mary is the street to Jesus, the most sure one and the best one and the most swift street to go to Jesus. Thank you, Mary."
Brother Paolo is a brother of the Franciscan Fraternity of Bethany (the bells in the background were being rung in St Peter's Square at the end of the Mass to open the Year of Faith, Annus Fidei).
Don Paolo 
"The Virgin is for the people."
"Confida nell’aiuto della Mamma."
Pia 
"The Blessed Mother is great!"
"La Madonna di San Luca è sulla monte."
Padre Raniero
TOP CHAT with Frankie about the essential gift of the Eucharist, the new Pentecost in the Church, preparing for Christmas and preaching to the Papal household.
"This is the most real place to meet Jesus, it is an occasion Jesus provided Himself to enter into personal relationship with a member of His body. There is something special about the Eucharist, I think it is inexhaustible, the Eucharist. For young people and for every Christian, I think an appreciation of the Eucharist is essential for the spiritual life, especially for priests of course because the Eucharist is the main ministry of priests."
To read/listen to more by Father Raniero Cantalamessa OFM Cap, visit his website.
Rosanna 
"Maria nella mia vita è tutto. Mi ha indicata la via di Gesù, del cuore di Gesù, mi ha portata nel cuore di Gesù. Grazie Maria, grazie Gesù. Grazie Maria, grazie Gesù."
Rosanna 
"Our Lady is my mother, she’s my guiding light, she’s my queen. .. Every day I say the rosary; every day the first thing in the morning when I walk to the tube station and during my travelling. I feel protected, it's amazing. I don't know why but before saying the rosary every day I could feel the temptation and I could not resist. But since I say the rosary, I can feel the temptation but I can resist the temptation. So I feel very protected by her. And I also did the consecration to Our Lady, the 33 days consecration of St Louis de Montfort and that is amazing."
Rosanna gives her qualcosa di Maria in English & Italian.
Rosario 
"La Madonna .. è la Mamma che veramente ci apre le braccia, ci vuole bene, ci perdona, .. ci accompagna, .. è un po indescrivibile dire quello che fa per noi."
Don Ruggero Massimino 
"Io ringrazio la Madonna perché proprio nel il giorno della Assunta sono stato culpito da .. mentre diceva una Messa e la Madonna mi ha aiutato a risorgere, hora sono rinato. Ogni giorno è un regalo di vita. Era 1994 quando mi ha capitato questo, il giorno della Madonna. Quindi sono grande devozione alla Madonna perché lei mi ha tenuto su."
Don Massimino is the parish priest of Festiona in Piemonte.
Salvatore 
"Affidiamo tutti noi alla Madonna che ci aiuti tutti giorni, nelle nostre famiglie. I nostri padri, le nostre madri, i nostri figli e figlie, affidiamo a Lei, Madre di tutti noi."
Sandra 
"Madonna - Madre."
Sara
"It's hard to describe who Our Lady is to me but I call her 'Mummy'. She's just the perfect example of the woman, the human being, who knows how to forgive. And she grants us the grace to forgive because she forgave those who killed her son. She is incredibly close because, at the same time, she loves us so much she was willing to partake with God in giving her own son, her true love, up for us, and yet she is one of us. And she has amazing tenderness so one is guaranteed that, if you are at her school, she will embrace you with enormous tenderness, and she really encourages us to pray the rosary and I have seen miracles by praying the rosary."
Sara gives her qualcosa di Maria in English & Italian.
Sebastiana Tiziana
"Maria è una creatura vicino a noi tutti."
Sergio
"La Madonna è sempre bella e l’unica al mondo."
Silvia
"Mary is the most important person in my life because she is my reference about love. Love is the most important thing in my life, in the life of every single person. Mary touched me, she is a teacher about love and she improves my way of loving. I want to learn from her to love people, to love life, to love everybody in my ordinary life. She is the milestone in my life and I know she observes me in everything in my life. I know she cures every aspect of my life and I can consider her as the basis of my life. I think she is the peace of my life .. I love to pray to her as the Queen of Peace and everybody can ask her for peace in the heart .. Mary is very present in these moments of the history of the world. She is very concentrated in what is happening in this world and she is not indifferent to our destiny.. I firmly believe that she can influence in a very important way the destiny of humanity in these moments.
Maria è la maestra d'amore"
Silvia 
"La Madonna per me è la nostra Mamma che stei in cielo, a cui chiedo sempre tanto di proteggere .. e spero sempre tanto in Lei."
Simone 
"The person of Our Blessed Lady means a lot to me because, I suppose in the most basic sense, she's my mother ... Before anything else, she's an example to me of what the Christian is, of somebody who is completely open to what God wanted to do with her life."
Simone was with Beloved Giovanni Paolo II at 5 JMJs
"What John Paul did was that he showed that the Christian, apart from the fact that he showed that the Christian is somebody who is happy because he was a happy person, you could see that, but also he showed that the Christian is somebody who is free. That's why it was so difficult for people to define him; people would say that he was like this or, you know, one minute he'd be in an incredibly serious theological conversation and the next minute he'd be laughing or singing, and people concerned in the secular world with him as the statesman, him and the fall of communism and so on. But I think for me, while that is obviously hugely important, I think he was the example of what a Christian should be: somebody who loves God and of whom nothing is outside kind of what affects him, 'Nothing truly human fails to move us' he said. And so that for me really meant a lot. I think he was a sort of modern Saint Paul in the sense that he attempted to be all things for all men and he did this with happiness and freedom."
Stefania
"As an adult now I think of the Virgin Mary as my spiritual mother … she seems to be always there and she is a beautiful image to relate to, as a woman to woman as well."
Stefania gives her qualcosa su Maria in English & Italian.
Stefano 
"Our Lady is the woman of my life. Ave Maria!"
Stefano 
"La Madonna ci aiuti sempre."
Tiziana 
"Mary to me is the channel to Jesus and to God. She’s been a huge blessing. She’s the one who really brought me to the knowledge of God’s love.
La Vergine Maria è la strada di Dio."
Valentina 
"If you are tired of your life, if you have a lot of questions, if you are unhappy or you're not able to see the truth or the way, this is my advice: go to Medjugorje, because you will feel and you will receive answers, and you will receive a lot of graces that you cannot imagine. Just trust in Our Lady and she will lead you."
Valentina
"Ringrazio la Madonna per tutto quello che mi dà ogni giorno."
Valeria
"When we pray the rosary together in the family, I feel there is a great unity amongst ourselves and with Our Lady."
Valeria gives her qualcosa su Maria in English & Italian.
Vincenzo 
"Me sostiene la Virgen.
La Vergine Maria è la mia Mamma."
Vincenzo is Argentinian / Italian & gives his qualcosa su Maria in Spanish & Italian.
Vincenzo 
"Cara Madonna, continua a proteggere tutte le persone che hanno veramente bisogno di aiuto."
Willy
"Ho avuto un grande incontro con la Madonna a Medjugorje un anno fa. La via della mia vita è cambiata e ringrazio tantissima la Madonna perché mi accompagna ogni giorno."