The Time Has Come For Us to Take Action and Make a Change

This personal testimonial was first published here 2 years ago. It is being re-run today because the urgency for this movement is hitting a critical stage and recent visitors(priests included)have reported similar events. So many people are coming to Rome City, even in the dead of winter, saying they felt Our Lady told them to come NOW! As true believers, we cannot afford to wait any longer. You don't have to be a visionary with special gifts to understand the signs around you. Our Lady is making it very clear. Now is the time for action!

Our Lady of America is calling Her children...ALL of Her children...to Rome City during this moment of CHANGE. Not the kind of change cheered for by our President, but a change to purity in our lives as a reflection of our love and commitment to Her Son Jesus.

Please join us in this effort by making your own pilgrimage to pray in the Our Lady Mother of Mercy Chapel or sending your prayers and donations to help us preserve this holy place for Our Lady's work. Millions of souls are at stake in this world. Our Lady needs your help NOW! We must safeguard this special site as we keep our eye on the US Bishops enthroning Our Lady of America in the National Basilica in Washington, DC




During the first Pilgrimage at Sylvan Springs in Rome City, IN, held on July 14, 2006, and at the same chapel where Our Lady appeared for the first time to Sister Mary Ephrem as Our Lady of America, I had a personal vision and inner locution from Our Lady of America during the praying of a group rosary of 15 decades and also the Divine Mercy Chaplet.

I was sitting on the side of the chapel where what is thought to have been the Blessed Mother's alter originally, and now has standing there a life size statue of the Lady of Lourdes. It is thought to be in the same approximate location of where Sister Mary Ephrem first saw Our Lady of America appear to her.

I have for many years said the rosary and use the rosary as a way to guide me into contemplative prayer when praying it alone. It is not unusual for me to go into contemplative prayer very quickly while saying the rosary if I DO NOT concentrate specifically on the Mysteries and intentions during my prayer time. I have always found when this happens it is the will of God or Our Lady for me to be in silence as the prayers are being said somehow or other in my head and heart. It is hard to explain, unless one goes into contemplative prayer on a regular basis, of what this is like. It is almost like multi-tasking---you are consciously praying and yet you are in deep silence and nothingness with the all Powerful God, -- somewhat like St. John of the Cross explains while being in infused contemplation. I am praying the complete rosary while in deep prayer to our Lord and also simultaneously being very open to ONE with Our Lord in silence. Always the peace that is felt after this happens is the greatest gift from God and I am able to go about my day very peacefully no matter what the day brings after this prayer time. I always, after this happens, feel very at ONE with everything and everyone in the entire universe---including people, animals, insects, plant life, etc. I feel so at ONE with all and I know I am ONE with all that I know for that short time I am totally ONE with GOD! Other times in contemplative prayer I am praying with God and doing healings- spiritual and physical for people who have asked for my prayers for their difficulties. And than there are other times God actually calls me to come and pray as a contemplative and infuses the silence and ONENESS into me without even using the rosary. But it always happens to me in a quite, or prayerful, peaceful place that I am unknowingly led to whether in a church or at home having quiet time or outside with nature.

There is a reason I feel I must explain this to you so you know though I have been in a contemplative state many times, and have had so many wonderful experiences during and after those times of Oneness and visions and inner locutions and messages, and also successful healings for people from intercession with the saints and Our Lady; that on that evening of July 14Th, 2006, I have never had anything like that happen to me in the way it did at the chapel at Sylvan Springs.

Usually while saying the rosary or prayer in a group I do not go into infused or deep contemplative prayer as I mentioned above. I remain part of the group prayer. That evening I prayed with the group starting with the Joyful Mysteries and going on to the Sorrowful Mysteries and by the time we came to the middle or so of the second Sorrowful Mystery I no longer was physically active or mentally active with the group. I have no explanation of what really happened, because it felt as if I was being called into infused contemplative prayer but it was Definitely Different! I could hear the group mumbling in the background but not make out the words, and I could feel my self gazing up at the statue of Our Lady of Lourdes and felt myself move my lips while continuing to pray the rosary, without I believe audible sound, at my pace as if I were completely alone, but knew I wasn't. I had no real thought of what I would call it at the time of when it was happening to me but I knew it was different than anything I had ever experienced with visions, healings, and the total of oneness with the (absence of even being) as one feels in contemplative prayer.

I cannot tell you for sure how long I was in this state. I do know it had to be awhile because as I mentioned I left the group internally around the second Sorrowful Mystery and did not come back into the group until the 2nd or 3rd. decade of the Divine Mercy Chaplet. So I am guessing 15 to 20 minutes more or less, I really don't know. I was aware of continuing to pray the rosary over and over, but cannot remember if I was saying it in order or not. I just remember moving my lips to the Hail Mary, Our Father, and Glory Be. I never stopped praying even as the vision appeared. (But when the vision appeared I was completely alone with no one around that I was aware of. I don't know how long that was unfortunately in our time, but it seemed very short to me.) If I had to guess I would say the vision appeared soon after this leaving the group internally happened to me.


The vision was of Our Lady of America and she was slightly behind the life size real statue of Our Lady of Lourdes. She was to the statues left, but to my right as I gazed up at her, and I could see them both, with peripheral vision, I would guess, as I saw our Lady of Lourdes statue as I was seeing Our Lady of America's vision. And I do not doubt the only real vision was of Our Lady of America. The statue just appeared in my vision sight at the same time. I feel strongly---- because of that there is a connection between the two Blessed Mother's in someway but I have not yet been privy to it. (Maybe that is something someone else will pick up on.)


What made this vision more unusual was that I saw her crown with all the 7 points and even mentally counted them along with the colored jewels. The crown was so clear I could see every detail of the grain of what appeared to be metal, but I cannot be sure of the material. I saw the crown sitting on her head with what looked like a somewhat white veil off to both sides of the crown at a 45 degree angle and perhaps some hair, than her face. What is very unusual here is I did not see any detail in her face. I just saw the shape of her face and what appeared to be perhaps a veil and some hair and on down to what looked to be her neck and than the rest of the vision of the body was hazy and misty and seemed to diminish down from there to a mistiness. She was life size. The vision stayed exactly that way the whole time I gazed at her and prayed the rosary, and I have no idea how long she was there, but she never changed in appearance and I always had a peripheral view of the statue of Our lady of Lourdes next to her but more out in front; as I said Our Lady of America was a bit further back and to the side of the statue. (At least that is how her crowned appeared to be in comparison to the statue. She was one dimension and the color of the crown was a brilliant deep gold and the jewels were of blue, green, red, and yellow and her face and what appeared to be a veil and perhaps some of her hair appeared a very misty light gold in color, almost more as a reflection from the crown. The reason I feel I may have seen part of a veil is all around the deep brilliant gold of the crown and the misty gold color of her face and perhaps hair was some whiteness to each side of the face. Not pure white, but definitely a different than a light misty gold as her face. (I APOLOGIZE IF I AM REPEATING BUT I AM ACTUALLY SEEING IT IN MY MIND'S EYE AS I WRITE IT. (I don't think I will ever forget it!!! )


At some point I heard her say to me very, very clearly in a very pleading voice "Get me There."! I knew she was speaking directly to me, and I felt so helpless from the tone of the voice and words I heard. If I could add a word that was not said just to let you know how desperate the voice sounded I would add the word "Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaase Get Me There"!! I answered almost immediately, I believe, "How?"-- (also in a very desperate voice and feeling, as I remember moving my lips and what I was feeling as I said it whether audible or not.) -- I also said it a couple of more times in my mind to her---"How?", "How?" Unfortunately I never received an answer. But I could feel her concern and knew immediately she was speaking of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington D.C. I just knew it, I never thought to ask where?. Perhaps that is because it is where we all know she wants and needs to be; but if it were some place else I KNOW she would have told me. She was giving me a message and she would have wanted it to be clear even if short. Her plea was imminent to do it quickly, and she herself seemed to have her own concern of not getting there in time. (Actually for me, this was the first time I felt she might not make it in time. I have always felt the time was short but we would get her there in enough time.) That night I was not as sure!! It was very unsettling for me because of the request and the helplessness I felt. I felt as a child who was disappointing her mother!

Sometime very soon after that I was back with the group as I heard them saying the Divine Mercy Chaplet which I had not said with Our Lady during the vision. I then realized I had lost quite a bit of time and was very aware of everything around me, including a man snapping pictures and leaning to the side of me about a foot away from my face. I was later told he had been there for quite some time. He wanted to know what I was holding in my left hand as I was looking at the statue. I told him it It was the 1st. class relic of St. Padre' Pio and I just said that to him simply. I was a bit irritated that he was right on top of me and asking me questions during the chaplet.

After all of the praying and healing was over this girl came up to me and started to ask me questions as to what type of experience I had. I was quite surprised that she would have asked since she should have been praying and not paying attention to me. No one else but she and the photographer seemed to notice. To most people it was as if I was not there. At this time I had said nothing to anyone. She asked many questions regarding the relic I was letting people pray with and finally I asked her who she was. She than told me who she was and said she knew I had had some type of experience during the rosary because the man taking pictures of me for a long period told her he came to me because of the look on my face and that I had not blinked my eyes for at least 10 minutes if not longer and appeared to be in a daze. That is when I realized I first realized I had not been blinking and the only thing I had ever read about people not blinking and being so deeply almost hypnotic is during an experience of Ecstasy!. I am not saying that is what it was, but it was different than anything I have ever experienced in all my prayers and visions and it was as real as anything that has ever happened to me in my life! I know no one can go that long without blinking their eyes without severe eye damage unless they are in some sort of hypnotic state, if what he was telling me was the truth. I honestly cannot tell you if I were blinking my eyes, because for me it was as if my body was not even there though I know it was. This was definitely not an out of body experience!!!.

I will not draw conclusions as to what happened to me, as I am not one to want to bring attention to myself under these circumstances. I feel what happened to me was meant to happen, period! I feel what happened to me can happen to anyone if they are open to things like that at a particular time and are willing to go with the flow of what the Holy Spirit is probably very involved in and not use their free will to stop what is to happen. I do not feel as if I was to keep this information to myself, but I do feel it was only to be shared, at this time, until it is right, with a few people who might be able to help Our Lady in her plight to be brought with dignity and love into the Shrine!

What happens from here will be in the hands of Our Lady, God and the people who are open to the spirituality that is so desperately needed in our world, and can hopefully do something with this. If it includes me fine, if not that is fine too!! We all have a part in this life and are meant to do what we are meant to do. I just allowed the Holy Spirit to work through me that night as many of us do and should continue to do, and be able to perhaps share and get Our Lady a bit closer to Sister Mildred's goal and Our Lady's wish!

God Bless Us All and help us to Love All People, All life, and to become One with the Whole Universe which will make us One with God!!!

T.W., South Bend, IN