It’s been a little while since I’ve blogged ~ and I’ve missed it...
Despite life being busy, our family took a quick pilgrimage to Champion, Wisconsin to the National Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help.
Our life has been filled with commitments, stress, and the busy-ness of daily life as a modern homeschooling and figure-skating family. It isn't easy to carve out time for us to take a day-trip anywhere, but we found ourselves longing to visit one particular place in the Diocese of Green Bay.
With a free day toward the end of my husband’s spring break, we decided to make the journey. So, we got up early to set off, and a couple of hours on a highway, a little further down a long rural road surrounded by farmland and dairy farms on either side, and a few turns later, we were there. We walked into an unassuming little space where, over 100 years ago, Sister Adele Brise, was blessed with a vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary on her way to church one morning. Between two trees, Adele, then a young woman, saw an image that frightened her. She stood still, and the vision slowly faded, leaving behind a white cloud.
The next Sunday, October 9, 1859, Adele reportedly saw the same vision – this time, with her sister Isabel and a neighbor woman beside her. On the way home from Mass, Adele saw the same vision, between the same two trees. The vision spoke to her, and Adele heard the woman in dazzling white with a yellow sash and stars around her head say to her that she was the Queen of Heaven.
She continued to ask Adele to share the gospel message with children and she closed with a phrase that must have given Adele an enormous amount of courage: Go and fear nothing. I will help you.
For the rest of her life, Sister Adele worked to share her faith with others, particularly at St. Mary’s Boarding Academy – a school built near the apparition site, close to the chapel and convent.
One grace bestowed upon the chapel grounds occurred in 1871. With the Great Peshtigo Fire raging, leaving upwards of 2,400 people dead and communities scorched, Sister Adele, her community, and local residents gathered in prayer on the site. Twelve years to the date of Sr. Adele’s last apparition, rains poured down over the grounds, and the animals and people of what is now Champion were saved.
Since then, thousands have flocked to Champion to visit the apparition site – the place where Sr. Adele is buried, where the school she founded and taught at is located, and where the apparition chapel and oratory were built.
The apparition was approved – the only approved apparition site in the United States – in 2010 by the most Reverend David L. Ricken, Bishop of Green Bay who decreed that the apparitions are, “worthy of belief (although not obligator) by the Christian faithful.”
Now, the grounds hold a Fatima Grotto, a rosary walk, a Saint Joseph Grotto, a stations of the cross meditation area, the original school that now holds a café and gift shop, the new Mother of Mercy Hall where conferences, speaking engagements, pilgrimages, and Masses can be held, the chapel, and the oratory located underneath the chapel that provides a reflective space for visitors to spend time in prayer. Behind the statue of Mary in the oratory is an area where numerous relics of saints can be found.
This week the shrine also served as a host site for the display of Eucharistic Miracles designed and created by Blessed Carlo Acutis – born in 1991, a soccer player, snow-skiing aficionado, movie buff, and video gamer from Italy. He was interested in computer programing and, at age 11, convince his parents to take vacations to sites where Eucharistic Miracles had taken place. He began to record and document these miracles and took them to churches in the same form that was presented at the shrine.
In 2006, Carlo became gravely ill due to advanced leukemia. He died shortly thereafter, but his work continues. He was named Servant of God in 2016 and was beatified on October 10, 2020.
We were able to attend Mass, receive the sacrament of reconciliation, and participate in adoration while we were visiting the apparition site. I think I loved the peace most of all. It was quiet and wonderful for reflection. The chapel was the perfect size – not too large, and not too quaint. Not too full, and not too sparse. It felt warm, inviting, and accessible. It was a powerful mid-Lent experience for us to experience as a family. Despite the cold and snow, so we enjoyed the grounds, but we weren't able to walk around as much as we would have liked, so I suspect we will be back. Oh, and there is a dairy barn adjacent to the property which gives the property a decidedly ag-centric feel. Far from the hustle and bustle of city life, it was a space full of open-air, simplistic structures, and all the comforts of a rural community.
I think I appreciated the words spoken to Sister Adele, too. How often do we need to hear that message: Go and fear nothing. I will help you.
I need that message daily. I may not be called to change the lives of others. I may not be called to teach the masses. I may not be asked to do the impossible. But, I know that I am called to do things that are outside my comfort zone -- and so are many of us. We are called to do things that are part of the plan, but that are scary. Knowing that Sr. Adele was supported in her mission gives me the courage to know that I am supported, too. We are never alone.
