Preparing for Pilgrimage

By BRIAN HANSEN

Gather the children in this wild country and teach them what they should know for salvation.... Go and fear nothing. I will help you.

-Our Lady of Champion's message to seer Adele Brise

On Friday, May 2, 31 pilgrims from the Diocese of Winona-Rochester will be traveling to Wisconsin. Led by their chaplain Fr. Joshua Miller, this group of pilgrims will participate in the annual Walk to Mary, a 21-mile pilgrimage walk. Every year in early May, people of various ages, races, and nationalities all come together to participate in this sacred pilgrimage experience.

On Saturday, May 3, the pilgrimage walk will commence, and, in one day, our diocese’s pilgrims will walk 21 miles to the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion (OLC). This shrine is the only Church-approved Marian apparition site in the United States of America.

In 1859, Mary appeared to a young woman named Adele Brise and instructed her to teach the Catholic faith to the children of the land. On this pilgrimage, pilgrims not only remember this beautifully simple Marian apparition, but they also journey spiritually with Joseph and Mary to witness their love and fidelity to Jesus Christ.

Upon arriving at the OLC Shrine, our diocese’s pilgrims will then join other pilgrims in the celebration of Vigil Mass, which will be presided over by Bishop David Ricken of the Diocese of Green Bay. The next day (Sunday, May 4), our pilgrims will then travel back to the diocese from their pilgrimage. Please join us in praying for these pilgrims by praying the following Novena to Our Lady of Champion with the specific intention included:

Novena to Our Lady of Champion

O dear Lady of Champion, you revealed yourself as the Queen of Heaven to your servant Adele. You gave her a mission to pray for the conversion of sinners, to bring the Good News of Jesus Christ to others and to prepare children for the reception of the sacraments.

I trust that, as you called Adele to holiness, you are calling me, in my station in life, to live a holy life, devoted to Jesus Christ, with the help of your maternal love. I bring before you now my worries and anxieties. I abandon my attachments to them and place them at your feet.

I ask you to hear the deepest longings of my heart as I pray most earnestly for (mention request here...). Dear Lady, you told Adele, and you say to all of us, “Go and fear nothing. I will help you.” Help me now as I place this intention with complete confidence and trust. Amen.

Novena Intention to OLC April 23 - May 1

For the 31 DOW-R pilgrims participating in the 2025 Walk to Mary Pilgrimage, that these pilgrims may have a safe, joy-filled, and spiritually fruitful pilgrimage to the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion.

As these pilgrims witness their Catholic faith, may they have profound and loving encounters with the Lord Jesus Christ while growing in deeper relationship with him through greater devotion to his earthly father, St. Joseph, and his immaculate mother, St. Mary. May this pilgrimage be a transformative experience for these pilgrims that leaves a lasting impact on their lives.

Brian Hansen is the coordinator of adult lay formation for the Diocese of Winona-Rochester.