Somewhere Up North

Several months ago, a fax appeared on our refectory table. It was a little article explaining that for the first time, Church approval had been given to a site of Marian apparitions in the United States and of all places, in Green Bay, Wisconsin! We, in Grand Rapids, were all invited to go on a pilgrimage in May, via tour bus, to see the shrine of Our Lady of Good Help in Champion, Wisconsin (in the Green Bay diocese). Sr. Mary Brigid, Sr. Maria Ursula and Sr. Anne Marie signed up right away. However, we were full of questions. We'd never even heard of Marian apparitions in the United States, with the exception of one or two that were later discredited, and never in remote Northern Wisconsin. Who was this seer? When did he or she live? What was Our Lady's message? Why had we never heard of it?

We brought all our questions with us on a Friday evening to our Motherhouse in Wauwatosa. We meekly asked Sr. M. Immaculata (who had sent the fax) "Sister, where are we going, anyway?" Giving us her 'I-can't-believe-I-let-you-out-of-the-novitiate' look she replied, "What do you mean where? You came all this way without knowing where you are going?" Thank goodness we didn't have to do the driving! However, later on I asked Sister, "Did you hear of this place before it was approved?" "Oh no, I had heard that there was something up north, but I never paid any attention to it." Obviously this was not a tourist hot spot!

The next day, Saturday, we left early for our rendezvous with the bus and our fellow pilgrims, mostly older people with great devotion to Our Lady. Even the bus driver was Catholic! There were 14 of us sisters, and we made quite a spectacle. The entire Wauwatosa community went, and three sisters came from East Chicago: Sr. M. Carmelita, Sr. Maria Jose and Sr. Helena Marie. The drive was uneventful; we watched the little film made about the apparitions and learned the story.

A young Belgian pioneer named Adele Brise saw and spoke with Our Lady whom she saw in between two trees in an Indian trail that she was walking on. There is no room here to tell the story in further detail, but the Lady called herself the "Queen of Heaven" and she told Adele to pray for the conversion of sinners, to offer her Holy Communions for them and to teach the children their faith. Adele spent the rest of her life doing so and much of it right at the spot where Our Lady appeared to her.

We absorbed all this information, and much more, and were eager to explore this beautiful place. I don't think Our Lady could possibly have picked a more unimportant place to appear than Champion, Wisconsin. It is a community of farms, not much different from when Adele came, except that the great forests of her time are gone, and the wooded trail has given way to a beautiful shrine chapel, with several humble buildings around it, and a neighbor on either side. I asked several times about how the neighbors feel about the increasing traffic of pilgrims. The answer was usually a somewhat wry smile.

We eagerly spent the day learning what we could, praying, speaking to the staff about Adele and her mission, and meditating on the timeliness of the approval of these apparitions. Is it not particularly expedient, in these times, to teach children their faith and to pray for those who have no hope in God? The more we learned, the better we understood.

The upper chapel is beautiful with many statues and relics from the older chapels. There have been at least four older chapels, with the first two being built by Adele's father himself. The place of the apparition is marked in the crypt chapel, underneath the main one, and is undoubtedly the most sacred place on the property. It is dark with lots of burning candles all around and a large statue of Our Lady over the stumps of the two trees. Quiet doesn't really seem the right word for that place. It is positively silent, with peace breaking like waves over the heads of the people there who pray. They say many petitions have been answered here in this shrine which I don't find surprising. I was half tempted to take off my sandals, like Moses before the burning bush, so much did the Presence of Someone Royal pervade the whole atmosphere.

Coming up again was still pleasant. The sun came out shortly after we arrived and it warmed up. Mass was at noon. Father was supposed to be there at eleven, but he was delayed helping track down a rogue cow on his brother's farm....only in northern Wisconsin! We did have mass eventually, and Father spoke beautifully about our responsibilities as Christians.

We brought a bag lunch, which for Carmelites translates "pack everything edible and share it." We enjoyed ourselves tremendously.

This was surely a holy day, a day of prayer, a day of history (If you've never heard of the Great Peshtigo Fire, look it up! Amazing!), a day of community, a day of adventure, and above all, a day to honor Our Lady. The French (and Belgians) call her "Notre Dame du Bon Secours" or "Our Lady of Good Help" for good reason. She helps. She always helps, and she is always looking for the greater good of her children.