I love the stories of Saints.  For they help us to see how God has been at work in the world and in history since the time of the Gospels.  The Saints help me to see how my story connects with God’s story, the story of the Bible.

For example, the stories of the Saints of our nation of the United States help me to see how God has been at work to establish the Church here in our nation, that one day I might receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ and come to know, love, and serve Him!  Saints like: the North American Martyrs, Kateri Tekakwitha, John Neumann, Elizabeth Ann Seton, Junipero Serra, Francis Xavier Cabrini, Katherine Drexel, and Servants of God Nicholas Black Elk, Fulton Sheen, and Dorothy Day.

All of them are an important part of the “American story” and more fully help us to see how God has been at work in the history of our nation.

Recently, I was also connected to another story of how God has been at work here in the United States.

On Sun. June 16, I was able to go to the Shrine of Our Lady of Champion, just outside of Green Bay, WI.  The shrine marks a Marian Apparition that occurred there in 1859.  Mary appeared to a young Belgian immigrant woman named Adele Brise, and said, “I am the Queen of Heaven, who prays for the conversion of sinners, and I wish you to do the same…Gather the children of this wild country and teach them what they should know for salvation…Teach them their catechism, teach them the Sign of the Cross, and how to approach the Sacraments.  Go and fear nothing.  I will help you.”  As Our Lady departed, she raised her hands in pray asking her Son to bless Adele.

Thus Adele travelled through the forests and countryside teaching catechism to the children.  Her father built a chapel at the spot where Adele encountered Mary.  Adele formed a community of women, called the Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi, to help her teach the Faith to the children.  Together they began an Academy and an orphanage next to the Chapel.

In October 1871, there was the terrible fire (the same time as the more famous Chicago Fire).  Many people rushed with the Sisters to the Chapel of Our Lady of Champion for safety.  There they prayed the rosary and prayed throughout the night.  The next morning, a great rainstorm put out the fire.  The chapel and the six acres dedicate to Our Lady was the only piece of land completely untouched by the fire for hundreds of miles around.

Being at the shrine for a special Mass with 3000 people help me appreciate that God sent Mary to appear right here in the Midwest!  And that her appearance there is still bearing fruit and effect in the world today!  It is another part of the American story, and the story of God at work here in our country!

Peace,

-Fr. Kevin