NCRegister: Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help

In Northeast Wisconsin, countless people have made a day pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help in New Franken for over 151 years, ever since our Blessed Mother appeared there in 1859.

Father John Doerfler, the rector of the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help and vicar general of the Green Bay Diocese, explains: “Pilgrimages are matters of opening our hearts to God. That can happen whether the pilgrimage is of a short distance or of a longer distance. If one doesn’t respond to God’s grace and open one’s heart to him, the distance doesn’t matter.”

St. John Chrysostom, who stressed the worth of visiting places of saints and Rome itself, also said there was “need for none to cross the seas or fare upon a long journey; let each of us at home invoke God earnestly, and he will hear our prayer.”

Pope Benedict XVI continues to make local pilgrimages, such as his day visit in 2006 to the Shrine of the Holy Face in Manoppello, Italy.

entire article at NCRegister