Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help no longer an area 'secret' site

People don't come to The Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help for the architecture. [yet]

They come because it's a point of interest — devotion in the case of Roman Catholics.

The architecture by one of Green Bay's historic firms is sturdy, a reflection of a hardy stock of French-speaking Belgians who populated the area starting in the mid-1800s. [I hope they are not going iconoclast here....]

The devotion stems from 1859, when young Adele Brise (also spelled Brice) reported seeing an apparition of the biblical Mary, telling her to gather children and teach them the catechism."It was quietly accepted and promoted here within our Green Bay diocese," said Karen Tipps, who resides at the site and has shared caretaker functions with her husband, Steve, for almost 20 years.

continue at GBPG

Weird, this almost sounds like a response to my comments when I visited the shrine a few weeks ago...  So sometimes people make false dichotomies.  A place of devotion cannot also at the same time be a place of architectural beauty.  It is admirable to embrace the spirit of poverty, but that does not mean that we all must wear religious habits.  Even Francis dealt with this in his time.  Here's the thing; we must give God our best.  We cannot at one time live in $200,000 homes and have our churches be built as pole sheds for $20,000 dollars.  Do you remember what King David built for God to live amongst his people? "And unto whomsoever much is given, of him much shall be required: and to whom they have committed much, of him they will demand the more." -Lk 12:48

Like the mustard seed, faith blossomed and inspired men to glorify God in art.  Assuming we are dealing in the hermeneutics of continuity, let's look at how the Church has glorified God and the Virgin Mary in the past when she has graced God's people with her presence. 

Fatima

Lourdes

San Juan de los Lagos - Mexico

Las Lajas - Columbia

I could go on and on.  The point is.....  Iconoclasm means not giving God our best when we build churches, but being sensible; in which case all of these churches were built in vain.   The truth is that man was created to give God his best.  That's what we should do in Robinsonville.  I'm not saying build Las Lajas.  I'm just saying we, as Americans and as the wealthiest nation in history, should give God our best.