Made possible through the generosity of friends of the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture, a September 5–6 pilgrimage brought 36 undergraduate and graduate members of the Center’s Sorin Fellows student formation program to the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion in Champion, Wisconsin, and the National Shrine of St. Joseph in De Pere before the Notre Dame–Wisconsin football game at Lambeau Field.

I accompanied the students on the pilgrimage as a chaperone. Through its emphasis on prayer and fellowship, the dCEC has been a beacon to me during my studies for the Master of Divinity degree, and I am so grateful that the dCEC afforded me this beautiful opportunity to travel with the students to Wisconsin over the Shamrock Series weekend, combining pilgrimage to two Catholic shrines with fellowship and Notre Dame football in Green Bay.

I live and work as an Assistant Rector in a dorm just steps away from the Grotto and Main Building, two central campus locations where statues of Mary remind us of her loving presence. Yet, I find that it is easy to forget to “look up” and meet her gaze in the midst of the hustle and bustle of university life. When I do remember to take a moment of pause, I’m reminded that Our Lady always brings us to her Son, Jesus. In so doing, she teaches the whole point of this University: we exist to glorify her Son in our studies, friendships, and extracurriculars. The pilgrimage provided participants with an invitation to slow down and “look,” to take a meaningful, spiritual pause from their busy academic lives.

The pilgrimage’s first destination was the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion, the site of the first (and only) Church-approved Marian apparition in the United States. In 1859, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared there to Adele Brice, a young Belgian immigrant, entrusting her with a mission of prayer, catechesis, and service.

At the Shrine, students heard reflections from Shrine staff, Notre Dame philosophy professor John O’Callaghan, and pilgrimage chaplain Rev. Chris Brennan, C.S.C. Professor O’Callaghan encouraged Sorin Fellows to attend closely to the natural beauty of the place, noting that the rural Wisconsin landscape remains much like the one Adele would have known. Father Brennan invited the students into an hour of silence, reflecting that Mary’s vocation to bear Christ to the world, begun at the Annunciation, “grew in silence.”

The Fellows then had time for individual prayer and reflection before joining in Mass in the Apparition Chapel and then praying the Rosary while walking the Shrine grounds.

For me, the communal Rosary walk was a shining moment of the pilgrimage. As we joined together to pray the Joyful Mysteries, I was particularly moved by the fifth mystery, the “Finding of Christ Jesus in the Temple.” It became apparent to me that I had indeed “found” Christ in my midst, through good, enriching conversation and laughter on the bus, through prayer and reception of the Sacraments, and through intentional opportunities to rest.

For undergraduate Sorin Fellow Danny O’Callaghan, the pilgrimage was a meaningful return to a place he had first visited as a child. “Some of my earliest memories include traveling with my family to the Shrine of Our Lady of Champion when I was three years old, before it was a formally approved Marian apparition site,” he said. Returning with the dCEC, he added, offered “a special opportunity to revisit those early memories and to see how devotion to the Blessed Mother has grown and flourished there over the past few decades.”

O’Callaghan described the hour of silence as especially meaningful. “It gave me the chance to reflect on the serene and simple beauty of the rural Midwestern landscape where Mary chose to reveal herself to the Servant of God, Adele Brice.”

The pilgrimage also included plenty of opportunities for fellowship. On Saturday evening, the group sampled Wisconsin cheese curds and went bowling before continuing the pilgrimage the following morning at the National Shrine of St. Joseph on the campus of St. Norbert College. After Mass, Rev. Mike Brennan, O. Praem., chaplain of Old St. Joseph Church and brother of Fr. Chris Brennan, led the Fellows on a tour of the Shrine of St. Joseph.

From De Pere, the group traveled to Green Bay for the Shamrock Series. Students spent time together near Lambeau Field before kickoff; some attended the game while others gathered for a game watch nearby.

Sophomore Jeremy Siegl visited Lambeau Field for the first time during the trip, and said that it was “an absolutely amazing experience.” He said the weekend’s combination of pilgrimage and football was particularly memorable to him as a lifelong fan of both the Green Bay Packers and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

The group returned to Notre Dame after the game, arriving early Monday morning in time for classes.

While driving through the night on the bus back to campus, I realized that the University of Notre Dame is located in St. Joseph County. I was struck at how appropriate that fact is, as Mary and Joseph are united in their mutual mission to make their divine son Jesus better known and loved. The geographical proximity of Our Lady of Champion and the Shrine of St. Joseph in the Diocese of Green Bay underscores the same reality. Experiencing these two Wisconsin shrines together felt like an invitation into the very heart of the Holy Family—where Christ Himself is—which inspires and shapes our mission and work.