National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion Draws Children for a ‘Walk to Mary’| National Catholic Register

The ‘Walk With the Children’ on May 4 is a companion event to the shrine’s annual 22-mile ‘Walk to Mary.’

When our Blessed Mother appeared to Adele Brise on the grounds of what is now the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion in Wisconsin, she wanted Adele to help the children learn and practice the faith. Mary told her: “Gather the children in this wild country and teach them what they need to know for their salvation. Go and fear nothing. I will help you.”

Today, the shrine continues to follow Mary’s directives with events such as the “Walk With the Children” on May 4, a companion event to the shrine’s annual 22-mile “Walk to Mary”) on the same day.

“It’s fitting that we especially have something for the children since one of the main messages of the apparition was directed towards this specific age group,” Father of Mercy Joseph Aytona, rector of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion, told the Register. “It’s very appropriate, especially for their age groups, so something could be especially planted as seeds of faith for them as they grow up. It’s a good experience. It’s like a stepping stone, so to speak, to a bigger Marian devotion.”

In fact, the 1.7-mile route around the shrine grounds becomes a shorter pilgrimage route that merges into the last half mile of the longer Walk to Mary that draws people from all around the country.

Cory and Hannah VandenHeuvel have participated annually, and so have their two sons, 12-year-old Max and 8-year-old Carson.

“Our first walk was in 2014, when my oldest son was about 2, and we’ve only missed one year since then. We feel as Catholic parents we are called to teach them our faith and to really get them started with their own personal relationship with God,” Hannah told the Register. “This walk is really one way that we can start doing that with them and being an example for them and also seeing so many other young families out there doing it as well.”

She sees the children get closer to Mary as they pray the Rosary on the walk — and choose devotion over extracurriculars. “Every year of the Walk to Mary, they have been having a baseball tournament, and the boys actually choose to participate in the Walk to Mary over playing in their baseball tournament, which really shows the testament of their faith and their yearning to strengthen that relationship with God.”

This year, Max is “graduating” from the Walk With the Children and will join his dad at the 14-mile mark of the full walk.

“They’re excited for their plans in the future to join in at the next mileage markers,” Hannah said about the boys. “And our goal is to one day as a family complete the whole 22-mile journey together.”

Their goal for the Walk to Mary will begin, as it always does, at the National Shrine of St. Joseph in De Pere, Wisconsin, and continue to the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion in Champion, the only Church-approved Marian apparition site in the United States. The day’s pilgrimage always takes place on the first Saturday of May, the month of Mary.

Elderly adults and those physically unable to do the full walk also participate by joining in the Walk With the Children, as it is less taxing.

Father Aytona explained how the children’s walk “helps them to visualize their faith more when they do something like a walk, when they’re hearing someone praying the Rosary, when they see the statue of Mary, when a thousand other people are walking with them. It can get very emotional … where they pick up their devotion to Mary, and that can help them in a fun but yet devotional way. And it gives them an opportunity to go out and witness through their faith in a very sensory way.”

This May, the Walk With the Children and the full Walk to Mary will serve as a preview of part of the “Marian Route” of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage that will come through the shrine on June 16. Bishop David Ricken of the Diocese of Green Bay, who approved the Marian apparitions here, will celebrate Mass at 2 p.m. that Sunday. After Mass, there will be a large Eucharistic Rosary Procession around the shrine along the 1.7-mile route.

Father Aytona said of teaching children through these prayerful events, “The idea of processions, of honoring Jesus or honoring the Blessed Virgin Mary, the more that they have these things available and are able to experience these things, the more they’ll know that it’s very important and a very important part of our faith.”

He illuminated the Eucharistic-Marian connection, too. “Whether they do the Walk to Mary or the Eucharistic Pilgrimage walk, they know that offering something to Jesus through Mary is the theme for both of them. So they’re connected. It’s just a different emphasis of devotion, one being the means and one being the end: Mary being the means to Jesus, and the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, of God, especially in the Eucharist, is our goal.”