TWO DAYS IN August, 2017

Charlottesville, Va., August 11, 2017,  and Champion, Wisconsin, August 15, 2017: Two different emphases; two different results.

Hatred and bigotry portray the first city; love and peaceful unity in the other.

The Shrine of Our Lady of Good Hope in Champion, WI stands among placid farmlands; it is located west of the playing fields of the Green Bay Packers. Mary, the Queen of Heaven, appeared here to Adele Brise in 1859. Adele Brise was a religious laywoman who sought religious education for the Belgian immigrants in their new homeland.  Here Mary appeared to her and promised,  ”I will help you.”  Help she did, educating the children. Later, Our Lady spared the nearby land from the great Peshtigo fire, as the faithful gathered around the shrine site and prayed to her for help.

On August 15, 2017 over 3,000 faithful gathered to honor and pray to Mary with Mass, Benediction, Adoration and a Rosary Procession.  The leader this day, another David: Bishop David Ricken, Bishop of Green Bay, Wi. celebrated Mass with many priests as servers and Communion distributors.

The chants in Champion were "Hail Mary," not "Heil Hitler"; torches were lit with incense and candles. Teens were marching, dressed in orange T-shirts with slogans of “Life is Vocation”, symbolized on the back with the Cross of Christ at the top, arrows pointed to earth’s timeline and arrows returned back up to Christ on the Cross. The laity carried folding chairs and rosaries, missals,and relics; they were hunting shady spots to recline. So different it was from Charlottesville; so holy a spot it was to all in attendance.

It is said cell phone pictures would forever mark the infamous men of hatred of Charlottesville. At Champion, the pictures saved and sent were of men and women on their knees, marking themselves with the Sign of the Cross. 

Peace and harmony reign.  Memories will be of Mary and through her, Jesus.  The final goal on this day was heaven, not discord. 

Here Mary says to each of us, “I will help you.”  Three thousand will turn to 300 million and, surely then, true peace will reign.