Visiting Mary: Grace Abounds at These Marian Shrines, by Joseph Pronechen

By Joseph Pronechen, National Catholic Register, September 8, 2024

Joseph Pronechen is staff writer with the National Catholic Register since 2005 and before that a regular correspondent for the paper. His articles have appeared in a number of national publications including Columbia magazine, Soul, Faith and Family, Catholic Digest, Catholic Exchange, and Marian Helper. His religion features have also appeared in Fairfield County Catholic and in major newspapers…

‘Mary is the best intercessor …’

The faithful always go to Mother Mary, seeking her consolation and intercession.

And Marian pilgrimages can be powerful spiritual experiences.

Certain days particularly attract pilgrims to celebrate. Do more people come on the Blessed Mother’s birthday on Sept. 8? “Oh absolutely!” answered Chelsey Hare, director of communications at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion in Champion, Wisconsin. “The shrine usually sees an increased amount of pilgrims on Marian feast days — her nativity, the Assumption, Immaculate Conception. They come to celebrate and honor the beautiful moments of her life and feel close to her at these sacred sites devoted to her.”

At the National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, Pauline Father Maksymilian Ogar has found that is also the case. …