Happy Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe!! On this 10th day of the virtual Advent pilgrimage, we arrive in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, along the banks of the Upper Mississippi River. It is here that one of the most beautiful shrines to Our Lady in America can be found: the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
The Shrine was the dream of Cardinal Raymond Burke, who served as Bishop of LaCrosse in the 1990s. The scenic grounds include a rosary walk, outdoor stations of the cross, a votive chapel, a memorial to the unborn with an incredible statue of the Mother of the Unborn (a statue cast in Mexico of Our Lady of Guadalupe cradling three unborn babies in her arms), and devotional areas to saints ranging from St. Joseph to St. Kateri Tekakwitha. The bronze devotional of St. Joseph the Worker is particularly powerful, as it depicts St. Joseph teaching the young Christ about wood work, with the wood in his hands taking the shape of a cross.
The Shrine is a lovely spot to contemplate the love of Mary and her care and compassion for the peoples of the Americas. Just as St. Juan Diego left Tepeyac Hill forever converted and more deeply in love with Christ, so too may we carry on in our Advent journey following in the path laid clear for us by the Star of the New Evangelization, our Lady of Guadalupe.
Discover more of Catholic Wisconsin
There are many great Catholic sites across the state of Wisconsin. Learn more in the Catholic travel guide to Catholic Wisconsin here.
Concluding Psalm
Instead of a concluding psalm today, I instead propose a quote from St. John Paul the Great reflecting on the Guadalupe miracle in Ecclesia in America:
“It is my heartfelt hope that she, whose intercession was responsible for strengthening the faith of the first disciples (cf. Jn 2:11), will by her maternal intercession guide the Church in America, obtaining the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, as she once did for the early Church (cf. Acts 1:14), so that the new evangelization may yield a splendid flowering of Christian life.”
Previous days of the pilgrimage:
Day 1 – Rapid City, South Dakota
Day 2 – Montana
Day 3 – Sacramento
Day 4 – Los Angeles
Day 5 – Tucson
Day 6 – Santa Fe
Day 7 – Denver
Day 8 – San Antonio
Day 9 – Chicago
CATHOLIC CONCIERGE 
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