SWAG��Ƶ

Departing from Bismarck or Fargo, ND: Board the bus on Friday, August 14, either on campus in Bismarck or at Sts. Anne and Joachim Catholic Church in Fargo. The cost is $625 for single occupancy or $1,100 for double occupancy, including accommodations and meals.

Departing from Woodbury, MN: Board the bus on Saturday, August 15, at Saint Ambrose Catholic Church in Woodbury. The cost is $425 for single occupancy or $750 for double occupancy, including accommodations and meals.

Departing from Bismarck or Fargo, ND: Board the bus on Friday, August 14, either on campus in Bismarck or at Sts. Anne and Joachim Catholic Church in Fargo. The bus fee is $150 per person, including accommodations and meals.

Departing from Woodbury, MN: Board the bus on Saturday, August 15, at Saint Ambrose Catholic Church in Woodbury. The bus fee is $75 per person, including accommodations and meals.

Students who wish to drive themselves are invited to a cookout and camping opportunity near Green Bay on Saturday evening and all shrine activities (including lunch) on Sunday, free of charge. All other accommodations and meals are on your own.

Pilgrims departing from the Bismarck-Mandan area will meet on the University of Mary’s campus to board the coach bus. Our first stop is Sts. Anne and Joachim Catholic Church in Fargo, to welcome additional pilgrims for the Fargo-Moorhead area. The destination from Friday evening is in Collegeville, MN—founded by five Benedictine monks who pushed westward in 1856 at the request of Bishop Joseph Cretin of Saint Paul to serve the German Catholic settlers of central Minnesota. The community not only formed what are now Saint John’s University and the College of Saint Benedict, but became a spiritual headwater for Benedictine communities and missions across the upper Midwest and Northern Plains regions, including our own Benedictine Sisters of Annunciation Monastery. Prepare to enjoy the beauty of Minnesota’s Lake Country and the blessing of Benedictine hospitality; visit the final resting place of Mother Benedicta Riepp, OSB, foundress of the first communities of Benedictine religious sisters in the US—and, with luck, vespers with the monks of Saint John’s.

We depart Saint John’s Abbey early Friday for a morning stop at Saint Ambrose Catholic Church in Woodbury, MN, to welcome more pilgrims aboard. From there, we travel to the in La Crosse for a visit, including Mass and lunch. Envisioned as a source of spiritual renewal by Cardinal Raymond Burke—at the time, bishop of the Diocese of La Crosse—the shrine church was dedicated in 2008 with two cardinals, more than 20 bishops, and more than 100 priests in attendance. The architecture and sacred art are breathtaking, of course—but the beauty and serenity of the grounds and devotional spaces make the shrine a spiritual destination for pilgrims from around the world.

From La Crosse, we head east to Green Bay for dinner, Adoration, Confession, and fervorino—a brief, impassioned reflection—before enjoying an evening bonfire and preparing for Sunday Mass at the Shrine of Our Lady of Champion.

After breakfast on Sunday morning, we reach our destination. Nestled among fields and pastures in rural Wisconsin, the is a revelation: humble, yet beautiful, like Our Blessed Mother herself. In this quiet corner of the world in 1859, a mysterious woman in white appeared to Adele Brice—daughter of immigrant Belgian farmers—urging her to offer Communion for the conversion of sinners and catechize the children of the area. Other women took up her mission; donations and miracles have followed since, and in 2010, Adele’s vision of the Blessed Mother as Our Lady of Champion was declared “Worthy of Belief”—the only approved Marian apparition in the US, on equal spiritual footing with Lourdes, Fatima, and Guadalupe. Today, the shrine is a source of hope, healing, and deep peace for thousands of pilgrims each year. May you each receive many graces as well!

We begin our return trip in the afternoon, stopping in Woodbury and Fargo before arriving back at the University of Mary Sunday evening.