While on a trip to Lacrosse, Wisconsin, to visit the shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, seminarian Patrick Storms heard about a seminarian’s 238-mile pilgrimage from Our Lady of Guadalupe’s shrine to the shrine of Our Lady of Champion. Inspired by this, Storms wanted to do something similar.
While in class, Storms leaned over to his friend and fellow seminarian Aidan Nicholas and said, “Hey, do you want to walk to LaCrosse with me? And he was like, ‘Sure, why not?’ We tried to get other guys, but they were busy, or they had plans, so it ended up being the two of us.”
Nicholas told “Practicing Catholic” radio show host Patrick Conley during an interview airing at 9 p.m. Sept. 6 on Relevant Radio 1330 AM, “The big one we wanted to do (rules for the pilgrimage) was no food and no money. To just every morning we’d wake up and say the Our Father and say, ‘give us this day our daily bread’ and then have to mean it, which was a beautiful practice. It made us very nervous about the trip, but it was a practice that we both wanted to try.”
Nicholas explained that the original plan didn’t call for either of the seminarians to bring a cellphone. Instead, they wrote out every single direction to LaCrosse on paper, which consisted of 7-8 pages. Ultimately, a priest friend of theirs advised that they bring a cellphone in case of emergencies, and so they did.
“We packed extremely light,” Nicholas said. “We brought a big emergency tarp in case we got caught somewhere and had to sleep outside, but other than that very minimal clothes, one pair of shoes and then our breviaries, a Word on Fire for the daily readings and then a journal and then, of course, the Marian consecration books.”
Storms said the route they took was mostly through Wisconsin. Day one, they walked from Minneapolis to Cottage Grove, staying at St. Rita’s Catholic Church. Then they went to Prescott in Wisconsin, then to Ellsworth, where they called off the walking pilgrimage due to unforeseen weather risks. Both seminarians decided to conclude the pilgrimage on foot and decided to make the drive out to LaCrosse instead.
The pilgrimage was a way for Storms and Nicholas to renew their consecration to Mary. With 33 days of preparation, the day that the seminarians arrived at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, they renewed their consecration.
“A lot of it was focused on Mary, giving ourselves totally to Mary,” Storms said. “But then also part of it was also ‘give us this day our daily bread.’ Putting our trust totally in the Lord, not knowing exactly where we’re going to sleep some nights, not knowing how we’re going to eat some days. Just trusting that the Lord has us.”
To hear more from Storms and Nicholas about their pilgrimage to LaCrosse, tune into “Practicing Catholic,” which repeats at 1 p.m. Sept. 7 and 2 p.m. Sept. 8.
The program also includes an interview with Michael Ennis, the leader of a young men’s house in St. Paul dedicated to St. Don Bosco. Also, Deacon Jim Meyer dives deep into his healing from Parkinson’s disease.
Produced by Relevant Radio and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the program can also be heard after it has aired at archspm.org/faith-and-discipleship/practicing-catholic or choose a streaming platform at Spotify for Podcasters.
