On a gray, rainy morning in early April, a woman entered the doors of the pilgrim center at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe. She was visibly shaken and distraught. She arrived here, she said, after not really knowing where she would go that morning. She simply left her home in Minnesota and started driving. 

Her son had suddenly and tragically died the night before, and that morning she went searching for a church in which to simply pray and mourn, but all the churches whose doors she tried were closed.

Somehow, she said, she found the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe and, finally, doors that were open to welcome her into Our Lord’s comforting presence. She remained at the shrine for hours. 

This is just one account out of the millions of pilgrims who make their way to the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse, Wisconsin, every year. They seek refuge, prayer, miracles and a quiet place of repose. 

The vision of Cardinal Raymond Burke. from more than 25 years ago, today is growing — and on the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, Cardinal Burke has announced a new initiative called Our Lady’s Messengers, to help build a community of the faithful united in a great love and devotion to the Blessed Mother. 

Cardinal Burke shared the dire need for this community, telling the Register: 

“In every age of the Church, Our Lady has drawn her children back to her Son, who alone is their salvation, calling them to prayer, conversion and reparation.” 

“Today, as we face, in the world and even in the Church, pervasive confusion, division and a loss of faith, Our Lady’s call resounds with renewed urgency,” the cardinal said.

For more than 25 years, the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse has “witnessed daily, and continues to witness, how hearts are healed and renewed when they encounter Christ through his Mother’s loving guidance and intercession,” Cardinal Burke explained. 

The Our Lady’s Messengers initiative includes a “monthly offering program arising from the knowledge and conviction that each soul is called, through conversion of life and loving reparation for sins, to share in Our Lady’s mission of leading souls to her divine Son,” Cardinal Burke also told the Register. 

“By uniting our hearts – prayers and sacrifices – to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, we help make possible Our Lady’s daily work of evangelization, catechesis and mercy at her Shrine in La Crosse, Wisconsin.”

“In a time when so many are searching for meaning and truth, this collaboration of faith and generosity allows Our Lady’s light to shine more brightly, calling all to the Heart of her Son, who is our life, our peace and our salvation,” he added.

In a letter inviting the faithful to join the new community, Cardinal Burke reiterated the need for the protection of Our Lady’s mantle: “In a world increasingly in need of Our Lady’s intercession, I now invite you to carry forward the message of the Blessed Virgin of Guadalupe.”

He invites the faithful to consider, “as a member of Our Lady’s Messengers, becoming one with me in my labors for the mission of her shrine.”

Devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe and the shrine in Wisconsin has grown exponentially. Tens of thousands of pilgrims travel to the beautifully tended property and grounds every year. More than 160,000 Catholics joined a nine-month novena and consecration to Our Lady, culminating on her feast day, Dec. 12, 2024. 

The rise in interest and devotion to Our Lady has sparked this new apostolate. Our Lady’s Messengers brings into focus the cardinal’s original vision for the shrine: to not only be a monument, “but a living sanctuary of grace, especially for those suffering poverty in body and soul.”