God's Providence

I consider it a miracle to be here on the SPIRITUS team today. I say that because the reason I exist, along with the rest of my family, is attributed to a specific miracle. 

That miracle occurred on October 8, 1871 at the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help, just outside of Green Bay, WI. This Shrine was miraculously spared by the Peshtigo Fire, which claimed over 2,500 lives and burned through over 1,200,000 acres of land. The 5 acres of this Shrine where miraculously unharmed, although all of the surrounding land was destroyed. All of the people who took refuge at the Shrine during the fire remained unharmed as well, and one of those people who were miraculously spared, happens to be my great-great grandmother.

My great-great grandmother, Mary Lefave Cole, was only an infant at the time of the fire. All of those in the Shrine's chapel at the time of the disaster were relying on the Blessed Mother's intercession for help. Through their strong and heroic faith, they were all miraculously spared from death. This all happened exactly one day under 12 years from the first time the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to Adele Brise. My great-great grandmother Mary went on to name her daughter Adele, after Adele Brise. She choose so because Adele Brise's courageous "yes" to the Blessed Mother's request of a chapel built at the spot of her apparition led to her life being saved.  

I had the privilege of visiting the Shrine for spiritual direction today. SPIRITUS has offered me the amazing opportunity of receiving spiritual direction once a month, and I could not ask for a better place to receive it. I also am lucky enough to have my former UW-Oshkosh campus chaplain, Fr. James Walling of The Fathers of Mercy, as my spiritual director. This is one of the many connections the Lord has given me through SPIRITUS. Each day God is revealing more and more connections to me through His mighty providence at work, but this connection I have to the Shrine remains one of the closest to me.