On a crisp first Saturday in May, Jody, and John Kuiken arrive at the National Shrine of St. Joseph wearing their best walking shoes. It’s early morning and still dark out before the first pilgrims check in for the Walk to Mary. The Kuikens prepare to answers questions and assist last-minute registrants for the annual 22-mile trek on foot from DePere to Champion, Wisconsin.
The destination of the Walk to Mary is the Shrine of Our Lady of Champion (OLC), where the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to seer Adele Brise in 1859, and of which the Church has declared her apparition trustworthy.
As volunteers at the pilgrimage destination, Jody and John Kuiken work with hundreds of other volunteers to make the Walk to Mary memorable for all the pilgrims. Every year, the Kuikens have seen an uptick in this Marian devotion that, at first, was local to devotees from the Green Bay area and Wisconsin. But as pilgrims go, and faith tends to do, it spread beyond local borders. This past May, the Kuikens saw a record turnout of 7,500 people from across the state and the country.
They have likewise seen a steady growth of pilgrims to the Walk’s goal site of OLC. There, they welcome visitors not only during the Walk to Mary but throughout the year. Like the growth of participants in the Walk to Mary, OLC had the largest number of summer visitors to the Shrine in its history.
Promising Beginnings
John and Jody’s journey together and to Our Lady of Champion started when they met in college at the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point. When John asked Jody on a date, her yes to the date was followed by, “Would you like to attend Mass with me?”
How should a young man who left his Christianity behind respond to a pretty woman whom he wanted to date?
“Yes!”
When he walked into the Newman Center for Catholic Mass, he sensed something was different from his prior experiences at the United Church of Christ. He knew Jesus was there. And it changed his life. He declares his first Mass to be a St. Paul-like conversion.
And unlike many converts from Protestant denominations who stumble over Catholic theology of Mary, he had no trouble with it, finding Marian devotion beautiful. John joined the Catholic Church four months before the two were wed in 1972. They’ve been together in faith ever since.
Pilgrimage of Life
As volunteers, John and Jody welcome visitors from all over the country and the world to Our Lady of Champion, the place where they themselves were first-time pilgrims in the early 2000s.
On their first visit, the peacefulness of OLC and the sense of Mary’s presence struck them. About 20 years later, it was this peace that became a major factor in their decision to move to DePere, Wisconsin, from Wenatchee, Washington, to dedicate themselves to volunteering in retirement.
Of the pilgrims they meet, Jody says, “I can see such peace in their eyes when they visit the Shrine and adoration chapel.”
John and Jody work at the Shrine every Wednesday and on special occasions, welcoming new and returning pilgrims, supporting employees and fellow volunteers in the café, and performing administrative tasks.
“So many people share their stories with us of coming to look for healing in some way,” remarks Jody.
News of miraculous healings and testimonies of the pilgrims help the volunteers themselves affirm their service, encouraging them in their faith journeys.
Spreading Faith
Since they began volunteering at the Shrine in October 2020, the Kuikens have become part of the growth that made OLC no longer a Shrine famous only to locals.
They were on-site last summer when the Marian Eucharistic procession passed through OLC en route from Minnesota to the Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis, Indiana. John and Jody themselves followed the pilgrimage to Indianapolis. “To experience the Congress with over 60,000 other pilgrims was incredible,” they said.
This year, Our Lady of Champion was designated a Jubilee Year Pilgrim of Hope destination. These newsworthy events increased the Shrine’s popularity.
Yet, in their day-to-day conversations with pilgrims, John and Jody discover that most visitors come to the Shrine after hearing about the place from a fellow parishioner or friend. Faith spreads from person to person, by word of mouth. Like leaven, faith feeds off of, grows and stretches, spreads and swells, from one neighbor to the next.
John says he can’t emphasize enough how their conscious decisions to surround themselves with faithful believers encourage them on their journeys and informs their choices.
Volunteer Spirit
Supporting others through spiritual and corporal acts of mercy is a way of life for John and Jody. John mentors younger members in a Catholic men’s group, Esto Vir (meaning “Be A Man”), takes the Eucharist to the homebound, and helps a mom who cares for her quadriplegic son.
Jody and John help a homeschool mom of 5 children; Jody sings in the Cathedral choir, hosts a women’s book group at their home for young moms, and serves as a lector for daily Mass twice a week. The Kuikens rent a townhome and live simply, eschewing the trappings that others might consider important in retirement.
Making virtuous and hard decisions as a couple throughout their lives led them to make volunteering a cornerstone in their retirement. The couple encourages others to do likewise. “With volunteering, you always get more than you give,” John says.
There are many individual and collective Kuikens, quietly serving, quietly journeying. They walk the way of Mary. And like Mary, their hidden service is the leaven that spreads faith and offers testimony to a neighbor that moves faith to action.
The Kuikens and those like them make up the body of Christ’s many parts. They spread faith, person to person, pilgrim to pilgrim. They support others—and are likewise supported—on their walk to Mary.
Image from The National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion
