Maggie’s Story of Healing by God’s Grace
The Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe is, above all, a place where pilgrims can come to receive grace. Usually that grace, working through prayer and the Sacraments, manifests in subtle ways, leaving hearts moved and souls refreshed in ways they themselves might not entirely recognize. On occasion, however, someone experiences a more striking kind of blessing. Such was the case for Maggie, a recent college graduate whose severe migraines suddenly stopped after her pilgrimage in December 2023.
Her Suffering
Maggie experienced migraines beginning in her senior year at Iowa State University. “I was suffering pretty bad, just barely getting through the motions,” she recalls. “It’s more than just a headache; it’s like constant pressure on your head. There were days I couldn’t even get out of bed. I would have seizure-type episodes where I would just be unresponsive and couldn’t do anything.” Maggie’s migraines continued after her graduation and return home, so that even after a slight improvement, she needed time off from work once or twice a week.
Pilgrimage to the Shrine
Meanwhile, since graduating Maggie had become involved with a Catholic young adults’ group in her hometown. One of the group’s activities in 2023 was a pilgrimage to Our Lady’s Shrine. There, while in adoration in the Shrine Church, Maggie had an unexpected encounter with divine mercy.
Mary’s Healing Mission
“We had just gone through, as a group, of the tour of the church,” she explains, “and everything was about healing: Mary’s healing mission, healing this, healing that.” Moved to think, and then to pray, she offered a plea of faith: “I said, ‘God, I know that You can heal me, so if it’s Your will, let it be done.’” Immediately she smelled a fragrance of roses, a smell that, when she asked her friends afterward, she found no one else had noticed. In the months since that day, Maggie has not suffered from any migraines.
Trust in God
With this blessing have come other graces, notably clarity for her next step; Maggie’s renewed health has freed her to pursue her dream of vet school. “For a while I didn’t know if that was the right choice for me,” she shares. “There was no way that I could have functioned through vet school at all [with the migraines], and I had really just prayed … ‘Lord, if this is your will, if this is what you’ve created me for, I’m here, I will do it … I’ll still do whatever you want me to.’” Through her suffering, Maggie was sustained by trust that God would enable her to fulfill whatever was in His plan for her; she cites the saying that “God doesn’t call the equipped; He equips those He calls.”
Corporal and Spiritual Welfare
Like Maggie, many pilgrims come to the Shrine praying for help in physical sufferings. Some of the Mass Guilds are especially for these purposes, including the Saint Peregrine Guild for those with cancer and the Saint Gianna Guild for mothers, especially pregnant mothers, and couples hoping to conceive. Whatever form the answer to their prayer may take, all can be sure that their Mother’s love is awaiting them there, as she promised her children through Saint Juan Diego: “I am truly your compassionate Mother … I will listen to their weeping, their sadness, to remedy, to cleanse and nurse all their different troubles.”
The Shrine’s Mission Statement
The Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse, Wisconsin, faithful to the message of the Blessed Virgin Mary through her appearances on the American continent in 1531, serves the spiritual needs of those who suffer poverty in body and soul. It is a place of ceaseless prayer for the corporal and spiritual welfare of God’s children, especially those in most need.
