Welcoming May on the Walk to Mary

Welcoming May on the Walk to Mary

By Franci Revel Eckensberger, Lead Editor

Here in Southern Delaware, our relatively short spring has fully sprung—dew on the daffodils, intermittent rain giving way to blue skies, the ocean growing brighter by the day, and temperatures calling the sunbathers onto the shore. You can start to imagine the velvety smell of a peach in your hand. 

Delaware has fairly mild winters as a rule, but this year brought ice storms and feet upon feet of snow. My daughter barely experienced the outdoors for the first many months of her life. The weather simply wouldn’t allow it. Perhaps where you are there’s still the occasional snow flurry, or maybe you’re fortunate enough to enjoy steady early-summer warmth year-round. Many of us, as the world wakes up and our senses have so much more to take in, feel a shift in our relationship to our own bodies. We grow more attuned to creation: stepping onto wet earth in the garden, the warmth on our skin, the simple pleasure of moving through open air again.

No matter the weather, it’s May—the month we all turn our hearts to Mary. And our patron at
Paloma & Fig, St. John Paul II, offers us a beautiful lens through which to reflect upon our physical place in this beautiful, complicated world. He reminds us that what we do with our bodies is not spiritually neutral—that the body has a kind of “language,” one capable of speaking truths or falsehoods about who we are, how we’re made, and the world we act on. We are embodied persons and what we do with our embodiment matters. 

Among the many consequences of this truth is a delightful gift: we can honor God through the movement, care, and presence of our bodies. Exercise, rest, time outdoors, good food, fragrance, holding the hand of a child. With the great gift He gave each and every one of us, God calls us to recognize the bearing we have on the spaces we move through and on the world that receives us. Our bodies can be used for prayer, exaltation, and sacrifice.

The 13th Annual Walk to Mary

In Green Bay, Wisconsin, this vision of embodied prayer has been practiced quite concretely every May for the past thirteen years. This year’s Walk to Mary—affectionately dubbed ”America’s Mini-Camino”—will take place Saturday, May 2. 

A record number of over 10,000 faithful are registered to participate in this tradition of honoring Christ and Our Lady with a 22-mile pilgrimage from the National Shrine of St. Joseph in De Pere, WI, to the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion. The Shrine is the only approved Marian apparition site in the United States. We wrote about the apparition’s seer Adele Brice a few months back on this blog—her cause for canonization was recently opened by the Most Reverend David L. Ricken, Bishop of Green Bay. Servant of God Adele Brice devoted her life to traveling on foot as far as fifty miles through the Wisconsin wilderness to catechize families and children regardless of the weather, heeding the instructions to evangelize given to her by Our Lady of Champion.

According to a March 9, 2026, press release from the Shrine, Bishop Ricken’s declaration of Adele’s cause for canonization has played a large role in attracting a record number of pilgrims for this year’s walk. At the time of the press release, registration was up 80% compared to the same point in 2025.

In a world that moves too fast, Walk to Mary allows thousands to choose to slow down, walk together, and rediscover Our Lady as she leads them one step at a time to her Son.”

— Fr. Anthony Stephens, CPM

June will see our sprawling, complex nation consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus — just before its 250th anniversary. It’s a fitting moment. As it continues to feel as if we are in a perpetual state of unrest, each of us is uniquely touched by the political violence, war, apathy, confusion, and division that hangs in the air. And this is to say nothing of our private and family lives, our daily human hangups, quiet pains, and longing for peace. 

Reverend Francis Joseph Hoffman, a founder of the Walk to Mary and CEO of Relevant Radio, speaks to this in the event’s press release. Quoted on the walk’s significance in this particular year, he says it is “an opportunity for Catholics to pray, offer sacrifice, and entrust our country, our families, and our future to the merciful love of Christ.” And further: “Every step we take together becomes a prayer for renewal in our Church and our nation.”

Walking toward the Blessed Mother, the body becomes prayer. 

Taking St. John Paul II’s vision of the body to heart, this pilgrimage is itself a kind of theology in motion. It makes a statement by honoring Our Lady through the body itself, used as an instrument of prayer. The Walk to Mary is meaningful for many participants’ prayer lives, who feel her presence on their journey as they proclaim the truth that Mary matters, pointing us to the King of the Universe, with only their movement. 

The press release told the story of one couple who traveled all the way from Maryland to complete the 22-mile trek in 2024, spending the walk in prayer for a baby. That prayer was answered. They plan to return this year “to give thanks to Our Lady for her intercession for this miracle from God.” The same road is now walked in gratitude and praise born from a longing to participate in the Lord’s creation and love.

Kevin Matthews, the subject of the wonderful film Broken Mary (read our review here!), will speak at St. Norbert College as part of the Friday, May 1 events, and his beloved statue of Mary will be processed throughout the pilgrimage itself. A May Crowning and a Rosary Procession will take place on May 3.

The walk winds “along the banks of the Fox River and the Niagara Escarpment to the town of Champion.” From the National Shrine of St. Joseph to a National Marian Shrine, the walk ”connects the Holy family,” an idea I found most moving reading the press release. The pilgrims have the opportunity to move from the gift of Joseph to the gift of Mary, trekking across God’s great gift to us and held on either side by these ultimate parental figures. Fertile ground beneath their feet, cleansing water rushing past, and–hopefully—some springtime greenery overhead and flowers catching their eyes.

We pray at our place of origin, at our destination, and on our way. May God bless all our pilgrimages this month of Mary. And may the weather hold out in Green Bay!

Our Lady of Champion, pray for us!

There’s still time to register for the walk on May 2, if you’re in the area. Visit walktomary.com. 

Learn more about Our Lady of Champion and Adele Brice at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion and at adelebrice.org.

Weekend of Activities for Pilgrims
Courtesy of the Walk to Mary

In addition to the Walk to Mary itself, pilgrims traveling to Green Bay will have the opportunity to participate in several additional events designed to enhance the pilgrimage experience and foster community:

• Broken Mary Presentation: Friday, May 1, 7 PM. Kevin Matthews, whose inspiring story is shared in the recent film Broken Mary, is speaking at St. Norbert College. Registration is open now. On Saturday, the statue will be processed during the Walk to Mary.
  
• Sing to Mary: A Sacred Music Concert: Friday, May 1, a special sacred music concert, “Sing to Mary,” will be held at the Green Bay Cathedral and feature a collection of musicians from the Diocese of Green Bay performing beautiful sacred music inspired by devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. A Spaghetti Dinner will be held beforehand. Registration for the dinner and concert are limited. Tickets are available here.
  
• May Crowning: Sunday, May 3, 11:30 AM Mass. The National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion will celebrate its time-honored tradition of crowning Mary as Queen of heaven and earth. Following Mary’s crowning, there will be a Rosary Procession around its grounds.

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Lead Editor Franci Revel Eckensberger holds a Master of Fine Arts in Poetry from Cornell University. With years of experience as a copyeditor for academics, fellow writers, and various small businesses, she takes pride in maintaining clarity, consistency, and beauty in each client’s voice. 

Franci finds grace and insight in the Catholic Church’s rich relationship to language and invites that relationship to influence both her literary and editorial work. Saint Cecilia and Catherine of Siena continue to play a vital role in her journey to the faith as an artist. She lives in coastal Delaware with her husband and daughter.