“Go and Fear Nothing”

In the month of May, the Church turns with special affection to the Blessed Virgin Mary. We crown her statues, pray her rosary with renewed devotion, and remember that she is not a distant figure but a Mother who draws near to us.... especially to those who feel small, less than adequate, or umequipped.

That is exactly who she came to in 1859.

Adele Brise was twenty-eight years old, a Belgian immigrant carving out a life in the dense Wisconsin wilderness. She was largely uneducated, blind in one eye from a childhood accident, and had already let go of her dream of becoming a teaching sister in Belgium when her family decided to emigrate. While walking through the woods one autumn day, this ordinary young woman encountered the Queen of Heaven.

Dressed in dazzling white with a crown of stars on her head, Mary appeared to Adele three different times. On the third encounter, Mary gave Adele a straightforward but demanding mission: “Gather the children in this wild country and teach them what they should know for salvation.” She instructed Adele to teach them the Sign of the Cross, the catechism, and how to approach the sacraments. Then came the words that still echo today:

“Go and fear nothing. I will help you.”

Adele's encounter with Mary brings to mind something like a familiar sign post which points toward a mysterious truth: God never forgets the lowly. It just seems like a truth God wants to illuminate over and over in history. He does not pass over the quiet, the limited, or the overlooked. Adele had little by the world’s standards, yet heaven itself took notice of her willing heart.

I can only imagine what was going through Adele's mind when this miracle occurred. She could have reasonably offered a dozen excuses to Our Lady in this moment. Her lack of formal education, the rough pioneer settlement her family needed her help taming. Her physical disability. But Adele's response was not to make excuses, she got to work right away.

Following her encounter with the Blessed Virgin, Adele began seeing out the mission entrusted to her by walking to each of her neighbors' houses, as many as fifty miles on foot, stopping door to door. She offered to cook, clean, and help with chores for families in exchange for the priviledge of catechising their children in the Faith. Perhaps to her community saw her work as small and unimportant. But gathering kids, teaching basic prayers, forming young hearts was anything but insignificant, it was important enough to God Himself that he sent the Blessed Virgin Mary to encourage Adele. In a wild, rugged country, she planted seeds of faith that outlasted her and still bear fruit in the thousands of hearts her story inspired, my own included.

This is the power of Our Lady of Good Help, our patroness. She does not wait until we feel ready or qualified. She meets us in our willingness and supplies what is lacking. Just as she carried Christ within her and went “in haste” to serve Elizabeth, Mary calls us to carry His truth to those around us, often in the most ordinary settings.

Many of us today feel like Adele must have felt: under-resourced, tired, uncertain whether our efforts matter. Parenting feels overwhelming. Teaching the faith to the next generation seems impossible in a secular culture sometimes. Our work, our daily service, our small acts of fidelity can appear insignificant. Yet Mary’s message to Adele can bring peace to us in the face of this type of discouragement: "Go and fear nothing. I will help you."

The same Spirit who filled Mary with the fire of true joy will meet us as we seek to do the will of the Father.

As we honor Mary this May, let us ask Our Lady of Good Help to stir that same willingness in us. We do not need to invent grand purposes. We only need to say “yes” to what is asked of us today...however small it seems, and trust that she will help us carry it.

Adele listened, she acted, and the help came. With God, all things are possible!