Two adults, eight kids, 22 miles, and one purpose – to get closer to Jesus Christ through His mother Mary. This summarizes what the Alex family of Barrington, Illinois will be doing during their 10th Walk for Mary on May 2 in Champaign, Wisconsin.
come to mary There is an annual pilgrimage held on the first Saturday in May. The first walk took place in 2013 and over the years thousands of Catholics from around the world have participated in it. The 22-mile pilgrimage begins at the National Shrine of St. Joseph and ends at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champaign, the only approved Marian apparition site in the United States, where the Blessed Mother appeared to Adele Bridges in 1859.
For Kim Alex, a Catholic homeschooling mom; her husband, Preston; And their eight children – ranging in age from 17 to 4 – have made the pilgrimage an annual tradition.
The Alex family participates in the Walk to Mary pilgrimage. | Credit: Photo courtesy of Kim Alex
The “Alex Tribe” – as they are referred to by their community – first participated in the Walk to Mary when the eldest child was only 8 years old. At the time, there were seven children in the family and all of them participated in the two-mile version of the pilgrimage for their first several trips.
The pilgrimage includes several “join-in” points along the route to allow participants unable to walk the full distance the ability to participate.
“For a children’s walk – a short two-mile walk – it was great to have seven kids running around, for Mary to be so excited to walk,” Alex told EWTN News in an interview.
She added: “It didn’t seem like it would be a very long walk carrying a 2-year-old in a backpack or my 5-year-old running as fast as he could because he wanted to catch Mary, which I don’t think he ever did, but for our family it was a beautiful experience that first time and every year since.”
After participating in the two-mile version of the walk her first few years, Alexis began to extend her full length. This year, for the first time, they plan to walk the entire 22-mile route. And it wasn’t mom and dad who made this decision – it was the two eldest children.
“My 17-year-old daughter and my 16-year-old son came up to my husband and (me) after a 14-mile hike last year and said, ‘We have some big prayer intentions for next year,'” she shared. “They’re on the verge of looking at colleges and figuring out where they want to go and where God is calling them and so he’s said, ‘Mom, I’m going to move 22 miles if you’re okay with this. I want our whole family to be involved.'”
Alexis then sat down as a family to discern what God was calling them to do and what goals they needed to reach so that everyone could feel comfortable doing the entire pilgrimage. Keeping this in mind, the entire family is preparing physically and spiritually for this event.
“Even our 4-year-old little girl is walking and biking around the neighborhood every day so she can get her sweet little feet ready for this beautiful occasion,” Alex said.
She said it’s her oldest children who want to make sure participating in the Walk to Mary is always part of the family culture.
“They’ve taken time off work, they’ve told their athletic coaches, ‘We’re not going to be able to go and do this race’ … because our family really wants to maintain this part of our family tradition,” Alex said. “And it’s great that it’s my teenagers who want to keep it going. There’s no fighting because we’ve grown into this together.”
The Alex family participates in the Walk to Mary pilgrimage. | Credit: Photo courtesy of Kim Alex
Alex admitted she was hesitant when her children first brought up the idea of doing the full pilgrimage.
“I’ll tell you, this 22 miles makes me nervous a little bit and yet I have kids who say, ‘We can do this Mom. We did 18 miles at Disney. So we can do 22 miles for Mary.’ I’m like, ‘This is such a beautiful idea, isn’t it?’ If I can do it for happiness, I can definitely do it for Mary, for my faith,” she shared.
Reflecting on how participating in the Walk to Mary has impacted his family’s faith, Alex shared that it has reminded him that “the Blessed Mother is an incredible spiritual mother to all of us.”
She added: “Especially as a mother in this world today, I sometimes get lost in the worry, the anxiety, the stress of life. And so to know that our Blessed Mother will wrap me in her blanket and bring me to Jesus is very comforting.”
“The fact that my children have seen me go to the Blessed Mother when I’m struggling and ask her for help to get closer to my son, then they see the humanity of their mother and they say, ‘Wow, mom may not have it all together, but she knows someone who does and she will trust her.'”
The Catholic mother said the pilgrimage has also taught her children how to pray for others. He remembered an instance when one of his sons approached a man while on a walk and asked him if he intended to pray for him. The man was a resident of Brazil and was going on a pilgrimage to seek treatment for his wife.
He said, “My hope is that they feel inspired to become missionary disciples…and that they are developing the hearts of missionary discipleship – walking with people, being inspired to go and pray with people.”
Alex said each member of the family has a prayer journal and the children are already “collecting people’s prayers and they’re already wrapping them into our nightly rosary that we do every night.”
When the Blessed Mother appeared to Bryce in the woods of Champion, Wisconsin, one of the messages she gave the young woman was to “gather the children in this wild country and teach them what they need to know for salvation.”
This is something that has deeply influenced Alex’s faith and a message she brings daily to her business of motherhood.
“I’ve memorized it (the message) because that’s our role as parents,” Alex said. “I think each of our homes can feel like a wild country, you go in and… that’s how it feels to me sometimes. It feels like a wild country. But if I can continue to gather my kids and teach them what they need to know – I’m not preparing them for Harvard. I’m going to prepare them for heaven.”
Summarizing his experiences participating in the Walk to Mary and how it has impacted the entire family, Alex concluded that “This Walk is truly a pilgrimage of grace.”
