Pilgrimage to Our Lady of Good Counsel Shrine

By: Kim Miller, President

Our Lady of Good Counsel has long been the patroness of the Military Council of Catholic Women, and last month Aly Tugaoen, MCCW Director of Forum, and I had the blessing of visiting the Shrine to Our Lady of Good Counsel in Genazzano, Italy. 

It was a rainy, cold Tuesday when we set off to the little town, 40 minutes from Rome, where the original image of Our Lady of Good Counsel is said to have appeared suddenly in a small country church. 

After short trips on the metro and the train, we arrived in a small town near Genazzano from which we would have to continue our journey by taxi. We inquired in the train station about a local taxi and were directed to a phone number on a sticker near the door. The taxi driver who answered told us his taxi was “In Rome for work” but that he would send a friend. Note: he didn’t mean a friend who was a taxi driver, nope, just a friend. 

Twenty minutes later we were on the road again with the friend and on our way to see Our Lady of Good Counsel. On the way, I did my best in my very rudimentary Italian to explain where we were going and ask if the friend could return in two hours to pick us up. The friend agreed as he drove up the winding cobblestone road to a church on the top of a hill in this tiny Italian village. Meeting of the minds complete on our pick-up time, the friend dropped us off at our pilgrimage destination. 

We proceeded into the dimly lit church and took our time admiring the beautiful works of art that seem to populate every church, no matter how humble, in Italy. We were greeted by a priest, who explained that he was from another small town but was helping out today and offered any help we needed during our visit. 

Finally, we found ourselves in front of the shrine. The small image of Our Lady of Good Counsel is in a locked side altar, displayed in an ornate gold frame and adorned with flowers and candles. 

Aly’s and my motto for our trip, which included both the European and Asian retreats, was “This is where we are today! This is what we are doing today!” and we felt that same awe being in front of this venerated image of our patroness. 

After time spent in silent prayer and offering up the many prayer requests we had brought with us from MCCW women around the world, we went to find the visiting priest to ask if it was possible to unlock the small altar so we could go inside. Unfortunately, the visiting priest doesn’t also get the keys to the church.

He did offer to call someone to open the small gift shop for us (Catholic women around the world must be the same — gotta bring home that church swag) and told us it would be five or ten minutes. Five or ten minutes turned into twenty or thirty minutes, but we used the time for more prayer and in Italian time, the gift shop manager showed up. 

By the time we finished shopping, it was nearly time to meet our taxi driver’s friend for our ride back to the train, so we headed back to our meeting place. But as 1 p.m. came and went, we realized that our friend wasn’t going to return for us. As we waited, we had noticed the many shops near the church closing up and the rain slowly picking up. Cold and getting wetter, we called the original taxi driver who assured us he would come for us in 45 minutes, “when it was good for him.” So we waited in the rain, during riposo (afternoon rest time for Italians) for our taxi driver to return at a time that was convenient for him–it all felt so Italian. 

Eventually, we did make it back to the train station and onto a warm train back to Rome in the now steady rain. As our Italian adventure came to a close and our feet warmed up, we reflected on our mini-pilgrimage – the silly struggles of making our way there and back, the gratefulness for the opportunity to carry your prayers with us, and the joy of being in a place so special and honoring Our Lady in whom we put our trust as we work to connect, unite, and inspire you all.