Belleville, Illinois: National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows

Beautiful grounds. Start at the visitor center and get a map. The "attractions" are spread out, so choose to drive around and see what you want to see. The map is hard to follow, but once I figured it out I had no issues. Very impressive statuary. The Stations of the Cross location is down, with new stations coming soon, I was told. If you need a baptism or First Communion gift, check out the large gift shop in the visitor center. Amen.

During the winter holidays the entire campus is lit up with an amazing amount of Christmas lights and scenes. It is a favorite of locals to drive through every year and is definitely worth doing!

The Millennium Spire isn't the only nifty roadside attraction at the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows. It also has other things you can look at while driving:

- The 16' fiberglass statue of Our Lady of the Snows
- Lourdes Grotto
- The Agony Garden
- The Shrine's Way of the Cross
- Our Lady of Guadalupe Hill
- A playground with two huge hands holding a rock that one can climb on

The whole,"The interesting thing about the Millennium Spire is that it is outfitted with LED lights capable of transmitting prayers to God..." does not seem to be true. I could not find anything at the Spire that showed you could submit a prayer to be transmitted out.

At the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows, there is a big metal sculpture called the "Millennium Spire." The structure looks like a piece of giant metal confetti.

The interesting thing about the Millennium Spire is that it is outfitted with LED lights capable of transmitting prayers to God. Worshipers submit their prayers to the shrine to be entered into a computer, which translates the prayers into binary code so the LED lights can beam them to heaven. (Apparently this was designed with an eye toward the geekier parishioners who secretly believe Bill Gates might be God. ...)