Personal Reflection on Knock Shrine (Memorial of Our Lady of Knock today 17th August)

Today in Ireland we celebrate the Memorial of Our Lady of Knock.  Knock Shrine for me is the most special Shrine in the world as it is also a Eucharistic Shrine, as well as a Marian Shrine and also a Shrine to the Holy Family.  I can thank God for my mother and my father for handing me down this most precious treasure of the Faith. I haven't always lived up to it very well but I thank God for the great grace of being Catholic.  My parents took us as children to Knock Shrine every year and now I go myself perhaps a few times a year.  My Dad passed away in August in the Jubilee year 2000 and he had a great devotion to Mary and the Holy Rosary and he loved Knock Shrine.  I now look after my mother at home and it is a privilege to care for her.  She too constantly prays the Rosary and prays quite a number every day despite her frailties.  I thank God for both my Mam and Dad and for my grandparents and all my ancestors for passing on the faith through the generations.  We could I think learn a lot from looking at their simple and very devout faith which permeated their lives. Knock Shrine was a central place of pilgrimage for so many Irish families in the past and continues on to this day.

You could say that our entire Faith is summarised at Knock Shrine with the presence of Jesus the Lamb of God, Our Lady, St. Joseph and St. John and the Angels.  To meditate on the apparition that took place in Knock is to meditate on the deep riches of the Church the centre of it being the Eucharist itself, (the Lamb of God) the Holy Mass and then also we reflect on the powerful intercession of Mary and the Rosary, the importance of the family (St. Joseph) and our Priests and Bishops (St. John).  It is a place of such deep peace, grace, mercy and prayer and it was wonderful that over 15,000 people were there for the Consecration of our country to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on Thursday last during the Solemn Novena, where Archbishop Eamon Martin celebrated the Holy Mass with the Archbishop of Tuam, Most Rev.Michael Neary, Cardinal Sean Brady, and His Excellency Archbishop Charles Brown.  I was not present at the event but it was great to see it on the live webcam from Knock Shrine and it really was such a beautiful ceremony and Archbishop Martin gave a most wonderful homily.  It was such a moving ceremony and there was a great sense of unity and hope for the Irish Church...

May the Lord be praised and thank you Lord for our Parents, our Ancestors who handed down the faith, for our Church and for this beautiful Shrine in our country.  -  Anne