The National Novena at Knock opened on Sunday August 14 with a warm summer breeze, bright blue skies and a joyous atmosphere as pilgrims, young families, tourists and passers-by gathered for beginning of the nine-day devotion to Our Lady of Knock. With the Diocese of Meath making its annual pilgrimage to the shrine, Meath’s Bishop Michael Smith led the opening celebrations, speaking on the theme of ‘Merciful like the Father’.
Over the course of the next week pilgrims came from across Ireland, many arriving at the shrine on the Feast of the Assumption, having walked there. A group from ‘Mary’s Meals’ arrived early that afternoon following a 214km walk from Malin in Donegal.
Spirits
The Feast of our Lady of Knock, always a special day in the shrine calendar, fell on Sunday, August 21. Although the weather was so bad as to make the traditional procession outside the basilica unfeasible, spirits were not dampened among the huge crowds at the shrine.
Úna Nolan, the shrine’s Director of Music led Knock Parish Choir in a performance of their own version of ‘Misericordia Sicut Pater’, the theme for the Year of Mercy, while people representing the Knock witnesses carried candles to the central sanctuary.
The Novena ceremonies can be watched on the Knock Shrine YouTube Channel through www.knockshrine.ie