Courtney McGrailSt John Paul II described Our Lady’s Shrine at Knock as “the goal of my journey to Ireland” during his 1979 pilgrimage.
The Pope said to the many pilgrims who had joined him at the shrine that “yours is a long spiritual tradition of devotion to Our Lady.
“Your veneration of Mary is so deeply interwoven in your faith that its origins are lost in the early centuries of the evangelisation of your country.
“I have been told that, in Irish speech, the names of God and Jesus and Mary are linked with one another, and that God is seldom named in prayer or in blessing without Mary’s name being mentioned also,” the Pope said.
John Paul II went on to recall a famous 8th-Century Irish poem that refers to Our Lady as ‘Sun of our race’ and a litany from the same period that honours Mary as “Mother of the heavenly and earthly Church”.
“But better than any literary source,” the Pope said, “it is the constant and deeply rooted devotion to Mary that testifies to the success of evangelisation by Saint Patrick, who brought you the Catholic faith in all its fullness”.
This year, Knock Shrine is celebrating 136 years since the apparition. The shrine has an enduring appeal and while the cultural circumstances have changed, Our Lady still speaks through Knock to people who are bruised and broken.
Marian devotion has always identified Catholicism with the vulnerable and marginalised. Mary’s ‘Magnificat’ is a powerful hymn that exalts the downtrodden: “He puts forth his arm in strength and scatters the proud-hearted. He casts the mighty from their thrones and raises the lowly. He fills the starving with good things, sends the rich away empty”.
Knock continues to be a singular place of grace and prayer for the Church in Ireland – a powerhouse of spirituality. While the apparition is the central focus, Knock is a living tradition rather than simply the commemoration of 1879.
In 2014, Knock Shrine launched the ‘Witness to Hope’ initiative which has faith renewal and the promotion of the shrine as its core priorities.
Workshops and seminars are now an integral part of the Knock Novena experience and have proven to be extremely popular amongst pilgrims. People responded very positively to the interactivity and discussion that arose from this, as well as the varied themes and topics themselves.
Reasons
People come to Knock for a variety of reasons: some people come in search of peace, others for a special intention, still others as an act of thanksgiving. Many people come as part of a journey, sometimes even unaware of what draws them to Knock. The shrine has an enduring power which draws people to journey with Mary to God revealed in the miracle of the Eucharist.
The message of Knock “was unspoken, but the truth in silence lies”.