Pope Francis highlights devotion to Our Lady in a video message on Friday when Ireland’s Knock Shrine, which has maintained the status of national Marian Shrine for decades, is elevated to the status of International Shrine of Special Eucharistic and Mariana Devotion.
By Fr. Benedict Mayaki, SJ
Pope Francis sent a video message to the Irish faithful on Friday marking the elevation of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Knock to the category of International Marian and Eucharistic Shrine.
“It is with pleasure that I take advantage of this means of communication to be with you at this very important moment in the life of the Shrine,” said the Pope.
The date chosen for the occasion is March 19, the liturgical solemnity of Saint Joseph, the husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
“Since the apparition of August 21, 1879, when the Blessed Virgin Mary, together with Saint Joseph and Saint John the Apostle, appeared to some villagers,” said the Pope, “the Irish people, wherever they are, have expressed his faith and devotion to Our Lady of Knock. “
After the apparitions 142 years ago, Knock has become one of Ireland’s most popular religious sites, receiving thousands of pilgrims annually. In 1979, Pope St. John Paul II visited the Shrine. Pope Francis also visited Knock in August 2018 during his Apostolic Visit to the country as part of the World Meeting of Families.
A missionary people
Recognizing the many Irish priests who left their homeland to become “missionaries of the Gospel”, as well as the many lay people who emigrated to distant lands, but still maintain their devotion to Our Lady, Pope Francis highlighted the Church’s service in Ireland to faith.
“You are a missionary people,” he said.
“How many families, over the course of almost a century and a half, passed on the faith to their children and concentrated their daily work around the prayer of the Rosary, with the image of Our Lady of Knock in the center.”
The great value of silence
“The Virgin’s arms, extended in prayer, continue to show us the importance of prayer as a message of hope that comes out of this Shrine,” said the Pope.
He recalled that in the apparition of Our Lady in Knock, “the Virgin says nothing”, but her silence is a language – “the most expressive language we have”. Knock’s message, therefore, is that of “the great value of silence for our faith.”
This silence in the face of mystery does not mean renouncing understanding, but rather “understanding supported and supported by the love of Jesus”, explained the Pope. It is also a silence before “the great mystery of a love that cannot be answered except in the confident abandonment to the will of the merciful Father”.
The Holy Father also observed that this is the silence that Jesus asks of us in the Gospel of Matthew: “When you pray, go to your inner room, close the door and pray in secret to your Father. And your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you. When praying, do not murmur like the pagans, who think they will be heard because of your many words. Don’t be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him ”(Matthew 6: 6-8).
The responsibility to welcome all
Pope Francis went on to emphasize the “great responsibility” attributed to the newly elevated International Shrine of Our Lady of Knock.
“You accept to be always with open arms as a sign of welcome to every pilgrim who arrives from any part of the world, asking nothing in return, but only recognizing him as a brother or sister who wants to share the same experience of fraternal prayer”, he exhorted the pope.
He also expressed the desire that this welcome “join charity and become an effective witness of a heart open to receiving the Word of God and the grace of the Holy Spirit that strengthens us”.
Concluding his message with an invocation of the blessings of God upon all, Pope Francis prayed that the Eucharistic Mystery, which unites us in communion with Jesus and with one another, “always be the stone on which to live our vocation faithfully. of ‘missionary disciples’ like Mary. He also implored Our Lady to “protect and comfort us with her merciful countenance”.