Pope Francis highlights devotion to the Virgin Mary in a video message on Friday as the Irish Shrine Knock, which has maintained national Marian shrine status for decades, is elevated to the status of an international sanctuary of Eucharistic devotion. and special mariana.
By Fr. Benedict Mayaki, SJ
Pope Francis on Friday sent a video message to the Irish faithful on the occasion of the elevation of the national shrine of Our Lady of Knock to the status of an international marine and Eucharistic sanctuary.
“I take great advantage of this media to be able to be with you at such an important time in the life of the sanctuary,” the Pope said.
The date chosen for the occasion is March 19, liturgical solemnity of St. Joseph, husband of the Blessed Virgin.
“Since the apparition of August 21, 1879, when the Blessed Virgin Mary, together with St. Joseph and St. John the Apostle, appeared to some villagers,” said the Pope, “the Irish people, wherever ‘he has found, he has expressed his faith and devotion to Our Lady of Knock.’
After appearances 142 years ago, Knock has become one of the most popular religious sites in Ireland and hosts thousands of pilgrims annually. In 1979, Pope St. John Paul II visited the sanctuary. 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
Pope Francis, in 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 maintained their devotion to to the Virgin Mary, they emphasized the service of the Church in Ireland to the faith.
“You are a missionary people,” he said.
“How many families over the course of nearly a century and a half have given their children faith and gathered their daily chores around the Rosary prayer, with the image of Our Lady of the Knock in the center.”
The great value of silence
“The arms of the Virgin Mary, stretched out in prayer, continue to show us the importance of prayer as a message of hope coming out of this sanctuary,” the Pope said.
He recalled that in the apparition of the Virgin to Knock, “the Virgin says nothing,” yet 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 while feeling helped and supported by the love of Jesus,” the Pope explained. It is also a silence in the face of the “great mystery of a love that cannot be reciprocated if we do not trust in abandonment to the will of the merciful Father.”
The Holy Father also pointed out that this is the silence that Jesus asks of us in the Gospel of Matthew: “When you pray, go into your inner room, close the door and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will pay you. When you pray, do not be disturbed like the heathen, who think that they will be heard for their 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 everyone
Pope Francis stressed the “great responsibility” associated with the recently elevated international shrine of Our Lady of Knock.
“Accept to always keep your arms open as a sign of welcome to all pilgrims who may arrive from anywhere in the world, without asking for anything in return, but only to recognize him as a brother or sister who wishes to share the same experience. urged the Pope.
In addition, he expressed his desire that this reception “join charity and become an effective witness of a heart open to receive the Word of God and the grace of the Holy Spirit that gives us strength.”
Concluding his message with an invocation of God’s blessings to all, Pope Francis prayed that the Eucharistic mystery, which unites us in communion with Jesus and with one another, be “always the rock to live faithfully our vocation of “missionary disciples”. like Mary. He also implored the Virgin Mary to “protect and comfort us with her merciful face.”