18th August 2019 - Michael Keating - The Apparition at Knock

To celebrate the One hundred and fortieth anniversary of the Apparition at, Knock we have decided to replay a reflection Michael Keating shared with us in May 2010 . Michael starts his reflection by reminding us that at the time of the apparition in 1879, many people were still suffering from the effects of the famine in Ireland 1845-1852 when one million people died and one and a half million people emigrated (25% of the population). On a wet, windy evening at 7.30pm on 21^st August 1879 Our Lady appeared with St Joseph, St John, A Lamb on an Altar and Angels on the gable wall at the church in Knock for two hours. Michael shares with us the significance of each of the figures in the Apparition and the need for us to read and reflect ourselves. He also shares with us how the first organised pilgrimage came from Limerick in 1880. There were three hundred cures in the first year following the apparition and many more since. Monsignor Horan was responsible for overseeing the building of the present day Basilica, Knock international Airport and of course for welcoming Pope St John Paul 2 to Knock shrine for the Centenary of the Apparition in 1979.

You can listen to the podcast of this week's full programme HERE.

You can listen to a podcast of the reflection of Michael  excerpted from the programme HERE.

Our Lady of Knock - Queen of Ireland

Our Lady of Knock , Queen of Ireland, you gave hope to your people in a time of distress and comforted them in sorrow. You have inspired countless pilgrims to pray with confidence to your divine Son, remembering His promise, “Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find”. Help me to remember that we are all pilgrims on the road to Heaven. Fill me with love and concern for my brothers and sisters in Christ, especially those who live with me. Comfort me when I am sick, lonely or depressed. Teach me how to take part ever more reverently in the Holy Mass. Give me a greater love of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. Pray for me now and at the end of my death. Amen.

Follow the Lamb
(Source)

Right at the end of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, one of C.S. Lewis’ Narnia stories, there’s an extraordinary passage, rich in spiritual insight. Having sailed further than anyone before, the characters in the story have reached the edge of the world, and are on the border with ‘Aslan’s Country’ (an allegory of heaven). There, in this strange, liminal space, they meet a little lamb on a beach, a lamb ‘so white they could hardly look at it’. The lamb addresses the children ‘in its sweet milky voice’, and while Edmund and Lucy dialogue with him, a transformation takes place: ‘As [the Lamb] spoke, his snowy white flushed into tawny gold and his size changed and he was Aslan himself, towering above them and scattering light from his mane’. Aslan the Lion, who of course represents Jesus Christ, had been showing himself to the children in the form of a Lamb.

If you’re familiar with the Book of Revelation, this Narnian scene might ring a few bells. In Chapter 5 of that book, John is shown a scroll sealed with seven seals which no-one can open. John weeps because the scroll cannot be opened, but is then told: ‘Weep not; behold the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals’. But when John looks up to see this great Lion, he sees instead ‘a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain’. The Lion of Judah is none other than the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ.

This scene from Revelation is essential to understanding the nature of Jesus Christ and his saving work, represented so clearly for us in the apparition at Knock. John is expecting to see a great strong beast who will tear the seals from the scroll, but is shown instead a slain little lamb, the very epitome of weakness, who is nevertheless ‘worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals’.

This gets to the heart of Christ’s saving work. Jesus Christ was true God, he created the entire universe, and holds it all in being, yet he came among us as a defenceless child, as a simple carpenter’s son, as one who weeps, is hungry, is rejected, and finally as one who suffers and dies on the Cross. At any point in his earthly life, he could have shown his omnipotence and vanquished all his assailants, but he deliberately chooses not to: the great Lion of the tribe of Judah shows himself as a slain Lamb.

And yet, in this deliberately chosen weakness lies the invincible strength of Christ’s work for our salvation. It is by means of his suffering and death that he saves us from our sins. The slain Lamb rises, victorious over death, scattering light on those who approach him, opening up the way to salvation. The Lamb of God is not a frolicking pet; He is powerful enough to ‘take away the sins of the world’. He is, as we love to sing in Knock, the Lamb who conquers.

What does all this mean for us? If the Lamb who appeared in Knock all those years ago is also the Lion of Judah, if his meek sweetness is allied to iron strength, how should we seek to follow him? How should we imitate his curious mix of weakness and strength?

There are many in the contemporary world, and especially in contemporary Ireland, who relish the idea of a weak Church. Some point to a time in the past when the Church had too much worldly power, and propose that the time is ripe for humility on the part of the Church. Others go further and suggest that the Church should have little to no role in official Ireland: no schools, no universities, no hospitals, no influence in public life. Christianity is thereby nicely neutered, and becomes so meek and mild as to be easily ignored. Strangely, this attitude is not just prevalent among those outside the fold, but also among many followers of Christ who are, perhaps, keen to avoid conflict.

There are others, far less numerous, who hope the Church will return to worldly power. Especially in the face of the rise of Islam, one hears murmurings of ‘new crusades’ and ‘muscular Christianity’. Strongman politicians in both east and west make gushing promises about the return of the Church to the corridors of power. What the Church needs, according to this approach, is more money, more buildings, greater manpower, and a new boldness.

Each of these approaches falls short of what it means to follow the Lamb-who-is-Lion, and each is boringly predictable. One is all Lamb and no Lion, the other is all Lion and no Lamb. To follow Christ authentically means being willing to be weak even when strength is an option, and being willing to be strong even when weakness is attractive. Christ is not ‘tame’, he is not domesticated or predictable, he does not fit into our worldly or political categories, and neither should his followers.

In our own times, perhaps the greatest example of such a follower was St Teresa of Calcutta, who visited this shrine in 1993. Think of how she deliberately chose weakness by responding to her ‘call within a call’: God’s invitation to leave the solid structures of the Loreto Sisters and serve the poorest of the poor by living among them. Here is the lamb who was slain. And yet, what a lion she was when she received her Nobel Peace Prize, shocking her bien pensant audience with her ringing denunciation of the violence of abortion.

Following the Lamb, in other words, being a Christian, is not something we can plan ahead of time. We can’t always know in advance when to be defiant in the face of injustice, and when to suffer it meekly, when to denounce wrongdoing, and when to tolerate it, when to preach the Gospel with words, and when to demonstrate it in silent actions. As followers of the Lamb-who-is-Lion we are called, not to predictable security, but to adventure. This adventure can be unsettling, but He is with us.

Together with all the living creatures and elders and angels of the Book of Revelation, let’s take this day in Knock as an opportunity to kneel before the Lamb and to say: ‘Lord, I let go of my own plans and projects, of my limited ideas and tame dreams. I let go of all these things and I choose to follow You, the Lamb who was slain, the Lion of Judah’.

Fr. Conor B. McDonough. O.P.

Feast of Our Lady of Knock

Our Lady of Knock , Queen of Ireland, you gave hope to your people in a time of distress and comforted them in sorrow. You have inspired countless pilgrims to pray with confidence to your divine Son, remembering His promise, “Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find”. Help me to remember that we are all pilgrims on the road to Heaven. Fill me with love and concern for my brothers and sisters in Christ, especially those who live with me. Comfort me when I am sick, lonely or depressed. Teach me how to take part ever more reverently in the Holy Mass. Give me a greater love of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. Pray for me now and at the end of my death. Amen.

11th August 2013 - 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) - A reflection on the apparition at Knock

On this weeks programme John is joined by Fr Frank Duhig and Michael Keating. Michal makes a welcome return and leads a discussion about the apparition at Knock as we head into the national novena, the feast day and the consecration of Ireland to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on August 15th. We have our regular reflection on the Sunday gospel as well as some other bits and pieces including the saints of the week.

This weeks podcast is available to listen to HERE.

Our Lady of Knock

Michael Keating tells us of the story of the Apparitions of Knock this morning and reminds us that while the shrine at Knock is mainly viewed as a Marian shrine, the focus of this silent apparition was actually on the Lamb of God on the Altar before the Victorious Cross and how Mary once more is pointing the way to her Son and not to herself.



While people can be overly familar with the story of Knock it is always good to go back again and look at its history in detail.

On the wet Thursday evening of the 21st August, 1879, at about 8 o'clock, Our Lady, St. Joseph, and St. John the Evangelist appeared in a blaze of Heavenly light at the south gable of Knock Parish Church. Behind them and a little to the left of St. John was a plain altar. On the altar was a cross and a lamb with adoring angels. The Apparition was seen by fifteen people whose ages ranged from six years to seventy-five and included men, women and children. The witnesses described the Blessed Virgin Mary as being clothed in white robes with a brilliant crown on her head. Over the forehead where the crown fitted the brow, she wore a beautiful full-bloom golden rose. She was in an attitude of prayer with her eyes and hands raised towards Heaven. St. Joseph stood on Our Lady's right. He was turned towards her in an attitude of respect. His robes were also white. St. John was on Our Lady's left. He was dressed in white vestments and resembled a bishop, with a small mitre. He appeared to be preaching and he held an open book in his left hand. The witnesses watched the Apparition in pouring rain for two hours, reciting the Rosary. Although they themselves were saturated not a single drop of rain fell on the gable or vision.

You can read the accounts of the 15 witnesses here, with the most compelling one being that of Mary Byrne especially at the second Commision of Inquiry in 1936.

At that stage Mary was eighty-six. She was interviewed by the commissioners in her bedroom, as she was too ill to leave. She gave her final testimony and concluded with the words:

'I am clear about everything I have said and I make this statement knowing I am going before my God'

Mary died six weeks later.

• Knock Shrine website
• Details of the annual novena

Liturgical notes:
Memoria of Our Lady of Knock is a new celebration in the Irish church calendar and is celebrated on August 17th. At Knock, the feast is still marked on August 21st which was the actual date of the apparition and is the last date of the novena.

You can listen to the Knock section of the programme excerpted HERE.

Gospel - Luke 12:32-48

""Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give alms; provide yourselves with purses that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

Fr Frank leads us in a beautiful reflection on this weeks gospel reflecting on how we are called to not be afraid, to being open and ready to trust in God.

Reflections on this weeks gospel:

Word on Fire
Centre for Liturgy
English Dominicans
Bloomingcactus
The Social Shape of Divine Generosity
Blue Eyed Ennis

Liturgical odds and ends

Liturgy of the Hours - Psalter - Week 3

Saints of the Week

August 12th - St Lelia (Virgin)
also St Jane Frances de Chantal (religious)
also St Attracta (virgin)
also St Muredach (bishop)
August 13th - St Fachtna (bishop)
August 14th - St Maximilian Kolbe (priest & martyr)
August 15th - Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
August 16th - St Stephen of Hungary
August 17th - Our Lady of Knock

26th August 2012 - 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B) - Knock

On this weeks programme Michael Keating makes a welcome return and leads a discussion about the apparition at Knock, we have our regular reflection on the Sunday gospel as well as some other bits and pieces including the saints of the week.

This weeks podcast is available to listen to HERE.

Knock

Michael Keating tells us of the story of the Apparitions of Knock this morning and leads a panel discussion with John, Lorraine and Shane around the significance of the apparition. While the shrine at Knock is mainly viewed as a Marian shrine, Michael reminds us that the focus of this silent apparition was actually on the Lamb of God on the Altar before the Victorious Cross and how Mary once more is pointing the way to her Son and not to herself.

• Knock Shrine website
• Homilies/addresses during annual 2012 Novena at Knock

Gospel - John 6: 60-69

Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.’

Reflections on this weeks gospel:

Word on Fire
Centre for Liturgy
Sunday Reflections
English Dominicans
Blue Eyed Ennis

Liturgical odds and ends

Divine Office - Psalter - Week 1

Pope's Intentions for September 2012

General Intention

• Prisoners - That prisoners may be treated with justice and respect for their human dignity.

Mission Intention

• Youth Witness to Christ - That young people, called to follow Christ, may be willing to proclaim and bear witness to the Gospel to the ends of the earth.

Saints of the Week

August 27th - St Monica
August 28th - St Augustine of Hippo
August 29th - The Beheading of John the Baptist
August 30th - St Fiacre
August 31st - St Aidan of Lidensfarne

21st Sunday of Ordinary Time - 21 August 2011 including reflection on Knock

On this weeks programme, John, Lorraine and Michael reflect on the meaning of the Apparition of Knock, as well as looking at the weekly gospel as well as a quick run through the saints of the week.

The podcast is now available on our podcast page.

Knock

Michael lead us through a short reflection on the Apparition at Knock, an apparition where not only did Our Lady appear but as Michael said "she also brought along the entire family". As Lorraine reminded us, Our Lady never appears in her own name but always to point the way to her Divine Son.

If you would like to find our more about Knock or ongoing events during the year, head over to the website of the shrine.

If you would like to hear a further extended reflection about Knock, we attach a link to the podcast for Michael's reflection which was first broadcast on 30 May 2010.


Gospel - Mathew 16:13-20

"Who do people say the Son of Man is? Who do YOU say I am?"

The weeks gospel Jesus poses a stark question for us, a very deep and somewhat harsh question for each follower of Christ, who do you say he is? Such a question could be the focus of our lectio on this weeks gospel. Who do you say he is? Such a question raises many challenges for us as individuals.

It is termed a gospel of hope because it reminds us that although the human agents of the church have been sinful, that at times the members of that church have not lived up to their baptismal calling, the church has survived because it is not our church, it is God's. Despite what looks like it is falling apart, it will survive.

          Lord, many people today are drifting through life, unsure of their identity.
       Remind them that your son Jesus too had to make the journey to being himself.
       Send them humble companions like Simon Peter who will see them in their truth,
       not replicas of anyone else, but your sons and daughters,
       anointed by you for a particular mission in the world.
       Lord, there was a time when we felt discouraged, wondering if our work was in vain.
       Then we came to a place, our own Caesarea Philippi,
       and we found that there were people who understood what we were about;
       we knew at that moment that the cause we had given our lives for
       was now on a solid foundation,
       the forces of evil would not hold out against it,
       and we could hand it over with confidence to our successors.

       Lord, every once in a way you send us young people who are special to us
       their teachers, parents or community leaders.
       Whereas others have only a vague idea of the message we are trying to convey,
       they understand it perfectly.
       We experience them as a gift,
       we know that it was not our hard work that revealed things to them;
       it was you yourself who taught them.
       Without being able to prove it, we know for certain that they will never fail us.
       Thank you Lord, for these blessed ones.

Other reflections on this weeks gospel:

Sunday Reflections
Word on Fire 
English Dominicans

Saints of the Week

August 22nd - Feast of the Queenship of Mary
August 23rd - St Rose of Lima OP
August 24th - St Bartholmew (Apostle)
August 25th - St Louis of France
August 26th - St John Bassano
August 27th - St Monica