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Thursday, 28 March 2024
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Our Lady of Knock

Information

 On 21st August, 1879, Our Lady appeared outside the parish church of Knock, Co. Mayo in Ireland. The apparition lasted about one hour and was witnessed by 18 people, standing in the rain.

St. Joseph stood to her right and St. John the Evangelist, dressed as a bishop, was to her left. Wearing a long white cloak and a crown on her head, she stood with her hands apart and extended upwards, her eyes gazing towards heaven.

Behind the figures was an altar with a large cross. On the altar was a lamb facing to the west. A brilliant light surrounded the whole scene.

The central message of Knock is the call to the Eucharist. The altar, the lamb of sacrifice upon it, was at the centre of the scene and slightly raised above it.  Our Lady’s pose and hands point to the importance and significance of the Mass at a time of great hardship, distress and privation for the people of Ireland, as was the case in the 1870's, and increasingly today.

Mary, Queen of Ireland, then as now, is with her people, leading them in prayer and pointing them again to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

The Vatican has approved a new Feast Day of Our Lady of Knock and this is the 17th August every year. It will be listed in the new Roman Missal and has it’s own new Memorial Mass. The reason why the 17th August was chosen is that the 21st August is already assigned to St. Pius X, the Pope of the Eucharist.

Prayer to 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.