Pope John Paul II: Historic Pilgrimage to Ireland and its Famous Shrine of Our Lady of Knock

SHRINE OF OUR LADY . . .

HERE I am at the goal of my journey to Ireland: The Shrine of Our Lady of Knock.

Since I first learnt of the centenary of this Shrine, celebrated this (1979) year, I have felt a strong desire to come here, the desire to make yet another pilgrimage to the Shrine of the Mother of Christ, the Mother of the Church, the Queen of Peace. Do not be surprised at this desire of mine. It has been my custom to make pilgrimages to Our Lady’s Shrines, starting with my earliest youth and in my own country.

I made such pilgrimages also as a Bishop and as a Cardinal. I know very well that every people, every country, indeed every diocese, has its holy places in which the heart of the whole people of God beats; one could say, in more lively fashion.  Places of special encounter between God and human beings. Places in which Christ dwells in a special way in our midst. If these places are so often dedicated to his mother, it reveals all the more fully to us the nature of his Church.

Since the second Vatican Council, which concluded its constitution on the Church with the chapter on “The Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, in the mystery of Christ and of the Church,” this fact is more evident for us today than ever – yes, for all of us, for all Christians. Do we not confess with all our brethren, even with those with whom we are not yet linked in full unity, that we are a pilgrim people? As once this people travelled on its pilgrimage under the guidance of Moses, so we, the people of God of the new Covenant, are travelling on our pilgrim way under the guidance of Christ.

. . . OF KNOCK

I am here then as a pilgrim, a sign of the pilgrim Church throughout the world participating, through my presence as Peter’s successor, in a very special way in the centenary celebration of this Shrine.

The liturgy of the Word of today’s Mass gives me my pilgrim’s salutation to Mary, as now I come before her in Ireland’s Marian Shrine at Cnoc Mhuire, the Hill of Mary.

“Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb” (Lk 1:42). These are the words with which Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, greeted Mary, her kinswoman from Nazareth.

“Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb”; This is also my greeting to Muire Mathair De, Mary the Mother of God, Queen of Ireland, at this Shrine of Knock. With these words, I want to express the immense joy and gratitude that fills my heart today in this place. I would not have wanted it any differently. Highlights of my recent pastoral journeys have been visits to the Shrines of Mary; to Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico, to the Black Madonna of Jasna Gora in my homeland, and three weeks ago, in Our Lady of Loreto in Italy. Today I come here because I want all of you to know that my devotion to Mary unites me, in a very special way, with the people of Ireland.

TRADITIONAL . . .

Yours is a long spiritual tradition of devotion to Our Lady. Mary can truly say of Ireland what we have just heard in the First Reading. “So I took root in an honored people” (Sir 24:12). Your veneration of Mary is so deeply interwoven in your faith that its origins are lost in the early centuries of the evangelization 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. I also know that you have an eight-century Irish poem that calls Mary “Sun of our race,” and that litany from that same period honors her as “Mother of the heavenly and earthly Church”. But better than any literary source, it is the constant and deeply rooted devotion to Mary that testifies to the success of evangelization by Saint Patrick, who brought you the Catholic Faith in all its fullness.

. . . DEVOTION

It is fitting then, and it gives me great happiness to see, that the Irish people maintain this traditional devotion to the Mother of God in their homes and their parishes, and in a special way at this Shrine of Cnoc Mhuire. For a whole century now, you have sanctified this place of pilgrimage through your prayers, through your sacrifices, through your penance. All those who have come here have received blessings through the intercessions of Mary. From that Day of Grace, the twenty-first of August 1879, until this very day, the sick and suffering, people handicapped in body or mind, troubled in their faith or their conscience, all have been healed, comforted and confirmed in their faith because they trusted that the Mother of God would lead them to her son Jesus.

Every time a pilgrim comes up to what was once an obscure bogside village in county Mayo, every time a man, woman or child comes up to the old church with the Apparition gable or to the new Shrine of Mary, Queen of Ireland, it is to renew his or her faith in the salvation that comes through Jesus, who made us all children of God and heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven. By entrusting yourselves to Mary, you receive Christ. In Mary, “The Word was made Flesh”; in her the Son of God became man, so that all of us might know how great our human dignity is. Standing on this hallowed ground, we look up to the Mother of God and say “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.”

LOYALTY TO HOLY SEE

The present time is an important moment in the history of the universal Church, and, in particular, of the Church in Ireland. So many things have changed, so many valuable new insights have been gained in what it means to be Christian. So many new problems have to be faced by the faithful, either because of the increased pace of change in society, or because of the new demands that are made on the people of God — demands to live to share.

Their fidelity has, over the centuries, borne fruit in Christian heroism and in a virtuous tradition of living in accordance with God’s law, especially in accordance with the holiest commandment of the Gospel – the commandment of love. We have received this splendid heritage from their hands at the beginning of a new age, as we approach the close of the second millennium since the Son of God was born of you, our Alma Mater, and we intend to carry this heritage into the future with the same fidelity with which our forefathers bore witness to it.

CONSECRATES IRELAND . . .

TODAY therefore, on the occasion of the first visit of a Pope to Ireland, we entrust and consecrate to you, Mother of Christ and Mother of the Church, our hearts, our consciences, and our works, in order that they may be in keeping with the faith we profess. We entrust and consecrate to you each and every one of those who make up both the community of the Irish people and the community of the people of God living in this land.

We entrust and consecrate to you the Bishops of Ireland, the clergy, the religious men and women, the contemplative monks and sisters, the seminarians, the novices. Our Lady, we entrust and consecrate to you the mothers and fathers, the youth, the children. We entrust and consecrate to you the teachers, the catechists, the students;  the writers, the poets, the actors, the artists, the workers and their leaders, the employers and managers, the professional people.  Those engaged in political and public life, those who form public opinion. We entrust and consecrate to you the married and those preparing for marriage; those called to serve you and their fellow-men in single life; the sick, the aged, the mentally ill, the handicapped and all who nurse and care for them. Blessed Mother, we entrust and consecrate to you the prisoners and all who feel rejected; the exiled, the homesick and the lonely.

. . . TO MARY

We entrust to your mother-care the land of Ireland, where you have been and are so much loved. Help this land to stay true to you and your Son always. May prosperity never cause Irish men and women to forget God or abandon their faith. Keep them faithful in prosperity to the faith they would not surrender in poverty and persecution. Save them from greed, from envy, from seeking selfish or sectional interest. Help them to work together with a sense of Christian purpose and a common Christian goal, to build a just and peaceful and loving society where the poor are never neglected and the rights of all, especially the weak, are respected.

WE ENTRUST . . .

Queen of Ireland, Mary, Mother of the heavenly and earthly church, Mathair De, keep Ireland true to her spiritual tradition and her Christian heritage. Help her to respond to her historic mission of bringing the light of Christ to the nations, and so making the glory of God be the honor of Ireland.

Mother, can we keep silent about what we find most painful, what leaves us many a time so helpless? In a very special way, we entrust to you this great wound now afflicting our people, hoping that your hands will be able to cure and heal it. Great is our concern for those young souls who are caught up in bloody acts of vengeance and hatred. Mary, Mother of the heavenly and earthly Church, do not abandon these youthful hearts. Mother, be with them in their most dreadful hours, when we can neither counsel nor assist them.

. . . TO YOU, MARY

Mother, protect all of us and especially the youth of Ireland from being overcome by hostility and hatred. Teach us to distinguish clearly what proceeds from love for our country from what bears the mark of destruction and the brand of Cain. Teach us that evil means can never lead to a good end: that all human life is sacred: that murder is murder no matter what the motive or end. Save others, those who view these terrible events, from another danger; that of living a life robbed of Christian ideals or in conflict with the principles of morality.

May our ears constantly hear with the proper clarity your motherly voice; “Do whatever my Son tells you”.  Enable us to persevere with Christ. Enable us, Mother of the Church, to build up his mystical Body by living with the life that he alone can grant us from his fulness, which is both divine and human.