Knocking on Mary’s Door

Thursday of Week 27 in Ordinary Time (Year II)
Galatians 3:1-5 | Luke 1:69-75 | Luke 11:5-13

So I say to you: Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. (Luke 11:9)

I couldn’t resist the invitation to talk about my recent trip to the Knock Shrine in Ireland. In short, it was one of the high points of my UK tour.

My smartphone camera had been working splendidly all through the tour, but the very first photo I took in Knock, of the cross that marked Pope John Paul II’s visit to the shrine in 1979, knocked it out of commission.

This plaque has major smartphone powers.

Or the cross to which it was attached. Or both.

It took a good five minutes for it to recover, and it hasn’t locked up since. Perhaps it was a reminder to be still and know the presence of the Almighty.

And while the apparition itself was silent…

L to R: St. Joseph, Mother Mary, St. John the Evangelist, Agnus Dei, adoring angels

…the people who beheld it back in 1879 were not, reciting the Rosary over and over for two hours. That’s the sort of devotion that Our Lady has always asked of us.

And they aren’t shy about reminding you.

The entire shrine reminded me of Fátima, another shrine that I have a lot of love for. There’s the same sense of sprawling silence, plenty of space to just sit and experience God in the whisper of the plentiful winds. Quite unlike the crowded and often noisy Lourdes, these are excellent places for quiet contemplation of the divine.

No physical or spiritual crowding here, for sure.

Just beautiful time and space.

Speaking of divine, I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the flowers. Oh, the flowers!

Tell me God didn’t have a hand in this.

I dare ya.

Wait, I double-dare ya.

But in the end, it’s the spiritual communion with my fellow travellers and others from around the world that matters most.

Lest we forget why we came.

Amen.