Ave Maria Meditations
At about eight o’clock on the Thursday evening of the 21st of August, 1879, the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Joseph, and St. John the Evangelist appeared at the south gable of the church at Knock, County Mayo, Ireland. Beside them and a little to the right were an altar with a Cross and the figure of a lamb, around which angels hovered.
Not everyone is aware, however, that the marvelous appearance on the gable of the Knock Church came on the day when the parish priest, Archdeacon Cavanagh, finished offering, as he had promised, 100 consecutive Masses for the suffering souls in purgatory! A few months before the apparition the Archdeacon began to offer 100 Masses for the poor souls whom Our Lady wished most to release. It was on the day of the one hundredth Mass was offered Our Lady came to visit Knock.
Surely, that extraordinary devotion to the Holy Souls had a part to play in the gift of the vision from Heaven. If such a response came from Heaven to Archdeacon Cavanagh, then surely Our Lady wants to encourage us all to remove the torment of our dead. Our Lady is the mother of her children, above all her suffering children. She is the Refuge of Sinners on earth and in purgatory.
Indeed, we can dig deeper there for a link with our own day regarding this apparition. The reason the parish priest turned in this way to the Holy Souls was a painful problem similar to what affects many countries today. A secret organization resorting to violence had threatened the priest by letter for preaching against their tactics. They resented his condemnation of violence, which prevented them from gaining recruits in the Knock parish. In his distress, he turned to the suffering souls and called on his parishioners to fill the church for 100 days of these offered Masses. And what an answer he was given from Heaven!
This clearly tells us that the Holy Souls stopped the violence through Our Lady’s intercession at Knock. This applies to our day with the unspeakable violence and terrorist attacks around the world. Now is the time to act! Here are some powerful means to help:
I encourage you to ask a priest (perhaps one who is retired) to offer 100 Masses for the Holy Souls for the intention of world peace. We have done this in Chicago, Texas, and Philadelphia. Attend Mass and receive Holy Communion for 100 days. If that is not possible, offer 100 Masses (or four sets of Gregorian Masses) for the souls in purgatory for World Peace. Several people can go in together for the Mass stipend for these Masses…Can you imagine the power we have to stop the violence and wars with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, fasting, and prayer!
The Holy Souls in purgatory are pleading for our Masses and prayers. The Mass is the greatest prayer to give the Holy Souls to behold the face of God! Make their desire your desire. St. John Chrysostom tells us, “Christ is the victim that gives solace to the dead.” And remember the priests and nuns in purgatory. Offer and attend Mass as much as possible for the priests and consecrated religious. Their intercession is very powerful.
A Holy Soul said the following: “You the living can do everything for us, and we can do everything for you. It is an exchange of prayers.”
Our Lady of Knock, pray for us!
(excerpted from an article by Susan Tassone)
Very interesting! Some time ago I have read an little article of the Vatican Radio about that apparition and I wanted to know more. Now I could it!
By the way, august 15th last, the clergy of Ireland consecrated the island to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in that shrine.
I would like to add one comment else. Perhaps it will seem off topic, but when I fineshed to read this article on Our Lady of Knock, I reminded the story of The Canterville Ghost, because I had finished to read it today morning. Sometimes a good literature helps us thinking about the spiritual things.
On the importance of the prayers for the souls of Purgatory, I had read something of a Charismatic priest (His name is Padre Jorge Tadeu Hermes). He said many social problems are consequence of the sins of our deads. So the prayer for then can obtain of God the pardon for their sins and consequently the solution for the social problems that are rooted in their sins.
However I recognize that is a truth, I think for our social problems today it would be more eficient exorcist prayers, cause nowadays the paganism and the ocultist practises are growing more and more. A italian bisphop has said intersting things about it. His name is Andrea Gemma.
“Na pastoral, D. Andrea convocou a diocese para “uma luta sem quartel, concertada e eficaz contra o mal e as suas artes” (p. 16).
O bispo promoveu orações públicas que congregavam multidões vindas de muito longe. O Maligno se externava visivelmente, e aqueles que sofriam alguma ação diabólica eram levados à sacristia para serem objeto de exorcismos específicos.”
http://cienciaconfirmaigreja.blogspot.com.br/2011/08/bispo-descreve-experiencias-exorcizando.html
TRANSLATION
“In the pastoral, Msgr. Andrea called upon his diocesis for “a fight without headquarters, focused and efficient against the evil and its arts.
The bishop promoted public prayers that gathered crowds that came from very far. The evil one manifested visiblely and that persons who suffered some kind of diabolical influence were lead to the sacristy and were object of specif exorcisms.”
Off course, I’m not say there is a crowd of possessed that should be exorcized, but our society is a society where the evil, the violence, all kind of evils are extolled as good and that’s a tipical sign of diabolical influence or action.
Dear Friars, I hope my rhetorical style may not have seemed rude. (Espero que o meu estilo retórico não tenha parecido rude.)