Blessed
Feast of Our Lady Knock, Queen of Ireland, Queen of Heaven and Earth! Greetings
to family, friends and newcomers. May God’s grace and mercy be with you and
your families.
August
15th is the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Body and
Soul into Heaven. At this time of year,
we remember fondly our pilgrimages to Ireland. It is in this land that we
composed 2 songs: "Queen of Heaven" At St. Patrick's College, Maynooth Seminary and "I Will Meet You Again on the Other Side" at Our Lady of Knock Shrine.
We
have traveled in large pilgrimages and small pilgrimages (with Fr. Bill
McCarthy from My Father’s House, Moodus, CT and Dr. Rosalie Turton of the 101
Foundation, Washington, NJ) with many great stories to share and many warm
memories. But most importantly, we learned about the faith of the people, their
struggles, their history which includes wars, persecution of the Church, Penal
Laws, the Great Famine, civil unrest, and more.
Yet this people remained faithful to God and the Blessed Virgin Mary
through the suffering and in good times especially through the power of the
Holy Rosary.
For
those who have never been on a pilgrimage, we would like to experience it.
Pilgrimage is a time of prayer. It can be a time to reconnect more deeply
with God, to pray for our families and situations – a time to surrender and
rest in the Goodness of the Lord. We also meet good people who have the same
belief and attitude. We are still in contact with pilgrims. We pray for each
other. Because we are going to Holy Places, shrines, monasteries, and
apparition sites in various places and speaking and listening to visionaries, we
are taken out of our “comfort zone.” We pray, we sing, laugh and we cry, and go
home tired, yet filled with the Lord.
In
this blog, we are going to share memorable moments from our journeys with Fr.
Bill, Rosalie and the pilgrims.
To
prepare for our first pilgrimage to Ireland with Fr. Bill McCarthy which would
be during Christmas season, we spent time learning about the history of
Ireland, and the Saints who helped bring the Catholic Faith to Ireland. We read
about these faithful men and women. We composed a song in honor of St. Patrick
using the words of the Irish Blessing. There is much history about St. Patrick
his miracles, his 40 day fast and penitential exercises on the mountain, Croagh
Patrick. The whole purpose of his prayer
was to obtain special blessings and mercy for the Irish race, whom he
evangelized. Christianity grew and monastic culture flourished
in the 700-800’s. Ireland became known as the “Land of Saints and Scholars.” We also composed the song, "St. Patrick," for this pilgrimage.
Banner
for our 1st Ireland pilgrimage
Two
outstanding memories in this Christmas season pilgrimage:
As
we had Mass @ the Shrine of Our Lady of Knock in the late afternoon (which was
dark) an elderly gentleman stood by the banner, touched it and prayed for 5
minutes.
During
Christmas season, everyone says “Happy Christmas,” there is singing on the street
corners of Christmas songs until the Epiphany, Jan. 6th.
Our Lady
of Knock
On
Aug. 21, 1879, after 100 day novena of Masses and Holy Communions, a heavenly
apparition appeared on the gable wall of a small parish Church in Knock in
County Mayo. There stood Our Blessed Mother, St. Joseph and St. John the
Evangelist holding a book. A Lamb standing before a Cross on a plain altar
surrounded by angels also appeared. No words were spoken. They appeared to float about two feet above
the ground, and each would occasionally move toward the visionaries, and then
away from them. The Blessed Virgin Mary was clothed in white robes with a
brilliant crown on
her head. Where the crown fitted
to her brow, she wore a beautiful full-bloom golden rose.
She was praying with
her eyes and hands raised towards Heaven. St. Joseph wore
white robes, stood on Our Lady's right, and was turned towards her in an attitude of respect. St. John was
dressed in white vestment, stood was on Mary's
left, and resembled a bishop,
with a small miter.
He appeared to be preaching and
he held an open book in
his left hand. Behind them and a little to the left of St. John was
a plain altar on
which was a Cross and
a Lamb with adoring angel.
The 2 hour apparition was witnessed by fifteen people. Miraculous healings were
reported soon after in the area. It has
become a major center of pilgrimage.
Apparition
Church of Our Lady of Knock where
the Apparition took place on Aug 21, 1879
Fr. Martin Mannion & Fr. Bill McCarthy celebrating
Mass at the gable wall
New Basilica of Our Lady of Knock seats 10,000 people
Mosaic
over the Basilica Altar
Grave of one of the 15 Witnessesin the cemetery of
Knock
SCENERY
The scenery in Ireland is
spectacular from the fields of Glendalough to Sligo, Donegal, Foxford, Limerick, Northern Ireland and Achill Island. You can see it in the video of
“St. Patrick.”
We
all know about rainbows. One year in Ireland, it rained a lot. Every day we saw
rainbows during this pilgrimage.
Visionaries
In our journeys to Ireland, we were able to
have time to meet with visionaries who speak with our Lord, Jesus, and the
Blessed Virgin Mary such as Christina Gallaher and her spiritual director, Fr.
Gerald McGinnity, Tom Lennon, Nan King, Anne the Apostle and the families of
visionaries who had passed away but tell their stories.
On our 101 Foundation
pilgrimages with Dr. Rosalie Turton, Director, Rosalie made sure to see Tom
Lennon and his wife, Maura, every time we went to Ireland. Their journey with
God is wonderful and has been a challenge for them. They have nine children and
many grandchildren. Every time we saw them, they would share great stories
about their family or themselves and how God has led them. They would spend 2
or 3 days with us explaining the history of Ireland as well as the Saints. Tom
would give us teachings about our faith in the evening.
Deacon Frank blessing Tom before he gave a teaching
Praying the Stations the Church of St. Dymphna
Memorable
places and events
where
we sang for Mass, prayer service, concert
Legion
of Mary in Dublin
Shrine of Blessed Matt
Talbot
Shrine
of Our Lady of Dublin Carmelite Friary, White Friars
Singing
for Mass
Altar
and relic of St. Valentine
Our
Lady of Dublin
Our
Lady, Queen of Peace, House of Prayer, Achill Island
Mass Rock, Kerrytown,
where Catholics celebrated
Mass during the
Penal times or persecutions
Apostolate of Jesus
Christ the Returning King, Tearmann Anama (formerly Holy Trinity Abbey, Kilnacrott)
Co. Cavan, Ireland with Anne the Apostle
Melleray Abby Melleray
Grotto
Our
Lady of Knock Shrine Story
The third “Ria”
travels with us on pilgrimage
She is the wife
of Deacon Frank Slapikas
“Be the One” @ Knock
At Our Lady of Knock, at the beginning of Mass with Fr. John Corbett, we sang the song, “Our Lady of Knock,” 5 times. By the 3rd time, everyone was singing, our pilgrims, pilgrims from Ireland and pilgrims from
around the world. By the 5th time, everyone was singing LOUD!At the end of Mass, we sang our song, “Be the
One.” Before we sang, we asked the congregation who would be the “One” to
console the Heart of Jesus” by following Him more deeply. At the end of the
song, a young woman passed by us and said, “I will be the one.” We pray for
that young lady.
Knock Cemetery St. Mary’s Church, Cappaquin
We always take a book of petitions with us on our journeys.
But one year, Noreen Von Zwehl who was President of the Rosa Mystica Foundation
of America suggested that we take a banner, a print, of a painting her
daughter, Joanne Von Zwehl, (current President of the Rosa Mystica Foundation)
had completed - an image of “Our Lady – Ireland” to the Churches and Shrines.
We started at St. Mary’s in Cappaquin. That year, our priest
could not come on the pilgrimage due to the sickness of his mother. We did have
a deacon on this trip who became the Chaplain of the pilgrimage, Deacon Frank
Slapikas from Tuscaloosa, AL. Deacon Frank Slapikas became the first permanent
deacon in Ireland to preach at Mass at St. Mary’s. The priest, Fr. John,
requested that we send him the banner of “Our Lady – Ireland” for his Church
after the pilgrimage.We did. It is now
in that Church thanks to “Our Lady – Ireland.”
If you would like to put your family into our petition book,
we will gladly pray for you. Send us an email at mariaandgloria@riamusic.org
or text us @ 516.521.2695
We pray for Ireland, our pilgrims
and all the people we met with the Irish Blessing
