Our Lady of Knock 

Our Lady of Knock was seen by 15 residents of Knock, a poor, small village in County Mayo, Ireland, on Aug. 21, 1879, outside of the Church of St. John the Baptist. St. Joseph and St. John the Evangelist accompanied her; there was also an altar with a lamb and cross on it. In this apparition, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to all present but remained silent. A prayer to Our Lady of Knock includes the words, “Our Lady of Knock, Queen of Ireland, you gave hope to your people in a time of distress and comforted them in sorrow.” Pray for us Our Lady.

On Friday, July 14, two Israeli police officers and three Arab Israeli gunmen were killed within Al Haram Al Sharif compound.

This raises the eternal question of Jerusalem and the management of holy space.

Sadly, religion, and the way we worship, is being politicised and used as a means of posture.

Can the people of Jerusalem — the living, breathing city, not just a city of heritage — ever live in peace without a clear definition of the management of holy space in Jerusalem?

I’m certain of this: if we all were to pray the Lenten prayer of the great St. Ephrem the Syrian, Father and Doctor of the Church, we would bring about the coming Kingdom of Heaven with great speed.

He was a culture warrior who by some accounts ended life as hermit. He was a prolific apologist who also composed memorable hymns. He is a revered figure in the Eastern Churches, and one of the very early Doctors of the Church as named by Pope Benedict XV in 1920.

The African country is hostage to a regime since 1993. The Daughters of Saint Anne, who require some concrete help, bring the Gospel and lots of Hope to this dramatic situation.

At the Angelus Pope Francis comments the parable of the Sower, “the idols of worldly wealth, of living greedily for oneself, for possessing and for power, suffocate the growth of the Word.” A Prayer for the Population of Venezuela.

This is history lesson for the feast day of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

On May 13, 1981, after Pope St. John Paul II was shot, his thoughts were focused on his Brown Scapular, a sacramental consisting of two small pieces of cloth attached with string or cloth and worn so that the cloths hang down across the chest and back, with the bands across the shoulders, as a reminder to live a Christian life.

The mid-Hudson River Valley region in New York is home to the National Shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

The Carmelites in charge have made sure visitors feel the peace, serenity and spirituality of this holy place.

From the chapel to the tranquil 60 acres dotted with outdoor shrines, visitors feel like guests of Our Lady, the Holy Family and the many Carmelite saints venerated in various ways here.

Fatima Connection

Before my present assignment, I was pastor in a small parish in Vermont. The former pastor, Fr. Paul, lived with me, and one of his greatest interests was his garden, one of the most famous in town, not huge—just four raised beds—but always early and always lush. One of the secrets of his success was the soil, just the right mix of soil and his own rich home-made compost, completely organic, no chemicals. Just like the fourth illustration in the Parable of the Sower. Not for nothing he used to say he never felt so close to God as in his garden.

The timelessness of the Gospels is remarkable. Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel about the sower were spoken directly to those who gathered around him — and they are almost more relevant to us in our highly technological age.

“The miracles of Christ and the saints, prophecies, the Church's growth and holiness, and her fruitfulness and stability are the most certain signs of divine Revelation, adapted to the intelligence of all; they are motives of credibility, which show that the assent of faith is by no means a blind impulse of the mind.” (CCC 156)