People from the Diocese of Limerick have been coming on pilgrimage to Knock Shrine for a long time. Already in 1880, just a few months after the Apparition, a group of 50 pilgrims made their way from Limerick to Tuam by train, and then onwards to this village of Knock in nine horse-drawn, open sidecars. It seems the occasion was big news. There were bonfires light and people out to greet the Limerick pilgrims. The Archbishop of Tuam also came out to welcome them and, indeed, it was the first time the Archbishop spoke publically about the Knock Apparition. Since then many, many pilgrims have been coming either as a Diocese pilgrimage or in parish groups. After a few years without a Diocesan pilgrimage, it’s great today to be re-establishing this wonderful tradition. And I’m delighted we’re here with the Holy Souls pilgrimage.

The basilica is looking so well, so wonderfully refurbished with the beautiful PJ Lynch mosaic and warm furnishings. I think we can really be thankful to all who look after this beautiful shrine visited by two Popes, and now declared by Pope Francis as in International Marian and Eucharistic Shrine. It is good for us to be here. When Pope Francis visited here in 2018 he said: “I am happy to be with you in the house of Our Lady.” I think we also want to say it to one another, “I am happy to be with you, fellow pilgrim, in the house of Our Lady”.

What are we to do in this house of Our Lady? Our readings offer us three suggestions.

First, we can sing our thanks to Mary for all the ways she has been with us as Our Mother. God alone knows how many “hail Marys” people, young and old, have recited and still do today across our Diocese for specific intentions. At the foot of the Cross, as John’s Gospel tells us, Mary became our mother and we her spiritual children. As a mother she always hears our pleas. Her maternal care is always enveloping us, especially at times of suffering, darkness and vulnerability. So it is only right that on our Diocesan pilgrimage, we come and say, on our own behalf but also on behalf of countless others in Limerick Diocese, “thank you” to Our Lady for being a mother. “Thank you” for all the times we and others have said the words “pray for us now and at the hour of our death” and that she, Mary, has heard us and with a Mother’s heart interceded for us.

A second suggestion that comes to us from our readings is that, as we again today on pilgrimage place our lives in Our Lady’s hands, and ask her to be with us as we journey towards God along the way she herself travelled, we think of the Holy Spirit. As the beloved child, daughter of God, Our Lady lived out what the Second Reading tells us: she believed God the Father loved her immensely in all circumstances, no matter what happened to her along her way in life. She believed in love knowing the Spirit in her prompted her to cry out “Father”. It’s not always easy to believe what Jesus taught us – that God is a loving Father! How often we turn to Our Lady for help us to persevere in our belief or in moments of uncertainty, doubt, anguish. But did you ever wonder who did Mary turn to when she needed help? We can only imagine that she turned a lot to the Holy Spirit whose voice she listened to deep within her. Mary had experienced the Holy Spirit come upon her not only at the Annunciation but throughout her life. In the Knock Apparition, Mary stands there in silence. God the Holy Spirit is the silence that speaks in her.

As the Woman so much linked to the Holy Spirit, Mary advises us to turn a lot to the Holy Spirit, asking for his guidance and wisdom, courage and love of the poor and the marginalised. As a Diocese now living through a time of great changes, we need both to imitate Mary in believing in God’s plan even when we can’t always understand it, and also in calling a lot on the Holy Spirit to show us the way forward. Pope Francis comments that we are not just living in an era of change but in a change of era. The changes ahead of us as a Diocese, as well as a society, are enormous. They won’t always be easy. They will require a much greater missionary outreach than we’ve been used to. We’re going to have to work on new arrangements as well as new approaches, methods, and means of communicating the Gospel. We cannot do that simply on the basis of our own human ideas. We need the Holy Spirit, the God of creativity who helps us go out to the poor, the prisoners, the blind, the oppressed….

The third point and perhaps the most important point that Our Lady of Knock, Mary would want us to take away from our pilgrimage is what we learn from her about Christian love. It is above all this love that we are called to bring to the world. How much our world needs love! So many wars, so much homelessness, so much climate plundering of our planet, so much abuse of all kinds, and so much loneliness... Years ago, in a famous book, Erich Fromm wrote, “everything else is considered to be more important than love: success, prestige, money, power—almost all our energy is used for the learning of how to achieve these aims, and almost none to learn the art of loving.” (Art of Loving, p. 6). Mary teaches us the Gospel art of loving. It’s no surprise that Joseph and John the Evangelist appear in the Apparition. Mary is not alone. She is a woman living with and for others. It was with Joseph that Mary provided a home for the child Jesus. It was with John the Evangelist that, as Jesus indicated at the foot of the Cross, Mary was to form the first cell of the Church that has love as its primary law, a love that lets Jesus Risen be among us.

Let’s just take two points of the Gospel art of loving. Mary was the first to love. She took initiative. She didn’t wait to be loved. We see this in her visit to Elizabeth. Perhaps today we can think of situations back home, in our family, our workplace, our parish where we can reach out in love.

Mary loves everyone. The maternity granted her as she stood at the foot of the Cross was universal. No-one excluded. We can so easily fall into discriminating between this and that type of person – from my village, not from my village; my nationality, not my nationality, someone to my liking, someone not to my liking…  But Mary is mother to all and invites us to grow in the Gospel art of loving like her, approaching each person as if I were his or her mother or father. And then to love with a mother’s love.

As I draw my words to a conclusion, a brief recap – we’re here to say “thanks” to Our Lady, we’re here to call down the Holy Spirit upon us and our Diocese, and we’re here to learn again from Our Lady Mary the Gospel art of loving that she lived so well.

“Mary, Mother of God, Mother of the Church, Our Lady of Knock,

Thank you for being with us always as our Mother in heaven.

Ask the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with your courage, your hope, your love.

Here in your house, grant us to learn the Gospel art of loving so when our pilgrimage is over, we will be more like you, cause of joy, comforter of the afflicted, mirror of justice, Mother of Hope, Queen of peace”. Amen.