“All our cares and troubles cease,
as we kneel with love before You …”
Since the month of May and Marian devotion go hand in hand, in this reflection, we pay a personal visit to the Marian Shrine in Knock. There we find our blessed Mother watching for us, waiting for us, always supremely welcoming.
On arrival, we encounter Mary, with arms raised in prayer, petition, praise and we know deep within, that all our petitions and intentions are held in her heart as she gathers us in, enfolding us, her needy children, in her mantle of care. As we kneel there before her in the Apparition Chapel, “all our cares and troubles cease”.
Though content to be there with Mary, our Mother, we find our gaze being guided towards the centre of the Apparition scene to the Lamb, the One whose singular mission, we are told, is about ‘lifting burdens’. Filled with compassion and tenderness for us, Jesus the Lamb, waits to lift our burdens. How He longs to heal the suffering being borne by so many of his children across the globe. He holds and hears our stories and the stories of our worn-torn countries and our hurting planet earth.
Our attention, our prayer and our praise move easily from the Lamb to Mary, all the while being held in their embrace. Jesus, it would seem, so very happy that we find in Mary a ‘Mother’ unequalled, unparalleled. And Mary gently urging us as she did in the Gospels: “Do whatever He tells you.”
And so as our visit comes to an end and we prepare to take our leave, we are filled with gratitude that our blessed Mother and her Son are journeying with us … accompanying us at every turn and twist of the road, and that our families, friends and our troubled world are safe in their keeping and their care, always.
And the Lamb will conquer
and the Woman clothed in the sun
will shine Her light on everyone.
Sr Rose Gallagher