Your Pastoral Coach

Reflecting on the apparition at Knock, Ireland

This past week I had the opportunity to visit Ireland on business. My wife and I took the opportunity after the conference to journey to the northwest part of Ireland and visit the small village of Knock. More specifically, we visited the Catholic Knock Shrine, who had been previously visited by Pope John Paul II and Mother Teresa.

On the evening of the 21st August, 1879, Our Lady, St. Joseph, and St. John the Evangelist appeared in a blaze of heavenly light at the south gable of the Church of St. John the Baptist. Behind them and a little to the left of St. John was a plain altar. On the altar was an empty cross and a Lamb on an altar. Everyone in the scene was still, except for adoring angels that unceasingly circled the altar completely focused on the Lamb. The Apparition was seen by fifteen people whose ages ranged from six years to seventy-five and included men, women, teenagers and children. The Apparition lasted for two hours. It was raining hard and the witnesses, drenched, got on their knees and prayed the rosary. The ground where the apparition was stayed dry. The entire Apparition was silent. No verbal messages were given.

They described the Lamb as amazingly radiant, projecting a white light that was reflected by the other figures, with Mary reflecting the most light. The Lamb was peacefully and attentively looking at the other figures, listening. Joseph had his hands together in prayer, his head bowed in respect, and he was looking at the Lamb. Mary was looking up to heaven, her hands open in prayer of worship, thanksgiving, and intercession. Everyone and everything was of white color, but Mary wore a brilliant golden crown. Over the forehead she wore a beautiful full-bloom golden rose. Next to Mary was St. John the Evangelist. He was the disciple that at the cross Jesus confided him to his mother and his mother to him. They both lived in Ephesus after that. St John is the author of the Gospel according to John and the Book of Revelation. St John is dressed as a bishop wearing a mitre. On his left hand he is holding an open Bible and it looks as if he is preaching.

What does this silent Apparition mean?

Why is Mary "Mother of God"?

A reader from "Your Pastoral Coach" sent me an e-mail asking me how it is that Catholics can call Mary “Mother of God” and when this theology developed. I am corresponding with her, but thought I would post my answer here in case anyone else had comments.

The reason for stating that Mary is mother of God begins with Jesus. We believe that Jesus was one person with two natures, human and divine, from the time he was conceived in Mary’s womb by the Hoy Spirit. The third ecumenical council at Ephesus in 431 stated "that the Word, uniting to himself in his person the flesh animated by a rational soul, became man." Church teaching says that “Christ's humanity has no other subject than the divine person of the Son of God, who assumed it and made it his own, from his conception.” Since Mary gave birth to the Son of God, the second person in our Triune God, we say that she is the mother of God. This title was ratified also by the council at Ephesus in 431.

Our Lady Immaculately Conceived is the patroness of the United States of America

Tomorrow we celebrate the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. 

"Through the centuries the Church has become ever more aware that Mary, "full of grace" through God, was redeemed from the moment of her conception. That is what the dogma of the Immaculate Conception confesses, as Pope Pius IX proclaimed on December 8, 1854: "The most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Saviour of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin." — Catechism of the Catholic Church"

I have always honored this special day, but for some reason it never registered that Our Lady of Immaculate Conception is the patroness of the United States.  I had only thought of Our Lady of Guadalupe as the patroness of the Americas.  I did some research about when she became our patroness...