The Knock apparition is a jigsaw puzzle of sorts.
In this and subsequent articles I will attempt to assemble the puzzle of the Knock apparition that will yet remain a mystery to us this side of heaven. I have identified eleven elements that I think make up the apparition as whole. These will each be treated upon and then it is my hope to identify the connections between them until at last we stand back and see ‘the wonder that God has done.’
I hope that, like me, you are as excited at the gradual ‘reveal’ of the wonder that is Knock.
The facts of the Knock apparition are well known. On the Thursday night of August 21, 1879, just as it was getting dark, this now famous apparition at the gable end of the parish Church of St John the Baptist in Knock Co. Mayo, Ireland was observed by fifteen local men, women and children. That a shining light of unknown origin was seen there was also attested to by several others who did not see the detailed vision itself. The last surviving witness of the apparition testified from her deathbed in 1935: “I saw Our Lady”.
Interest in the Knock apparition and attendance there has grown in recent years. Knock is the most visited religious site in Ireland with a million visitors each year. The shrine boasts a magnificent and impressive basilica. The gable end of the parish church has a beautiful representation of the apparition in an extended chapel while the basilica has recently added a stunning artist’s impression of the apparition in mosaic.
{{The connections of various elements of the apparition have therefore been brought together in a new light and are intriguing”
The visits of Pope St John Paul II in September 1979 and of Pope Francis in August 2018 coinciding with the World Meeting of Families has brought fresh interest and worldwide attention to Knock. At the declaration of the inaugural Sunday dedicated to the Word of God in January 2020, Pope Francis had the processional statue of Our Lady flown to Rome to be honoured in St Peter’s Basilica during the Solemn Mass to mark the event. During that dark time of Covid, on the Solemnity of St Joseph – in the Year of St Joseph, Pope Francis declared Knock to be an international ‘Eucharistic and Marian Shrine’. The connections of various elements of the apparition have therefore been brought together in a new light and are intriguing.
I have identified eleven pieces of what I call ‘the Knock puzzle’.
The Knock apparition puzzle contains the following interlocking pieces:
- Silence
- The Lamb of God
- The Cross
- The Altar
- Sacred Scripture
- Our Lady
- Angels
- St Joseph
- St John
- Light
- The final piece – you
Part one: The first clue – Silence
Growing up, the silence of the Knock apparition was one of the first things that intrigued me when compared to Lourdes or Fatima, for example, where there were no private spoken revelations to latch on to, so to speak. This to my mind as a youngster at first made Knock less exciting or inviting. But I realise now that there is an inner logic or explanation to the silence.
Growing up we found having to endure silence ‘boring’ – being hushed quiet when a favourite piece of music (usually classical) was being played or broadcast. We associate with young people loud music, noise, games, activities, thrills, excitement.
But as we get older our energies change, we slow down, and we come to welcome ‘peace and quiet’. We prefer not to be disturbed, we crave silence and peace, we turn down the volume on the radio or TV (or turn it up if we are hard of hearing!) – something changes in us without our realising it.
We feel all the better for having experienced a taste of it, after idle chatter, traffic and the noise of TV or entertainment or a social occasion”
In a noisy society many of us still like to get away – to retreats, to the Camino, to nature, or in other words, to anywhere there is ‘peace and quiet.’ Knock too invites us to silent contemplation.
We know that the rapid increase in technology has brought many benefits. But it has also made us jaded – always contactable and increasingly addicted to the fear of ‘missing out’. The mobile phone, the tablet are ‘normal’ possessions. But have lost something along the way.
Silence is golden. We crave tranquillity – because we are embodied spirits. We can satisfy the needs of the body and still be ill-at-ease. There is something calming about silence. We feel all the better for having experienced a taste of it, after idle chatter, traffic and the noise of TV or entertainment or a social occasion, when the dust settles.
Knock is a call to silence. And only in that silence can we begin to understand and to savour just what the apparition is all about. Because we can think, reflect, ponder, consider, watch, ‘see’ what is ‘going on’ in the apparition. Quietening ourselves will help us to begin to acquire the peace we all seek.
Silence is the necessary first step in the quest to decipher the puzzle of the apparition. Silence is not simply a vacuum or nada, it is not ‘non-doing’, it is a means to an end – a worthy pursuit – to listen in the words of Scripture ‘to the still small voice’. Often, we experience the voice in our head or as the voice of conscience, maybe even the voice of regret. We don’t always sit comfortably in silence.
Attaining silence is like crossing over the border to another country. I must somehow leave noise behind. The danger of so much unreflected activity in my life is that movement presumes but does not always imply that there is meaning to all my actions. I can often be rudderless. Silence can at first be jarring – we are tempted to go back – to reach for the TV remote or the phone to break the unbearable silence that descends upon us. We are restless and bored. We ache for distraction. But silence, if we welcome it, has power to renew and recharge us, to help us rest, as well as plan and take the next best right step.
Because we are embodied spirits silence allows our spirits ‘room’ to breathe and find expression. We need to become surrender to it and be familiar with the phrase ‘be still my soul.’ Or in the wonderful words of St John Henry Newman:
‘‘May He support us all the day long
Till the fever of life is over
When the busy world is hushed and our work is done…
Then in His mercy may he give us a safe lodging, a holy rest and peace at the last,’’
Silence begins to give us perspective, but quietness of soul is only the beginning. Silence is a primer, an ABC of the spiritual life. But coming to silence and stillness, I am aware, I listen, I look with new vision, I observe, I am less anxious and afraid. I am ready.
We are ready for the next step – and what God wishes to say to us in God’s good time.
The Knock apparition, being silent, teaches us therefore to mirror the necessary disposition of silence as we begin our reflective journey.
Attaining silence is like crossing over the border to another country. I must somehow leave noise behind. The danger of so much unreflected activity in my life is that movement presumes but does not always imply that there is meaning to all my actions”
We are embodied spirits silence allows our spirits ‘room’ to breathe and find expression. We need to become surrender to it and be familiar with the phrase ‘be still my soul’”
