The Irish Catholic Hermit

  Keep Watch T he apparition at Knock must be understood not simply as an extraordinary event, but within the suffering and faith of the Irish people who witnessed it.  O n 21 August 1879, ordinary villagers testified that, against the gable wall of the parish church at Knock, they saw the Mother of God, Saint Joseph and Saint John the Evangelist surrounded by a mysterious light. Beside them appeared an altar bearing the Lamb before the Cross. The vision remained before the witnesses without any spoken message. Heaven appeared, but heaven was silent.    T hat silence becomes more intelligible when the history of the people who stood before it is remembered. Generations of Irish Catholics had preserved their faith through persecution, poverty and deprivation.  T he Mass had been outlawed, devotion to the saints and the Mother of God had been suppressed, and Catholic religious life had been subjected to prolonged restriction. Among a people who were often poor and...

  The Fire of Love A brother asked an old man, “Father, what is love?” The elder answered, “To cease living for yourself.” For many call desire love when they merely seek consolation, pleasure, affection or praise from another. Such love remains chained to the passions. When what it desires is withheld, tenderness becomes anger and affection becomes resentment. Thus temptation reveals whether we loved the person or only what we received from him. D esire was planted in the soul that man might long for God. But through the fall it became scattered among created things, and the heart began seeking from them what only the Creator can give. Therefore the ascetic does not destroy desire; he purifies it. Through fasting, vigil, silence, obedience and prayer, he gathers the scattered powers of the soul and turns them again toward God. Yet even asceticism can become food for pride. A man may fast from bread while feeding upon praise, or keep vigil while judging his brother. Better the man...