PHOTO GALLERY
If you were
in the Mayo last weekend, you might have been surprised to hear
and see the invasion of over 1000 young people into the area of Knock
Shrine. At first glance one might have mistaken it to be the
contuination of the recent 'Oxygen' festival in Punchestown in Dublin
but it wasn't. It was the Youth 2000 Summer Festival in Knock, which at
this stage is an annual event for the youth of Ireland. Playing with the
words of U2's 'Still haven't found what you're looking for'- this became
the poster invitation and the mission theme's battle cry as they
travelled the length and breadth of the country to invite their peers to
partecipate in the event.
It wasn't surprising then that it became the theme and constant
provocation for the weekend too.
Four
days of prayer, praise, witness, of Eucharistic Adoration and of pure
Christian joy. Many were there for the first time, others are veterans
and wouldn't miss it for the world. The organisational and creative
skills of the festival committee are to be applauded and the festival
ran so smoothly, indeed a blessing considering the large number who were
present.
Some highlights of
the time in Knock for me were the beautiful Healing and Reconciliation
service
on
the Saturday evening. With the presence of over 50 priests, over 1000
young people received the Sacrament of Mercy, many of them having
abandoned it years ago and returning back to Jesus that evening. There
were tears of joy, of healing, of relief.....a scene to behold as the
group contuined to pray before the Blessed Sacrament as this took place.
Confession took almost 4 hrs and nobody moved from their places, held by
the tender gaze of Jesus in the Eucharist. After this we processed with
the Blessed Sacrament to the Chapel of Adoration where Night Adoration
would continue. In the spirit of the parable of the Prodigal Son, there
was a party in the Rest and Care Centre which continued into the early
hours.
The
other major highlight was the concert given by Elation on Friday night.
Elation
have just launced their first CD "The Way we Are" and we were treated to
a live concert of prayer and praise which risked lifting the roof of the
marquis!
After the initial technical hitch of no electricity supply, we sang
'Show your power (literally!) like never sung before.
God heard our prayers and the concert of song, dance and prayer began!
I had
the opportunity of giving a workshop on Life Choices together with Fr.
Barry Horan, a diocesan priest from Galway, and
Ronan (Rojo) and Joanne Johnston,
a married couple from Wicklow. There was a very positive response to the
talks and the young people had many questions about how we came to
discern the life choices which we had made.
Again this fed back into the initial theme of seeking and looking for
God's plan in our lives. "Seek and you will find" was the underlying
message from each of the speakers talks. It may take time for this plan
to unravel in our lives but it is worth the wait as each one of us could
share and revisit the many graces that Jesus has woven into our life
stories.
It wasn't
long before Sunday came along and it was time to pack up the tents and
head back to the four corners of Ireland and even beyond as we had many
visitors from various parts of Europe and beyond. The final Mass in the
Basilica gave the pilgrims the opportunity to experience a little of the
joy which we had lived over the past days. May of them stayed on with us
after the Mass to sing as the cries of 'one more tune' forced Elation to
strum out a few more chords.
In
reality nobody wanted to go home but just like in the Gospel of the
Transfiguration, we couldn't keep the tents on Tabor, it was time to go
back to our families, friends and parish communities. Armed with the
Bible, the power of the Eucharist, a love letter from God, exchanged
mobile numbers and bebo addresses, and a prayer network which knows no
boundaries, the buses set off from Knock!
Till the next time......maybe at the Christmas Festival.
Blessings,
Sr. Louise
PHOTO GALLERY
email
me@ louise@pddm.org
