Praying the Rosary for the Preservation of Life and Faith in Ireland
Below is a message from Coastal Rosary Ireland announcing that on Sunday, March 18, 2018, at 2:30 pm, there will be gatherings at Mass Rocks to pray the Holy Rosary for the preservation of life & faith in Ireland. More information can be found here on Facebook.
From the Papal Cross in Phoenix Park, Dublin, Pope John Paul II spoke of Ireland’s devotion to the Mass and Holy Eucharist recalling “Mass rocks in the glens and forests” where Mass was celebrated “by hunted priests… for the Irish, it was always the Mass that mattered. How many have found in it the spiritual strength to live, even through the times of greatest hardship and poverty, through days of persecution and vexations.” On returning to Rome, he said, “I will never forget that place (Clonmacnoise)… These ruins are still charged with a great mission. They still constitute a challenge.”
Our Mass Rocks and monastic ruins tell an important story of commitment to life and faith that we must never forget. They remind us that life and faith are treasures worth the greatest sacrifice.
With the Rosary on the Coasts for Life and Faith on the Feast of Christ the King, 2017, we sought the help of Jesus Christ the King and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, His Queen in the battle for the protection of Life and the Faith. With Our Lady’s Miraculous Medal we planted a ‘hedge of protection’ around Ireland. In the next phase, the Rosary at the Mass Rocks for Life and Faith we remember and appeal to the Irish saints, who went to Mass at these locations, to help us in the effort for Life and Faith. We will, with our saints, ask Jesus once again to be King of Ireland.
We turn this Lent to the requests of Our Lady of Fatima for repentance, reparation, prayer and sacrifice for the conversion of sinners and the daily rosary. With these in our hearts, we humbly gather at the Mass Rocks, Mass Houses, monastic ruins and at the Papal Cross in Phoenix Park in honour of Jesus Christ Our King crowned with thorns, to His most Sacred Heart pierced, to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Mother of Mercy, Queen of Ireland, to St Joseph Protector and Patron of the Family and of the Universal Church and to St Patrick, Protector and Patron of Ireland, and the saints of Ireland, especially our own ancestors, who drew strength from the rosary as they risked their lives to attend Mass and receive the Holy Eucharist at the hands of hunted priests at Mass Rocks and Mass Houses, and to the monks who preserved the faith through centuries of darkness.
Why Sunday March 18, 2018? Because this particular Sunday….
…bridges the feasts of our two great saints: March 17th, St Patrick, the Patron and Protector of Ireland and March 19th, St Joseph, the Patron and Protector of the Family and of the Universal Church who visited the Irish in Knock in a special manifestation of his care.
…is the Fifth Sunday of Lent (in the extraordinary form known as Passion Sunday) when we through the liturgy begin the ascent to Calvary.
…is the 145th Anniversary of the Consecration of Ireland to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Passion Sunday 1873
…is the feast of Our Lady of Mercy (Savona) where Our Lady called for fasting and conversion of life so that we will be shown “Mercy not Justice”. This devotion was especially highlighted by Pope Benedict XVI.
…is the feast of Bl Christian O’Conarchy, the first Cistercian abbot in Ireland 1100s Bishop of Lismore and a model of Irish monastic devotion.
…precedes a series of referenda which seek to legalise abortion (Article 40.3.3), blasphemy (Article 40.6.1.1), no fault divorce (Article 41.3) and to remove recognition from the home carer (Article 41.2.1)
Dia idir sinn is an t-olc
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