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Pic extras Mums the Word

I was gathering information for the Mum’s the word column and spoke to a few that went to the Marian shrine of OurLady of Banneux in Belgium with Margaret McDonald. This story is from Maria Bruns who went on the pilgrimage.

Maria Pimblett Media Officer

On Monday 26 September, 25 pilgrims joined our deputy national president, Margaret McDonald, in departing for a Union of Catholic Mothers pilgrimage to the Marian shrine of Our Lady of Banneux in Belgium.

After a journey via coach and ferry, we arrived at our hotel in Charleroi in time for dinner and, the next morning, we headed to Banneux. The shrine there, visited by hundreds of thousands of pilgrims each year, marks the site where Our Lady appeared to Mariette Beco, an 11-year-old girl, eight times between 15 January and 2 March 1933.

On our arrival, we followed a prayer path and visited the Chapel of the Apparitions as well as the spring into which we put our hands, just as Our Lady had instructed when telling Mariette to ‘push your hands into the water’. Our Lady told the girl, ‘I am the Virgin of the poor, this spring is reserved for all nations’ and, in another apparition, said that ‘I come to relieve suffering’. Our Lady also asked for a ‘little chapel’ to be built on the site and, on her final visit, told Mariette that she was ‘the Mother of the Saviour’.

In the grounds we saw the chapel to Our Lady of Walsingham while Father David Potter, our chaplain, celebrated Mass for us in the Chapelle Marie Mediatrice. There was also a blessing of the sick and Benediction in the Chapelle du Message, relayed in four languages. It was raining heavily when we arrived at the shrine, but we left in beautiful sunshine. A very special day.

During our time in Belgium, we took a tour of the Hospital of Our Lady with the Rose, a conventhospital dating back to the 13th century. We went also to Ghent and explored St Bavo’s Cathedral, a magnificent Gothic edifice which houses an impressive collection of art and architectural treasures. We visited Waterloo to see the museum commemorating Napoleon’s last battle. Those who were able climbed the 226 steps leading to The Lion’s Mound – the most famous landmark of the battlefield site. We ended our day with a visit to a Belgian chocolate village.

Maria Bruns

A century of service News from the Liverpool Province of the Knights of St Columba

Knights attend special Masses – in the woods and on the bus!

Now that Covid restrictions have eased, an annual event back on the KSC’s agenda is the Harkirk Mass. This takes place in an historic chapel deep in the woods of the Ince Blundell Estate. Served by St Mary’s, Little Crosby, the Harkirk Chapel is a hidden gem, a monument to the courage and tenacity of Catholics in south Lancashire who refused to abandon their faith during the Reformation. The chapel was provided by the Blundell family on their estate in Little Crosby as a burial ground for those Catholics in the area who were denied this unless they conformed to the requirements of the Established Church. The Blundell family included Nicholas Blundell, an MP and member of the order, who was instrumental in the repeal of legislation in 1926 preventing Catholics from taking part in public displays of their faith such as May processions. The Knights have traditionally attended the chapel’s annual memorial Mass each summer and this year it was celebrated on 7 August by Father Dustan Harrington, the parish priest at St Mary’s and our Liverpool province chaplain who, we are pleased to report, is slowly returning to good health after the severe and prolonged effects of Covid. Our photo shows Brother Liam McNeilis, a new council 9 member, receiving his collarette from provincial grand knight Alf Swain. • Province 2 recently hosted the Divine Mercy Bus at St Helen’s church in Crosby on the last leg of its national journey. Our national board of directors travelled from far and wide to join local knights, their families and other worshippers on board the bus where confessions were heard by Fr John Cullen and a Mass was celebrated by our national spiritual adviser, Bishop Tom Neylon. It was a highly unusual yet very spiritually uplifting occasion enjoyed by all – and bus passes were not needed! We wish to offer our thanks to Anne Fearon who facilitated the event on behalf of Fr Martin Caddell, the parish priest at St Helen’s.

Websites: www.ksc.org.uk www.kscprov02.weebly.com Email: dpokeane@aol.com