12 Sep 2024
Our sincere and heartfelt thanks to all who participated in our 2024 Novena to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, which took place from Saturday, August 31st to Sunday, September 8th at the Sacred Heart Church on the Western Road, Cork.
It was a wonderful thing to welcome friends and parishioners to the Sacred Heart Church for this year’s Novena to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart – we were delighted to see familiar faces and of course to welcome new friends. In addition, almost 10,000 people joined us in prayer via our live stream over the course of the nine days, reminding us of the tremendous spirit of our extended Sacred Heart family, at home and across the world, and reinforcing that remarkable sense of community and connection that comes with being part of our great family of faith, wherever we may be. Our Novena is always a very special time of the year, a time dedicated to prayer and reflection before we come into the darker days of late Autumn and Winter, and it is with grateful hearts that we came together once again to celebrate the sacred tradition of prayer to our Blessed Mother, placing the “intentions of our hearts” on the altar each day, as Fr Con Doherty reminded us.
Fr John Finn opened our 2024 Novena, taking us through the first three days of prayer, including a special Day of Reconciliation on Day 3. We were then honoured to have three very special guest speakers join us for Days 4, 5, and 6; Margaret Griffin, Miriam Dunne, Christine O’Hara, and Ann Keating all provided us with great food for thought as they gave us a glimpse into their own personal journeys of faith, and shared the joy and solace their have found in their different relationships with Our Lady. Irish Provincial Leader Fr Joe McGee journeyed down from Dublin to lead us in the final three days of the Novena, with a beautiful Day of Healing on Day 7. Fr John Fitzgerald, Fr Con Doherty, and Fr Tom Mulcahy were among several other MSCs who joined us throughout the nine days of prayer and thanksgiving.
Guest speaker Margaret Griffin joined us on Day 4 of our 2024 Novena to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, at the Sacred Heart Church on the Western Road, Cork.
Guest speaker Miriam Dunne joined us on Day 5 of our 2024 Novena to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, at the Sacred Heart Church on the Western Road, Cork.
Guest speaker Ann Keating joined us on Day 6 of our 2024 Novena to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, at the Sacred Heart Church on the Western Road, Cork.
Each of our speakers provided us with great pause for thought in their daily reflections, and in our closing Mass, Fr Joe McGee reminded us of “the importance of simply taking time with each other and time with those we love,” reminding us that God loves each one of us, individually and personally. “God looks on this congregation and he doesn’t just see a group of people,” he reflected. “God sees each one of us individually, he sees each one of us and whatever it is that’s troubling us; whatever it is, either physically or spiritually, that makes us deaf or prevents us from speaking out. He sees and intimately unites himself with us and listens to our prayers, and that, for us, is what spirituality of the heart is all about, that God personally knows each one of us by name. In these last eight days, we have united ourselves with Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, who herself is intimately united with the heart of her son, and she too absorbs that personal concern for each one of us, and she then prayers for us to her son and presents our prayers to his father and our father.”
“There’s a real promise to you and to me that gives us the assurance that during this Novena our loving God, our father, through Jesus his son, by the intercession of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, will personally hear the prayers of each one of us, will personally take a real interest in our needs or the needs we bring for other people, in whatever it is that troubles us, and he will respond – maybe not instantly, maybe not in the way we would like, but if we just take time to attune ourselves to the spirit, we will come to know that God is indeed hearing our prayers.”
Fr John Fitzgerald, Director of the MSC Missions Office, also took the time to thank all who participated in the Novena for the generous contributions that are already making a real and valuable difference to people in urgent need around the world. For example, Fr Joe McGee recently returned from a visit to our Venezuelan mission, where our MSCs are running soup kitchens that are providing many families with the only nourishment they will have on a daily basis. Returning from his trip, Fr Joe explained how we need to do more to help the families and communities out there, but with funds running low, it is an uphill challenge. The donations received from the Novena have been an invaluable boost to our missions around the world, says Fr John: “Thanks so much, from the bottom of our hearts, because today we are celebrating the love of God for everybody and there’s absolutely, absolutely no question – because of the help that yourselves have given, there are people eating meals today and tomorrow in different places because of you.”
Each year, the MSC Novena to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart offers a great sense of peace and comfort to all who take part, as we bring our personal intentions before the merciful heart of our Holy Mother. We extend our heartfelt thanks to everyone who took part in what was a truly blessed occasion this year, and for your ongoing friendship and support throughout the year. God bless you all.