Several years ago, the Reverend Mother of the Perpetual Adoration Convent in Drumshanbo, County Leitrim, invited me to preach a retreat to her community. This past autumn, His Lordship, the Most Reverend Colm O'Reilly, Bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnois, asked my Father Abbot at Santa Croce in Gerusalemme if I might accept the invitation. Father Abbot acquiesced, and so on Sunday evening I will be flying to the Isle of Saints and Scholars. The eight day retreat will end on Friday, February 15. I will return to Connecticut the following day. Will I have internet access in Ireland? I don't know. Is there wireless in Leitrim? I'll soon find out.
Before going to lovely Leitrim I plan on spending a few quiet days close to Our Lady of Knock, the Queen of Ireland. Our Lady's apparition on August 21, 1879, together with Saint Joseph and Saint John, in the presence of the Immolated Lamb standing upon the Altar of His Sacrifice, is one of the most significant Marian events of modern times.
I ask the kind readers of Vultus Christi to accompany me and to sustain my preaching with their prayers. Thank you, friends. Blessed Lent to all.
His Excellency, the Bishop of the Diocese of Tulsa, Oklahoma has given
Father Mark a special mandate to live in adoration before the Most
Blessed Sacrament, in a spirit of thanksgiving and intercession, that he
might make reparation before the Eucharistic Face of Jesus for all his
brothers in Holy Orders. At the same time, he is available to the
priests and deacons of the Diocese for spiritual and sacramental
support in their pursuit of holiness.
