"Faith and Family" is the central theme of this year's Novena to Our Lady of Knock, Queen of Ireland, which will be celebrated from 14 to 22 August in the Basilica of Ireland's National Marian Shrine.
The event, designed in connection with the theme of the next October's Ordinary General Synod of Bishops: "The vocation and mission of the family in the Church and in the contemporary world," will include moments of prayer, but also seminars and times for reflection. The Novena will be inaugurated on Friday by Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York. The next day, Archbishop Eamon Martin will celebrate Mass for the Feast of the Assumption. On 17 August, Msgr. Kevin Doran, Bishop of Elphin, will speak about the gift of the family; and, on the 18th, Kate Liffey, National Director of the Bishops' Council for Catechetics, will reflect on what family life teaches about faith. The link between faith and family will be explored in various workshops, where the participants will reflect on the transmission of the faith in the family, marriage and the family as a community united by the faith, in which we take care of one another.
