(Clonard, Ireland) – Thousands of pilgrims are expected to descend on west Belfast today for the first day of the annual Clonard Novena.
More than 100,000 people will visit the monastery over the next nine days to take part in the famous Novena in honour of Our Mother of Perpetual Help.
The theme of this year’s event, which runs from June 13 to June 21, is `The joy of love: Family life today’.
This year’s preachers include Fr Michael Cusack, from Dundalk, Co Louth, Fr Adrian Egan from Clonard, Fr Peter McCarthy, an Irish Redemptorist from Brazil and Fr Kevin O’Neil, a Redemptorist working in New Jersey in the US.
The nine-day prayer event is made up of 10 sessions every weekday and nine sessions on Saturday and on Sunday.
In the lead up to this year’s novena a new app was launched.
(from www.irishnews.com)
