Thousands of pilgrims from Ireland and abroad are expected to climb Croagh Patrick in Co Mayo today for the annual Reek Sunday pilgrimage.<\/p>\n
Masses will be celebrated hourly in a small church on the summit of Croagh Patrick from 8am until 2pm and confessions will also take place on the summit.<\/p>\n
In a homily in Saint Mary’s Church, Westport last night, Archbishop of Tuam and Bishop of Killala Francis Duffy said road safety was the theme chosen for this Reek Sunday.<\/p>\n
Archbishop Duffy said behind every statistic lies “trauma, heartache and sadness”, adding lives and families can be changed in a single moment.<\/p>\n
“Taking care on the road is an essential part of respect – respect for ourselves and for others: our passengers, and every driver, cyclist and pedestrian who shares the road with us,” he said.<\/p>\n
He said while there are many careful and responsible drivers, a vehicle of any kind is also dangerous, and it demands responsible handling.<\/p>\n
“Slowing down, leaving in good time, resting when needed, staying sober and staying focused, obeying the rules of the road – these are not accidentals either.<\/p>\n
“They are the essentials. They are the fruit of a deliberate decision to be more careful and to respect others,” he said.<\/p>\n
Pilgrims have been climbing the 765-metre-high mountain for more than 1,500 years.<\/p>\n
St Patrick is said to have spent 40 days and nights fasting on its summit in 441.<\/p>\n
A physically demanding pilgrimage, stewards, mountain rescue teams, the Order of Malta, and Garda\u00ed, will be present during the annual pilgrimage.<\/p>\n
While it is a custom for some to scale the iconic mountain in their bare feet, pilgrims have been advised to come prepared for changeable weather conditions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thousands of pilgrims from Ireland and abroad are expected to climb Croagh Patrick in Co Mayo today for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":568556,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-568555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=568555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/568556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}