A novena to Our Lady, Undoer of Knots
Laura DeMaria
If you’ve been with me here a while, you know I am a fan of the Pray More Novenas community. It’s just so convenient!
When you sign up for their novenas, you get an email reminder every morning with the prayers for that day. It has introduced me to new saints and devotions I did not know about, which I have appreciated. It’s also nice to be praying with people, who are also praying for you and your intentions.
So, Pray More Novenas has one of their classic devotions coming up, the novena to Our Lady Undoer of Knots. Pope Francis spoke about the efficacy of this prayer a couple years ago, which I believe is when many people heard of it for the first time, and it has grown in popularity since.
Our Lady has so many titles, and I like this one because it speaks to her practical nature. She was, after all, a mother and a human and if they’d had shoe laces back then, she surely would have helped little Jesus get his laces untangled.
So what kind of “knots” can we pray to undo? I think a lot of people go to relationships - a difficult, unresolved pain between you and a family member or friend. Likewise knots that serve as stumbling blocks in our own relationship with God - pride, vanity, attachment to material goods.
As Pray More Novenas explains, “The theology of the devotion actually goes back to the second century. Saint Irenaeus wrote that, ‘The knot of Eve’s disobedience was untied by the obedience of Mary; what the virgin Eve bound by her unbelief, the Virgin Mary loosened by her faith.’ Mary’s faith unties the knot of sin! So we will pray that the Blessed Virgin Mary will intercede for us all, to untie the knots of sin in our lives – so that we may be purified and ever closer to God.”
The novena begins next Thursday, April 22 and you can sign up here.
Happy praying!