Day 1: Awareness of the knots

The first day of the Mary Undoer of Knots Novena begins by inviting us to look honestly at the knots in our lives: the tangled situations that cannot seem to be resolved, the relationships that have wound themselves into difficulty, the patterns of behavior that have become impossible to break. Before we ask Mary to undo the knots, we must first see them and name them.

Today's meditation

The image at the heart of this novena is the 1700 Schmidtner painting at Augsburg: Mary, surrounded by angels, with a long knotted ribbon being handed to her at one end and emerging from her hands at the other end smooth and unknotted. The image is a contemplation of grace at work over time. The knots do not undo themselves. They are not undone in a single act. They are loosened in Mary's hands by the patient and persistent application of her motherly attention.

To bring our knots to Mary, we must first know what they are. Saint Augustine teaches that confession begins with self-knowledge, and self-knowledge begins with the willingness to look at the actual state of our soul without flinching. Day 1 of the novena is, in this sense, an examination of conscience widened to include not only sins but every form of tangle that our lives have accumulated.

Today's intention

Pause now. Take a sheet of paper or your prayer journal and name the knots you wish to bring to Mary in this novena. Be specific. Some examples:

• The conflict with my brother that has not been resolved in five years.
• The marriage that has grown distant and that I do not know how to repair.
• The drinking that I have not been able to stop.
• The job I cannot find, the bills I cannot pay.
• The child who has fallen away from the faith.
• The resentment I am carrying against a former friend.
• The medical situation that the doctors cannot resolve.

Write each knot down. Today you are not asking for the answer; you are presenting the situation to Mary that she may take the ribbon into her hands.

The principal prayer to Our Lady Undoer of Knots

Virgin Mary, Mother who never refuses to come to the aid of a child in need, Mother whose hands never cease to serve your beloved children because they are moved by the divine love and immense mercy that exists in your heart, cast your compassionate eyes upon me and see the snarl of knots that exist in my life. You know very well how desperate I am, my pain and how I am bound by these knots.

Mary, Mother to whom God entrusted the undoing of the knots in the lives of His children, I entrust into your hands the ribbon of my life. No one, not even the evil one himself, can take it away from your precious care. In your hands there is no knot that cannot be undone.

Powerful Mother, by your grace and intercessory power with your Son and my Liberator, Jesus, take into your hands today this knot (name it). I beg you to undo it for the glory of God, once for all. You are my hope.

O my Lady, you are the only consolation God gives me, the fortification of my feeble strength, the enrichment of my destitution, and, with Christ, the freedom from my chains. Hear my plea. Keep me, guide me, protect me, O safe refuge!

Mary, Undoer of Knots, pray for me. Amen.

The first three decades of the Rosary (or three Hail Marys)

Pray the first three decades of the Rosary in the day's mysteries (or, if you do not have time today, three Hail Marys and a Glory Be). Offer them for the knots you have just named.

Reflection

The Catholic tradition has always held that grace builds on nature. We cannot pray well for what we have not yet seen. The first day of this novena is the day of seeing. We do not pretend that our lives are not knotted; we let Mary see, and we let ourselves see, the actual condition of the ribbon that is the story of our lives.

There is a particular freedom in this. Many Catholics carry a vague heaviness that they cannot quite name; the heaviness is the cumulative weight of unaddressed knots. To name them, even just to write them down on the first day of this novena, is itself a relief, because the soul knows it is no longer alone with them. Mary now sees them. Over the next eight days, she will begin, by her motherly intercession, to undo them.

Closing prayers

Conclude with the Memorare and the closing invocation:

Holy Mary, Undoer of Knots, pray for us.