This is a time of year when a lot of us are making resolutions – trying to kick habits, lose weight, quit smoking, exercise.
But what if we’re doing it wrong?
Last Sunday morning, I got to do something I rarely get to do: I got to actually WATCH “Sunday Morning,” the show on CBS.
I tuned in and saw a young woman by the name of Faith Salie talking about new year’s resolutions. She explained that the word “resolution” comes from the Latin “resolvere,” which literally means loosen, undo, release.
She said that reminded her of her beloved Aunt Judy, who had died a few months ago – and she remembered one part of her life in particular.
She explained: “What I wanted to keep of hers was one of her prayer cards. Aunt Judy was Catholic from Boston and this card calls the Blessed Virgin Mary ‘Our Lady Undoer of Knots.’ It asks for help in release from entanglements ‑ and for faith in the unfurling ribbon of our lives.”
Well, that got my attention. It’s not every day you turn on CBS News and hear a catechesis about the Blessed Mother.
But the message really struck me.
What Faith Salie offered was a different way to think about those resolutions – and to do it with help from the woman we honor on January 1: Mary, the Mother of God.
This day, we remember that Mary is the mother of new beginnings, the New Eve, a woman born without sin, completely pure – the perfect patroness for the start of a new year.
She is also someone who can help us untie, undo, the knots of life. Her title, Mary the Undoer of Knots, is a favorite of Pope Francis, and I think we can all benefit from turning to her when the strands of life become impossible to untie.
Mary understands better than anyone how tangled and complicated our world can be. She had to deal with unexpected twists and turns. Mary knows what it means to travel where you may not want to go, to trust God, to patiently pray through challenges in places as varied as Nazareth and Bethlehem and Calvary. As today’s Gospel tells us, “Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart.”
We all have “knots” in life. In our families, our relationships, our jobs, our marriages.
This is a moment to “resolve” them – to loosen what is holding us back ‑ and pray for the unfurling ribbons of life to be made smooth.
Back in 1612, a wealthy married couple in Augsburg, Germany were on the verge of divorce. The husband reached out to the local parish priest, a Jesuit by the name of Father Jakob Rem. The priest went to visit the couple. He asked for a ribbon that had been used as part of their wedding ceremony and together he and the couple prayed to Our Lady to untie the knots of their troubled marriage and smooth out the ribbon that had bound them together.
Their prayers were answered. The couple didn’t divorce and lived the rest of their lives together. Years later, their grandson, a priest at a nearby monastery, commissioned an artist to paint an image of the “Mary, the Untier of Knots.” It still hangs in the church in Augsburg. Centuries later, a nun sent a Christmas card with that image on it to a young priest in Argentina, Jorge Bergoglio. He shared it with his friends and parishioners.
The rest is history. Now, they’re even talking about it on CBS!
Looking for a resolution for the new year?
Let us really resolve – let us work to cut ourselves loose from tangled habits, worries, fears.
For help, look no further than Mary, the Mother of God.
She is also the Mother of Hope, the Mother of Making the Impossible Possible – for, as the angel reminded her, “nothing will be impossible for God.”
I think Faith Salie was on to something. Making a resolution really means more than just making a list of do’s and don’t’s.
It’s about untangling all the problems that make those lists necessary. On this day when we honor Mary’s unique role in salvation history, let’s resolve to give her our threads, our ribbons, our strings of discord and confusion and worry.
Let’s ask her help to cut us loose – and begin anew.
A few years ago, Pope Francis composed a prayer to Our Lady, Undoer of Knots. It concludes with these words.
“Holy Mary…Through your grace, your intercession and your example deliver us from all evil and untie the knots that prevent us from being united with God, so that we, free from sin and error, may find Him in all things, may have our hearts placed in Him, and may serve Him always in our brothers and sisters. Amen.”
I think that can be a new year’s prayer – and a resolution – for all of us.
Pope Francis’ Prayer to Mary Undoer of Knots
Holy Mary, full of God’s presence during the days of your life, you accepted with full humility the Father’s will, and the devil was never capable of tying you up with his confusion.
Once with your Son you interceded for our difficulties, and full of kindness and patience, you gave us example of how to untie the knots in our life. By remaining forever Our Mother, you put in order and make more clear the ties that link us to the Lord.
Holy Mother, Mother of God and our Mother, to you who untie with a motherly heart the knots of our life, we pray to you to receive in your hands (the name of the person), and to free him/her of the knots and confusion with which our enemy attacks.
Through your grace, your intercession and your example deliver us from all evil, Our Lady, and untie the knots that prevent us from being united with God, so that we, free from sin and error, may find Him in all things, may have our hearts placed in Him, and may serve Him always in our brothers and sisters. Amen.
