The priest at the Novena Mass told us a wonderful story this morning at mass which bears repeating. A young priest was in very serious trouble with his superiors and was sent into exile in Germany to get himself sorted. He had caused huge problems and rows because when put in a position of authority he had been too dictatorial and harsh and got loads pf people's backs up. He happened to wander into a Church in Germany were there was a very old beautiful picture of Our Lady untying a ribbon with knots in it. The ribbon symbolised the wedding ribbon young people used to have wrapped round their hands at the wedding ceremony and the knots symbolised the trouble that crept into a marriage and how Mary could untie the knots. So there she sat, with her head on top of Satans' The young priest developed a great Devotion to Our Lady under this tittle, his problems were solved and he was able to go back to his Order in his own country and prospered. Like all truly holy people he had to be broken so God could put him together again. His name? Jorge Mario Bergoglio.
I love that picture of our pope on the subway. Everyone is looking down or off or away and our wonderful pope is looking up to heaven!
Thomas Merton one time wrote about the 'Burned Man'. Pope Francis reminds me of a , 'Burned man'. “I hear You saying to me: "I will give you what you desire. I will lead you into solitude. I will lead you by the way that you cannot possibly understand, because I want it to be the quickest way. "Therefore all the things around you will be armed against you, to deny you, to hurt you, to give you pain, and therefore to reduce you to solitude. "Because of their enmity, you will soon be left alone. They will cast you out and forsake you and reject you and you will be alone. "Everything that touches you shall burn you, and you will draw your hand away in pain, until you have withdrawn yourself from all things. Then you will be all alone. "Everything that can be desired will sear you, and brand you with a cautery, and you will fly from it in pain, to be alone. Every created joy will only come to you as pain, and you will die to all joy and be left alone. All the good things that other people love and desire and seek will come to you, but only as murderers to cut you off from the world and its occupations. "You will be praised, and it will be like burning at the stake. You will be loved, and it will murder your heart and drive you into the desert. "You will have gifts, and they will break you with their burden. You will have pleasures of prayer, and they will sicken you and you will fly from them. "And when you have been praised a little and loved a little I will take away all your gifts and all your love and all your praise and you will be utterly forgotten and abandoned and you will be nothing, a dead thing, a rejection. And in that day you shall being to possess the solitude you have so long desired. And your solitude will bear immense fruit in the souls of men you will never see on earth. "Do not ask when it will be or where it will be or how it will be: On a mountain or in a prison, in a desert or in a concentration camp or in a hospital or at Gethsemani. It does not matter. So do not ask me, because I am not going to tell you. You will not know until you are in it. "But you shall taste the true solitude of my anguish and my poverty and I shall lead you into the high places of my joy and you shall die in Me and find all things in My mercy which has created you for this end and brought you from Prades to Bermuda to St. Antonin to Oakham to London to Cambridge to Rome to New York to Columbia to Corpus Christi to St. Bonaventure to the Cistercian Abbey of the poor men who labor in Gethsemani: "That you may become the brother of God and learn to know the Christ of the burnt men.”
One of the priests, a hospital chaplain told us another story from his hospital. A mother's beautiful baby had died in a mysterious cot death and although it was a beautiful healthy baby she had found it suddenly dead. As she held it in her arms she blamed herself for not taking care of the child right. The priest said as he watched he felt his Faith falter and fade, for what could he say to the poor woman? How could he comfort her, what purpose had the baby's death served. So speechless he went away to pray but no answers or comfort could he find. He returned to the hospital room bereft still not knowing what to say. But when he entered he heard the mother say to the child, 'God will take care of you, even if I couldn't'. Then in the light of the woman's Faith he felt his own rekindled again. View attachment 2044
No matter what kind of problems, difficulties or worries (= knots) we have in our lives, Mary is able to untie them. The same applies to God of course. We Christians are lucky, because we know to whom to turn to.
Great Novena, Our Lady untier of knots. http://www.theholyrosary.org/maryundoerknots The special Rosary beads are very nice. http://www.divinemercy.org/new-books/our-lady-untier-of-knots-rosary-beads-detail.html Its just brilliant our Pope has asked us to pray to Out Lady untier of knots.
Indy, you gave me an idea....I work in a place where I need protection. I prayed the novena several weeks ago for my sons and will do so in the future. I just purchased a bracelet Our Lady Untier of Knots. I can have it blessed, wear it to work and pray on my lunch hour! Thanks....
Very nice! It seems like a little thing but I have been using this Novena to overcome some bad eating and drinking habits this holiday season- within two days our Pastor told me it looked like I lost weight even though I had only lost a half pound and this Thanksgiving I only managed to put the half pound back. It feels indulgent to use the novena this way but on the other hand I know Our Mother wants us to be our best and she is there to help us conquer temptations. I pray it before bed each night, though the last couple nights I feel asleep first so working on that!
I used this Novena recently for various knots\problems in my family, and afterwards I could not believe one by one problems these were resolved. Our Lady can truly help us. I recommend it to anyone for any knot large or small..
On each day of the novena you are asked for a different particular knot to that Our Lady will untie. On the last day I asked Our Lady to choose one for me. Only a few days later something big happened in my family, I wont go into the details but a major knot was happening that none of us saw coming and it was very obvious how it was spectacularly avoided or untied. Great Novena.
I prayed, and continue to pray, this Novena and the change in my son is very obvious to all in our family. She untied a knot that he was bound to for several years. Thank you Jesus and Mary!
This image is a re-print of the original once obscure, 300 year-old painting of "Mary, Undoer of Knots," that has become the fastest growing Marian devotion in the world today. Known in her German homeland as "Maria Knotenlöserin," this beautiful image by Catholic master painter Johann Schmidtner was inspired by a German family's story of marital disunity, struggle, intercession, and powerful reconciliation. Discovered and expanded into a Marian devotion in the 1980's by Fr. Jorge Mario Bergoglio, "Mary, Undoer of Knots" is a favorite devotion of Pope Francis...... EWTN web site
http://maryvictrix.com/2013/03/19/t...rancis-our-lady-of-lujan-and-undoer-of-knots/ Posted on March 19, 2013 by Fr. Angelo M. Geiger An Argentinian silversmith, Juan Carlos Pallarols, is handcrafting a simple silver chalice for Pope Francis, which will be embossed with two images of the Blessed Mother: Our Lady of Lujan, an Argentinian image of the Immaculate Conception, associated with a 17th century miracle, and Our Lady Undoer of Knots, a German devotion which Cardinal Bergoglio brought to Argentina in the 1980’s and has since promoted there. The same silversmith collaborated with Cardinal Bergoglio in designing another chalice, embossed with the image of Our Lady Undoer of Knots, which the Cardinal presented to Pope Benedict shortly after he ascended to the Chair of St. Peter. It is quite interesting that that this Argentinian pope should have a personal attraction to the German devotion. It provides a kind of link between the two successors of St. Peter, of which there are others. Even Our Lady of Lujan and the Undoer of Knots are connected by a common thread. The title “Undoer of Knots” is a reference to the teaching of St. Irenaeus in which he compares and contrasts Eve and Mary. In respect to the Fall and Redemption both are betrothed and yet virgins. One union of man and woman delivers death, the other life. In one case, faithlessness and disobedience brings destruction. In the other, faith and obedience brings regeneration: And thus also it was that the knot of Eve’s disobedience was loosed by the obedience of Mary. For what the virgin Eve had bound fast through unbelief, this did the virgin Mary set free through faith. The doctrine of St. Irenaeus is early patristic testimony for Mary’s title New Eve, which in turn, is the theological basis for the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. Eve’s name means “Mother of All the Living" REST OF THE STORY http://maryvictrix.com/2013/03/19/t...rancis-our-lady-of-lujan-and-undoer-of-knots/
