Have a complicated life situation that you'd like to unravel? Join me in a novena!

Good morning all! I've written about my devotion to Our Lady Undoer of Knots before, but I thought it bore repeating today since this is officially day 1 of the novena as organized by Pray More Novenas. With that site, you can sign up to receive an email each day with the prayers all included, and of course it also serves double duty as a reminder so that you don't forget a day. Though, who is it out there *forgetting* days in a novena and then scrambling to "catch up" on days or otherwise counting a novena as two full weeks to make up for neglected days? Slackers!

*look of innocence*

I know that I absolutely love Pray More Novenas and I'm permanently signed up for all of their novenas. I don't pray all of them (sometimes I'm praying another novena at the time, or otherwise focusing on something different at the time) but I do pray most of them. They put out about one a month, and I love the feeling that I'm praying along with a much larger community.

And Our Lady Undoer of Knots is just such a favorite of mine. Especially thorny situation in your life that's been festering along for nigh a decade? Something you're super worried about, and you don't see how it could turn out particularly well? All perfect fodder for Our Lady Undoer of Knots. I can just see Mary, our mother, up in heaven as I type:

"Good grief, she's done it *again*. Time for another intervention!"

:0

So if you're intrigued, do go sign up! We can pray together, and today is the perfect day to get started.

Some amusing dance updates have transpired this week, and I plan a dancey post for tomorrow, so come one back if you enjoy those! But in the meantime, if you're praying the Our Lady Undoer of Knots novena, leave a comment and let me know!

The Catholic Nook: Our Lady Undoer of Knots

Good day to you all! Today I wanted to write about one of my newest (and quickly, favorite) Marian devotions, the novena to Our Lady Undoer of Knots. Isn't the visual just stunning? This is a favorite devotion of Pope Francis, so it's just got a lot going for it.

The image was painted by an artist named Johann Melchior, and the original has been venerated in a church in Augsburg, Germany for centuries. The artist was inspired by a meditation of St. Irenaeus, in which he stated: "Eve, by her disobedience, tied the knot of disgrace for the human race; Mary, by her obedience, undid it."

Since then, the faithful have asked for the intercession of Mary under this title for aid in the "knots" of their life. Things that seem particularly challenging for us to deal with, and may not have a very positive outlook. Sort of like when you get a tight knot in a thin gold chain. You pick away at it with your nail, but you just know that knot isn't coming out unless someone with a pointy tool and a lot of patience comes to your aid. That's how I see this devotion.

I prayed the novena to Mary under this title about a year ago, and indeed the intention is a particularly snarly one. I can't say that the situation is *resolved*, but I have seen small changes that give me hope. I originally heard about the devotion on "The Catholics Next Door" podcast with
Greg and Jennifer Willits. I remember Jennifer saying something similar, that the intention was a tough one, things were happening slowly, but she had so much peace after praying the novena that somehow, in some way, *eventually*, things would work out.

The novena itself is very simple. For 9 days, you pray a rosary, asking Our Lady to intercede for your intention. Before you begin, pray an Act of Contrition. Pray the first 3 mysteries of the Rosary for that particular day of the week. Then, pause to read a short meditation (will come back to this in a moment). Pray the final 2 mysteries of the rosary, and pray a final prayer to Our Lady Undoer of Knots.

I have a lovely little book with all of the meditations and prayers in it, plus some history of the devotion, which you can see and purchase here.The prayers are also online here. This devotion has brought me so much peace, and I plan to pray the novena again within the next few weeks. I'll let you all know when I will be starting, so that you can pray along with me if you like. I will add a tab at the top of the blog next to "About Me" with the links to the prayers stickied in, and the applicable dates.

I even have a rosary (a Christmas gift :)) that I pray with daily that is modeled after this devotion:

This was made by the fabulous Carm at Unbreakable Rosaries on Etsy. She has a similar one currently listed if anyone else would like their very own. :)

Do I have any other Our Lady Undoer of Knots devotees? Anybody want to join in the upcoming novena? Leave me a comment!

*Historical information and image from http://www.maryundoerofknots.com/history.htm