Day 3: The knot of sin

On the third day of the Mary Undoer of Knots Novena, we approach the knot beneath all the other knots: the knot of sin. The theological foundation of the entire devotion, in the words of Saint Irenaeus, is that "the knot of Eve's disobedience was loosed by the obedience of Mary." Today's prayer brings the deepest knot of all into the hands of the Mother who, by her cooperation with Christ, has the privilege of undoing it.

Today's meditation

Saint Irenaeus of Lyon, writing around AD 180 against the Gnostic distortions of the Christian faith, articulated the doctrine of Mary as the New Eve. Eve in the Genesis narrative is the woman whose disobedience to God by her consent to the serpent's temptation introduced sin and death into the human family. Mary, by her obedient fiat at the Annunciation ( "Let it be done to me according to your word," Luke 1:38), undid what Eve had bound. The knot Eve tied by her consent to disobedience is loosed by Mary's consent to the will of God.

This is the deepest theological foundation of the Mary Undoer of Knots devotion. The knots of our particular lives (the family conflicts, the resentments, the addictions, the financial troubles) are derivative knots; they are the symptoms in our individual lives of the original knot of sin in the human family. To bring our knots to Mary is to bring them to the woman in whose obedience the original knot was definitively undone.

Today's intention

Today, before bringing your particular knots to Mary, name to her the deeper sin or sinful pattern that lies beneath them. Be specific. Some examples:

• The pride that has made me unwilling to apologize to my brother.
• The lust that has fed my marriage trouble.
• The greed that has made my work life chaotic.
• The vanity that has driven me into envy of a colleague.
• The anger I keep returning to instead of letting it go.

If the deeper sin includes anything that requires sacramental confession, plan to go to confession in the days following this novena, and let the novena itself prepare you for a good confession.

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

Pray the first three decades, or three Hail Marys and a Glory Be.

Reflection

The Catholic doctrine of the Sacrament of Penance teaches that the sins of the baptized faithful, when confessed with contrition, are forgiven by the absolution of the priest acting in persona Christi. The Sacrament does not compete with the intercession of Mary; it is the means by which the grace of forgiveness is sacramentally applied to the soul. Mary's intercession in the order of mercy is exercised, in part, in disposing the soul to make a good confession.

If your particular knots have a clear sinful component (and most of the difficult situations in our lives do), today is the day to begin to prepare for confession. The Catholic faithful are not afraid of the confessional; we are at home in it, because we know what is on the other side: the absolution of Christ, given through His priest, by which the deepest knot is definitively undone.

If your knots do not have a clear sinful component (some of them are simply suffering, or the residue of others' choices, or the natural consequences of our fallen world), do not artificially manufacture a sin where there is none. The Mary Undoer of Knots devotion addresses the whole field of human tangles, sin and suffering alike. Today's day is the day for the soul that needs to bring sin to Mary; the other days are also there for the soul that brings other forms of difficulty.

Closing prayers

Conclude with the Memorare and:

Holy Mary, Undoer of Knots, pray for us.