We have named our new commnity in honor of Our Lady Undoer of Knots.
In the 1700's an unknown artist was commissioned to paint a portrait of “Mary Undoer of Knots” in the Church of St. Peter am Perlack, in Augsburg, Germany after a local nobleman attributed Mary's intercession with the solving of several major "knots" in his life. It has been venerated there ever since. Click here for more about this devotion to Our Lady:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary,_Untier_of_Knots
It was originally inspired by a meditation of St. Irenaeus (Bishop of Lyon, martyred in 202AD) based on a parallel made by St. Paul between Adam and Christ. St. Irenaeus, in turn, made a comparison between Eve and Mary, saying, “Eve, by her disobedience, tied the knot of disgrace for the human race; whereas Mary, by her obedience, undid it.”
The knots that affect us are the problems and struggles we face for which we do not see any solution and so we entrust them to Mary to intercede for us with her Son, just as she did at the marriage feast of Cana when she asked Him to undo the problem of having no wine.
Knots can be that of discord in your family, lack of understanding between parents and children, disrespect, violence, the knots of deep hurt between husband and wife or among friends, the absence of peace and joy at home. They are also the knots of anguish and despair of separated couples, the dissolution of the family, the knots of a drug addict son or daughter, sick or separated from home or God, knots of alcoholism, depression, unemployment, fear, drowning in debt and so on. We all have knots at work and in our social lives.
And then there are the BIG knots facing the world: world hunger, war, global warming, gun violence, hatred, bigotry, injustice, millions in need, etc. The knots of our life suffocate the soul, beat us down and betray the heart’s joy and separate us from God.
While a seminary student in Augsburg, Pope Francis stumbled upon this devotion and has promoted it throughout his life. Although besides the one in Germany, there are churches named for Mary Undoer of Knots now in Argentina thanks to Bishop Bergolio, there are none that we know of in North America. We are he first.
We want Mary to be an active member of our parish community to teach us to pray to her Son and to ask her to intervene with her special grace as she can.