Binds

 The Spiritual Waiting Room

Binds

Encircled Connected

Untangling Untying Interceding

Mary, Undoer of the Knots

Unbound

(photo and poem by Kathy McNamara)

Scripture:   Isaiah 54: 1 to 3

Shout out with joy even though you are barren; sing rejoicing though not in labor. More numerous are the children of the wife who has been abandoned than her who is with husband. Enlarge the place for your tent and spread out its cloths. Make your ropes long and and pound your stakes into the ground. For your fame shall spread and your descendants shall be numerous and shall fill up all the abandoned cities.

(scripture adapted by John J. McNamara)

Reflection

During the month of October in our Catholic tradition, we spend time in our prayer reflecting on the importance of Mary's role in the life of Jesus and in our own lives. 

One of our favorite ways of reflecting on Mary is the image of Our Lady, Undoer of Knots. This image has Mary very patiently and carefully holding a rope full of knots and undoing them one by one.

So many times in our lives we can get bound up in confusion, doubt, and worry. This can even lead to paralysis. We don't know what to do next.

Sometimes it can be the hatred or anger from our unwillingness to forgive someone who has hurt us. Pope Francis in his latest encyclical, Fratelli Tutti, speaks to that hatred or anger that can lead us to revenge. He says revenge resolves nothing.

When those knots bind us up (as those knots in Kathy's photo), we can turn to Mary. We can ask her to help us undo the hatred and confusion.

Isaiah talks about this in our scripture. In a reversal the prophet speaks of the joy that the barren woman will experience.

God will come to her and help her and she will have many children. So many that the ropes of her tent will have to be lengthened to accommodate her growing family.

So many times this is what God can accomplish when we trust in God's path.

Mary wants to lengthen our ropes too as she unbinds all those knots that block us and bind us to our fears.

She loosens those knots because she cares for us and wants us to experience the Love that Jesus feels for us. Allow that Love to encircle you and to connect you to everyone and to all of creation.

1. What is your favorite image of Mary?

2. How does the image of Our Lady, Undoer of the Knots, strike you?

3. When you feel hatred or anger from a difficulty in forgiving someone who has hurt you, do you find it hard to let it go?

4. Do you agree with Pope Francis that revenge resolves nothing?