How many times has my rosary become knotted while resting unattended in my pocket? It always strikes me as a meaningful warning of the complications I wind through my own negligence and inattentiveness to prayer. Had I stopped to remove the rosary and use it on occasion, I imagine that it would be less likely to become fastened. I sometimes allow the discovery of such knots, which on a few occasions were particularly bound up, to disturb me enough that such feeling confounds any attempt at prayer. And sometimes, even without a tangled rosary, prayer can feel mottled. It’s at those moments that I feel the need for a short humble expression of faith and act of contrition to acknowledge my error and plead for intersession, so that I may return to the fervor of unfettered prayer. Since I have recently rediscovered a popular and fairly modern devotion to Mary as Undoer of Knots, it seems appropriate to appeal to Mary under a form of this title. In Germany the people implore the help of Maria Knotenlöserin (Mary Knot-losener), Knotenmadonna (Knot-Madona), or Maria vom Knoten (Mary of the Knot).
While there are novenas and books dedicated to this devotion, I wish to make the small contribution toward the growing life of it, with an easily memorized single-sentence aspiration. Because of the story of how this devotion started ((In the late 1500’s or early 1600’s Jesuit Fr. Jakob Rem SJ in Ingolstadt, for the sake of salvaging the marriage of Wolfgang Langenmantel to Sophia Rentz, prayed in front of a portrait of Mary and said: “In this religious act, I open the bond of marriage, loosen all the knots and smooth it.” The marriage is said to have been instantly healed and the grandchild of this couple later commissioned a painting to commemorate the intersessiononary act.)) with a similarly short prayer, it seems appropriate here also to keep it simple. And like the ends of a knotted thread, the easiest side to unbind first is the shortest length.
Considering the number of variations on this title, and in hopes that a new variant may be agreeable to Mother Mary, I humbly suggest Restorer of Threads. This title has greater meaning for me personally (and I hope for others like me) as I have discovered, through my own conversion, the cords that connect me to the saints and especially to my true Mother Mary.
In its shortest form:
“I beg of thee Mary my Mother and Restorer of Threads to assist me in unraveling the knots which I have cinched.”
Feel free to personalize it for your situation, such as deliverance from an impossible situation. Here are some examples:
“I beg of thee Mary my Mother and Restorer of Threads to assist me in unraveling the knots which I have cinched as a husband, father and worker.”
“I beg of thee Mary my Mother and Restorer of Threads to assist me in unraveling the knots which I have cinched by ignoring your invitations to pray.”
Here is a version that includes the concept of broken bonds and could perhaps work as a prelude to an examination of conscience.
I have written “braids” to acknowledge the master work of Christ in converting our hearts throughout our lives. I have written “severed” to show that by our sins we separate ourselves from Christ and the community of believers. At present this version seems complete, short and elegant so I’m putting this one on a print quality image so the anyone can print them on their own (I found the painting image online labeled for reuse).
“I beg of thee Mary my Mother and Restorer of Threads to assist me in unraveling the knots which I have cinched and in mending the braids which I have severed.”
May this short prayer be a blessing to those who will receive it and may it please Our Holy Mother Mary.