May is the month dedicated to Mary and recently I’ve been pondering one of her titles, Undoer of Knots. 

I was working on warping my loom, using a fine cotton yarn that I realized had been a bit too overspun. This resulted in the yarn wanting to twist unless it was under tension. Since a loom works by using the yarn under tension, it sounds like it would be a good use for it. However, one needs to actually get it on the loom in order to put it under tension. When one is dealing with 400 measured out strands of yarn, each about 3 yards long, it doesn’t take long for tangles to begin. As I warped the loom, I worked in small sections at a time, maybe about 20 or so ends. I could hardly believe my eyes. I would straighten the section and immediately upon releasing it, it would twist and kink up along the visible length I was working on. I was being given a challenge. Would I accept it? Or would I cut it all off and choose a different project?

I must confess there was more than one occasion that I wondered if it was worth it. This project is a practice item, I don’t have to do it. Why was I putting myself through such hassle? “It’s an opportunity to practice patience,” I told myself. But the other part of my brain would question me, “isn’t this supposed to be fun, why do you want to practice patience with this?” Another explanation I thought of was it being an opportunity to practice this particular weaving challenge, so that I know I can handle it when it comes to a project I specifically want to do, especially if it’s for a gift. Still my brain was challenging me and I was getting frustrated. Then I remembered one of Mary’s titles is Undoer of Knots. As my hands worked through the loops and tangles, I pondered on what this means for Mary, and how my current predicament could shed light on it.

The excess twist in the yarn was causing it to loop over other strands that were making their own loops. I didn’t necessarily have a knot, unless in my frustration I yanked too hard and the loop closed over the other strands. Given the fineness of the yarn, it became a really tight knot. I had to look carefully at the knot to find the outermost loop and gently tease it away from the other strands. 

When we pray to Mary to undo the knots in our lives, be it for help with our habitual sins, issues in our families or workplaces, or even our general world, we need to have patience as Mary is working. It takes time to undo a knot. It takes finesse to find which thread to pull and gently work with it. 

Undoing knots also requires great attention to detail, not just of the knot itself, but of the other threads around it. By working with one thread, another knot could be created elsewhere if one is not paying attention. When we pray for Mary’s intercession under this title, we are asking her to look at whatever situational knot we are experiencing, and to work at it from whichever angle will prevent another knot from surfacing. It can seem like our prayers are not being answered; however, if we allow Mary to intercede with Jesus for the best possible outcome, we can be assured that the knot will be undone.

When we invoke Mary’s assistance, we also need to remember that when we seek assistance, we need to be open to the Spirit’s prompting, but avoid overthinking and try to resolve the issue ourselves. When we seek to fix our problems, we can create more tangles and knots in our life-yarn that is straight and smooth. It’s very tempting to make a plan to address an issue and our take-charge culture feeds that impulse. However, when we realize the difficulty is too big for us to address on our own, we need to leave it firmly in the hands of our spiritual guardians. Like at the wedding feast in Cana, Mary’s response may be for us to follow whatever Jesus tells us to do. And like at the feast, filling up the ceremonial jars used for washing when wine was needed sounded crazy to the staff, we may be prompted to take action in a way that seems to have no connection with our problem. But Mary and Jesus are outside of time and space; they can see the impact of it all. When we pray, we need to trust in their intervention and be open to their guidance. 

While it seemed to take forever to warp the loom, I did succeed. I absolutely had moments of frustration, but I also had moments of mirth as I thought of Mary as the Undoer of Knots. I know that my knots were nothing that needed her intercession, but it was nice to feel a kinship with her doing the same action.