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This Advent, I am taking my preparation more seriously than I have in a long time. I am preparing to make a Confession (Rite of Reconciliation of a Penitent, according to the 1979Book of Common Prayer), with hopes of making this a more regular part of my spiritual life, knowing full well. Baby Steps, as a certain well-known Christian financial talkshow host says.

I am also engaging in a novena to Mary, Undoer of Knots, a devotion I came across in an article on Catholic exorcism prayers I was reading just last week in conjunction with the devotion to Mary, Help of Christians, -though its exact title escapes me at the moment. Mary, Undoer of Knots is a “recent” devotion tracing back, in its current form, only to 17th century Germany, though having theological roots in the writings of St. Irenaeus (but this is for another post, and shall be published at another time).

Novenas are sequences of nine-day prayers -the same prayer, for the same intention, repeated for nine days straight, whether this be for praise, or preparation for a feast, mourning, or a particular petition of need, or (exclusive to Roman Catholic usage) indulgenced prayer -for private, group, or para-liturigcal recitation . The history of novenas, (says Wikipedia, and the Catholic Encyclopedia, among other sources) though it may have origins in pagan Greco-Roman practice of mourning for a dead loved one for nine days (among other instances), is tied to early Christian mortuary practices, especially the saying of Masses for the departed for nine days (the number 9 being referenced as early as the 2nd century text The Apostolic Constitutions). It is also symbolic of the nine days the Apostles and Mary spent in Jerusalem between the Ascension and Pentecost praying in seclusion, as well as the nine months Christ spent in Our Lady’s womb (a possible origin of the Christmas novena), and possibly the Ninth Hour of the day, when the Gospels say Jesus breathed His last breath. Since the middle ages a novenas has been customarily prayed before major feast days. While not a substitute for gathering in assembly for the Liturgy, it is a worthy complement to the same, and is still widely practiced throughout the world.

The point of this excursion into the history of prayers is that prayer is the best preparation, alongside self-examination, for any Feast, but especially the Christmas and Easter cycle of feasts. I want to get my Advent started off on the right foot. So here I am. Through self-examination, I know I have many (spiritual and moral) knots that prevent me from honoring God to my fullest (but the telling of this is for another post, and shall be published at another time), and cannot of my own resources and abilities remove them. So I have recourse to prayer, and especially the intercessory prayer of others. And who better among men and women to turn to for this intercessory prayer than the Virgin Mother of God, who, after Jesus Himself best knows us as our Mother in the order of grace, and who is ever willing and eager to pray for us to her Son? Not that I do not ask fellow Christians on this side of the Veil to pray for me; but I have an especial devotion to Mary, under her title of Walsingham, as this blog attests to, and with that comes a filial devotion because I know that Mary exists to point to her Son.

n.b. this is actually the first of three potential posts about Mary, Undoer of Knots, and Advent. Others are coming soon.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, Undoer of Knots, and strong with God in prayer, Our Lady of Walsingham -who never fails to take our said and to carry our faithful requests to the feet of your Son, pray for us.