Do you remember asking your Mom to untie your shoelaces? Do you remember how frustrated you were as you struggled with knots you created yourself but then could not untie and loosen? Do you ever feel a similar frustration and even hopelessness with other “knots and tangles” you have created in your life?

You and I have many struggles and difficulties that can tie us up in knots each day. Perhaps a knot of illness or the sufferings of a loved one, perhaps an economic knot, or the knot of struggling with a child or grandchild who has left the church, or struggles with addiction or lack of direction in life. These knots, and so many others, can feel like a constant pain in your heart, a persistent thought in your mind.

Please join the Friars in our Novena to Our Lady, Untier of Knots. Let us pray with you for the freedom that comes as the knots of despair, hopelessness, illness, addiction and ruptured relationships are unraveled, and the freedom of God’s love becomes more real and present. As you pray to Our Lady to help untie the knots of your life, please help the Franciscan Friars to help untie the knots of poverty that so many are entangled in. We need your help now so that we can continue to care for the poor that Christ and his Mother loves so deeply.