{"id":5543,"date":"2015-08-26T13:33:28","date_gmt":"2015-08-26T18:33:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/customwordpresssites.com\/mjb\/?p=5543"},"modified":"2026-02-26T13:47:37","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T19:47:37","slug":"undoer-of-knots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/customwordpresssites.com\/mjb\/2015\/08\/26\/undoer-of-knots\/","title":{"rendered":"Undoer of knots"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt\u2019s one of the symptoms of our time to find danger in men like you who don\u2019t worry and rush about. Particularly dangerous are men who don\u2019t think the world\u2019s coming to an end.\u00a0<\/em>\u2018It\u2019s coming to an end, all right,\u2019 the seer said. \u2018That started the moment it was born.\u2019\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Sweet Thursday <\/em>by John Steinbeck<\/p>\n

It has struck me repeatedly and profoundly these last couple of weeks that we have a flair for the dramatic. Now, I should be honest from the start that I\u2019m not sure who I mean by \u201cwe.\u201d But at least within the circles I run in these days\u2014the people I talk to, the people whose thoughts I read print and online\u2014there\u2019s a real penchant for superlatives.<\/p>\n

This is the worst day ever<\/em>.<\/p>\n

This is the best latte ever.<\/em><\/p>\n

Donald Trump\/Barack Obama is the devil and is ruining America and only real, true patriots can stop him from his unsurpassed and unsurpassable villainy. <\/em><\/p>\n

Rand Paul\/Bernie Sanders is the new baby Jesus, come to save us all! <\/em><\/p>\n

K-Cups will turn into monsters and destroy the planet (<\/em>lest ye doubt me, this is a real thing).<\/p>\n

Tesla cars and Space-X will usher in a new, peaceful world order of super cars and alien-human peaceful coexistence!<\/em><\/p>\n

I am no different from anyone else in this regard. I tend to think, mired in my small viewpoint, that my problems are paramount. My heroes are superheroes, and my villains are archfiends, and my struggles are heroic in scope and legendary to tell! But, most days at least, they are not. I have no real problems. I am a human\u2014I have vexations and frustrations, but they are normal. I have successes and joys, but they are ordinary. I am not a saint, though I am working at it.<\/p>\n

Now sometimes, in trying to resist this over-dramatization, I can go too far the other way. It can lead me to disregard my joys as less than joyful. In the last couple of days I have watched my baby daughter start to crawl. It is miraculous. But there was a moment, as I was tearing up, that I thought \u201cWell, this isn\u2019t that special \u2026 I mean, all babies crawl. Every parent has witnessed this before. She\u2019s not a super baby or anything.\u201d That may be, but what a depressing mindset filled with tragic despair. Yes, perhaps every baby ever has learned to crawl\u2014but mine never has! I am right to rejoice. Every spring is new\u2014God does not tire of making them. Every breath I take is a miracle, no less so because billions of others breathe. Life may be ordinary\u2014but that shouldn\u2019t make it less awe-inspiring.<\/p>\n

To accept that things matter, but not any more than they actually do: this is a tightrope, but I think one that is important for us to walk.\"Mary<\/a><\/p>\n

Recently, I\u2019ve come across a Marian devotion called \u201cOur Lady, Undoer of Knots.\u201d And, I must say, I like it quite a great deal. I feel compelled to confess that I\u2019ve never been much of a Marian devotee. I\u2019m a fan of Our Lady, don\u2019t get me wrong \u2026 but so many of her devotions are so dramatic that I find them off-putting. Our Lady of Sorrows, Our Lady of the Imminent Apocalypse, Our Lady of the Despairing and Totally Hosed. It\u2019s not her fault that her friends so often speak of her in these terms, but it\u2019s made me wary. When my problem is that I\u2019m vaguely annoyed with a co-worker, I find it wrong to address a request for aid to her with phrases like \u201cmourning and weeping in this vale of tears.\u201d This is a powerful plea for those in real despair and I don\u2019t criticize those who turn to her in their darkest moments and then utilize such language, but normally I need more of a \u201ccomplaining and grumbling in this vale of minor inconveniences\u201d level of assistance.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>
Photo by Steven Cottam<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And this seems exactly where \u201cOur Lady, Undoer of Knots\u201d comes\u00a0in. She is beseeched with a simple plea to aid us in undoing the knots\u2014the fears, worries, and anxieties\u2014of our daily lives. Some knots are huge, some are nigh Gordian! But most are small. An unsmoothness in a moment of marriage, an unruly disposition toward the neighbor\u2014little knots. A spilled coffee, a flat tire, the dog taking a dump on the rug, and the baby taking a dump on the dog \u2026 successively bigger knots, but still nothing calling for heroic virtue. But we should not wait to call for divine assistance only when heroic virtue is called for. We should call for it all the time, for every moment of our day is a choice to grow in holiness or grow away from it. But we will be greatly aided in that pursuit if we can remember to keep things in perspective: remembering which knots are big, and which are really not.<\/p>\n

Our Lady, Undoer of Knots, Pray for Us!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIt\u2019s one of the symptoms of our time to find danger in men like you who don\u2019t worry and rush about. Particularly dangerous are men who don\u2019t think the world\u2019s coming to an end.\u00a0\u2018It\u2019s coming to an end, all right,\u2019 the seer said. \u2018That started the moment it was born.\u2019\u201d Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck...","protected":false},"author":3935050,"featured_media":5549,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2178641],"tags":[159644,7980,7816,37610,137033,297233,919278,335130,239384,512152,422009,28265503,479867],"series":[698756626],"class_list":["post-5543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-prayer-and-spirituality","tag-complaining","tag-devotions","tag-god","tag-heroes","tag-john-steinbeck","tag-knots","tag-marian","tag-our-lady","tag-rope","tag-rosary","tag-tightrope","tag-undoer","tag-villains","series-messy-jesus-business"],"acf":[],"episode_featured_image":"https:\/\/customwordpresssites.com\/mjb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/mary-with-knots-rosary.jpg","episode_player_image":"https:\/\/customwordpresssites.com\/mjb\/wp-content\/plugins\/seriously-simple-podcasting\/assets\/images\/no-album-art.png","download_link":"","player_link":"","audio_player":false,"episode_data":{"playerMode":"dark","subscribeUrls":{"apple_podcasts":{"key":"apple_podcasts","url":"","label":"Apple Podcasts","class":"apple_podcasts","icon":"apple-podcasts.png"},"stitcher":{"key":"stitcher","url":"","label":"Stitcher","class":"stitcher","icon":"stitcher.png"},"google_podcasts":{"key":"google_podcasts","url":"","label":"Google Podcasts","class":"google_podcasts","icon":"google-podcasts.png"},"spotify":{"key":"spotify","url":"","label":"Spotify","class":"spotify","icon":"spotify.png"}},"rssFeedUrl":"https:\/\/customwordpresssites.com\/mjb\/feed\/podcast\/messy-jesus-business","embedCode":"

Undoer of knots<\/a><\/blockquote>