Week two: Getting to know Mary - Day 1

Mary, the New Eve

Prayer to the Holy Spirit 

O Holy Spirit, inspire me. God’s love, engulf me. Holy Mary, my Mother, guide me in the right ways, look at me, and together with Jesus, bless me. Keep me from all evil, from all delusions and all threats. Mary, The Spouse of the Holy Spirit, obtain for me the grace of getting to know you as a new Eve, a beginning of a new world. Amen!

The Word of God 

“The Lord God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this, cursed are you among all animals and among all wild creatures; upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel’” (Gen 3:14‒15).

Meditation 

“When a first man in Paradise cast doubt on God’s love, wisdom and goodness, when he didn’t trust God and committed sin, violating His commandment, there came darkness, despair, and hopelessness. Then God, out of pity for a human who was the work of His infinite love, showed him the Hope: the Woman and the fruit of her womb (…) Since that time, humanity will 122 WEEK TWO: GETTING TO KNOW MARY wait for the heralded Woman and on her people will focus all their hopes (…).”5

Mary’s mission as the Mother of God was understood in the Church as soon as in the 2nd century, proclaiming her as the “new Eve.” “And thus also it was that the knot of Eve’s disobedience was loosed by the obedience of Mary.”6

In everybody’s life, we may find the story of the first creation similar to Eve’s. This is the story of our disobedience towards God: sins of childhood, youth rebellion, neglected relationship with God, abandoning of commandments, prayers, sacraments… It happens that the ramifications of this kind of life give the effect of scorched earth. It is time to review all the areas of physical, mental, and spiritual life and to see where and how much it could be destroyed by sin. Aren’t my relationships with God and those around me covered in dust? Whenever instead of recognizing our fault, we look for it in others, there starts in us the syndrome, which St. Philip Neri called “My Lady Eve.” Self-justification is after the disobedience the second disease of a man in Paradise: “The serpent tricked me, and I ate” (Gen 3:13). This is how there appeared the knot that tangles up our life, putting self and other people or even things before God and over God. Since the fall of Adam and Eve by the tree, “the serpent’s word” tangles up love with lust, work with workaholism, rest with sloth, frugality with greed, and sometimes even piety with pharisaic pietism.

Yet, the perfect plan of God predicted that “Eve, who was a  virgin  and undefiled, having conceived the word of the serpent, brought forth disobedience and death. But the Virgin Mary received faith and joy.”7 Like Eve became “the cause of the fall,” Mary will become “the cause of the redemption” and the beginning of a “new creation,” the beginning of a “new people”, the disciple of “new Law” based on love, the women of a “new heart”, in which God will build “new Jerusalem.” “For what the virgin Eve had bound fast through unbelief, this did the virgin Mary set free through faith, and she became for a pilgrim people a sign of D 1 123 certain hope and comfort.” This is how the Church prays while celebrating the Eucharistic Sacrifice (Roman Missal).

Therefore, we may address Mary—the New Eve—as Mother of the “next creation” through grace and mercy. She got the power from God to undo all the knots of our lives tangled by sins and to ask for a gift of a renewed life. Thus, the Undoer of Knots novena, which stems from the painting of Our Lady, Undoer of Knots, originating from the 18th century and located in Augsburg, Germany, is renowned for great effectiveness. In this painting we can see the angels who hand Mary a ribbon with knots, and Our Lady undoes them one by one. As St. Irenaeus wrote: “And thus also it was that the knot of Eve’s disobedience was loosed by the obedience of Mary.” Let’s entrust our life knots to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and ask her to help us break the bondages of sin in sincere confession, teach us how to avoid sins, and receive the Holy Spirit, the Creator of the “new heart.”

Prayer 

Dearest Holy Mother, Most Holy Mary, you undo the knots that suffocate your children; extend your merciful hands to me. I entrust to You today this knot… (name your sin or an acute problem) and all the negative consequences that it provokes in my life. I give you this knot that torments me and makes me unhappy and so impedes me from uniting myself to You and Your Son Jesus, my Savior.

I run to You, Mary, Undoer of Knots, because I trust You and know that You never despise a sinning child who comes to ask You for help. I believe that you can undo this knot because Jesus grants you everything. I believe that you want to undo this knot because you are my Mother. I believe that You will do this because you love me with eternal love. Thank you, Dear Mother. Mary, Undoer of Knots, pray for me.

Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, our life, our sweetness and our hope. To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve. To thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears. Turn then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us, and after this our exile show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus. O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.

Spiritual reading 

“Our Blessed Lady is the faithful Virgin, who by her fidelity to God repairs the losses which the faithless Eve has caused by her infidelity. It is she who obtains the graces of fidelity and perseverance for those who attach themselves to her. It is on this account that a Saint compares her to a firm anchor, which holds them fast, and hinders their making shipwreck in the agitated sea of this world, where so many persons perish simply through not being fastened to that anchor. ‘We fasten our souls,’ says he, ‘to thy hope, as to an abiding anchor,’—Animas ad spem tuam sicut ad firmam ancoram alligamus. It is to her that the Saints who have saved themselves have been the most attached, and have done their best to attach others, in order to persevere in virtue. Happy then, a thousand times happy, are the Christians who are now fastened faithfully and entirely to her, as to a firm anchor! The violence of the storms of this world will not make them founder, nor sink their heavenly treasures. Happy those who enter into Mary, as into the ark of Noe! The waters of deluge of sin, which drowns so great a portion of the world, shall do not harm to them. Qui operantur in me non peccabunt—‘They who work in me shall not D 1 125 sin,’ says Mary, with the Divine Wisdom. Blessed are the faithless children of the unhappy Eve, if only they attach themselves to the faithful Mother and Virgin, who remains always faithful, and never belies herself—Fidelis permanent, seipsam negare non potest! She always loves those who love her—Ego diligentes me diligo—not only with an affective love, but with an effectual and efficacious one, by hindering them, through a great abundance of graces, from drawing back in the pursuit of virtue, from falling in the road, and from losing the grace of her Son.” 

St. Louis de Montfort, A Treatise on the True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, 175

Homework 

I will think over what my bondage is. Every day, I will ask Mary for the gift of being set free. 

Prayer of consecration 

I am all Yours, and all that I have is Yours, O most loving Christ, through Mary, Your most holy Mother. Amen!