Prayers for Year of Mercy

Here are two prayers for the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy.

This one was composed by Pope Francis:

Lord Jesus Christ,

you have taught us to be merciful

like the heavenly Father,

and have told us that whoever sees you sees Him.

Show us your face and we will be saved.

Your loving gaze freed Zacchaeus and Matthew

from being enslaved by money;

the adulteress and Magdalene

from seeking happiness only in created things; 

made Peter weep after his betrayal,

and assured Paradise to the repentant thief.

Let us hear, as if addressed to each one of us,

the words that you spoke to the Samaritan woman:

"If you knew the gift of God!"

You are the visible face of the invisible Father,

of the God who manifests his power above all

by forgiveness and mercy:

let the Church be your visible face in the world,

its Lord risen and glorified.

You willed that your ministers

would also be clothed in weakness

in order that they may feel compassion

for those in ignorance and error:

let everyone who approaches them

feel sought after, loved, and forgiven by God.

Send your Spirit and consecrate every one of us

with its anointing,

so that the Jubilee of Mercy

may be a year of grace from the Lord,

and your Church, with renewed enthusiasm,

may bring good news to the poor,

proclaim liberty to captives and the oppressed,

and restore sight to the blind.

We ask this through the intercession

of Mary, Mother of Mercy,

you who live and reign

with the Father and the Holy Spirit

for ever and ever.

Amen.

Pope Francis has a personal devotion to Mary under the title of Undoer of Knots.  Here is a prayer to her:

O Virgin Mary,

faithful Mother who never refuses to come

to the aid of your children;

Mother whose hands never cease to help,

because they are moved by the loving kindness

that exists in your Immaculate Heart,

cast your eyes of compassion upon me,

and see the snarl of knots that exists in my life.

You know all the pains and sorrows 

caused by these tangled knots.

Mary, my Mother,

I entrust to your loving hands

the entire ribbon of my life.

In your hands there is no knot

which cannot be undone.

Most holy Mother, pray for Divine assistance

to come to my aid.

Take this know [mention your personal need here]

into your maternal hands this day.

I beg you to undo it for the glory of God,

once and for all,

in the name of your Divine Son, Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Like so many people, I had never heard of the devotion to Mary, Undoer [or Untier] of Knots until Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, S.J., was elected pope two years ago.  When he was doing doctoral studies in Germany in the 1980s, he saw this painting.  It is titled "Wallfahrtsbild," and was done by Johann Georg Melchior Schmidtner (1625-1707) in 1700.  It hangs in the Church of St. Peter am Gerlach in Augsburg, Bavaria.  When Father Bergoglio returned to Argentina, he brought a postcard of the painting with him, and began to promote devotion to Mary under this title.

In the painting, Mary is holding a rope of knots, which she unties.  Her foot rests on the head of a "knotted" snake, a clear reference to Satan from the creation story in Genesis.  This image of Mary is a reference to St. Irenaeus of Lyons in his "Adversus haereses."  The saint creates an analogy between Eve and Mary, describing how "the knot of Eve's disobedience was loosed by the obedience of Mary.  For what the virgin Eve had bound fast through unbelief, thus did the Virgin Mary set free through faith."