Through song and poetry, we find the gem for today’s feast day of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary. Here are the lyrics for today’s hymn:

Cut back the dry and ancient wood and graft us on to newer stock; through you the faithful will become a royal priesthood serving God.

Unravel by your holy prayers the knots our guilt and sins have tied; bring us to heaven’s great reward, who praise your merits with our hymn.

In this hymn, the Blessed Virgin Mary is a grafter and a spiritual horticulturist. She knows how we grow; she knows where we will bear fruit in our lives, and when we need to be grafted to new stock. She is the gardener of our spiritual lives. Her only desire is that we become a royal priesthood that praises her Son. She always points to Jesus. Whenever we think of Mary, we think of Christ. A healthy love for Mary will always lead us to her final recorded words in the Scriptures, “Do whatever he tells you” (John 2:5).

The second imagery this hymn offers is that the Blessed Virgin Mary is the undoer of knots.

She can take a mess and bring a message. She can help unbind the guilt and sin in our lives so we can follow Jesus more faithfully. Our lives are woven with the love of Christ; the threads of life are needled together through the tenderness of a Mother’s love. Let Mary undo those knots that need to be unknotted.

Today, as we celebrate the Blessed Mother’s Nativity:

Buy flowers and offer them at your favorite statue of Mary in the Church, go to Mass, and say your rosary. We will never love her as much as Jesus. Mary, make my inner garden beautiful, and may every ounce of my heart bear fruit, and may every knot in my life be undone for the glory of God.

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