Unemployment and violence among the 'knots' Pope Francis will ask Mary to undo
The Rosary will be celebrated on 31 May in front of the Grotta di Lourdes, Vatican Gardens. The Rosary prayer will be broadcast live on all Holy See channels and world Catholic media. Some shrines will be live.
Vatican City (AsiaNews) – Loneliness, unemployment, violence, sharing of science and pastoral care are the five "knots" that Pope Francis will entrust to Our Lady, so that she may undo them, in the Rosary that will be recited in the Vatican on 31 May to mark the end of the prayer marathon held to invoke the end of the pandemic.
The celebration, in front of the Grotta di Lourdes in the Vatican Gardens, will begin with a procession led by Bishop Bertram Meier of Augsburg, who will bring a copy of the 18th century icon of the Virgin Mary, Undoer of Knots, to which Francis is particularly devoted, and which will be given to him.
The painting represents Our Lady undoing the knots of a white ribbon stretched held by two angels, surrounded by biblical scenes symbolically representing hope, mercy and victory over evil.
The Pope will entrust five prayer intentions to the Virgin, five "knots" to be undone, to nurture hope in human beings. The first knot is that of wounded relationality, loneliness and indifference, which have deepened in our times.
The second knot is that of unemployment, with particular attention to youth, women, heads of family, and those trying to protect their employees. The third knot is the tragedy of violence, particularly domestic violence against women, as well as the violence that fuels social tensions caused by the uncertainty of the crisis.
The fourth knot refers to human progress, which scientific research is called upon to support, pooling together discoveries so that they may be accessible to everyone, especially the weakest and poorest. The fifth knot is that of pastoral care: May local Churches, parishes, oratories, pastoral and evangelisation centres regain enthusiasm and new impetus in their pastoral life and may young people marry and build a family and a future.
The celebration will see the participation of various Italian youth groups, newlywed couples and couples expecting a child as well as the family of deaf people in which a religious vocation was born, followed at the with the coronation ceremony of the image of Our Lady.
The Rosary prayer will be broadcast live on all Holy See channels. All world Catholic media will be connected, with the service for hearing impaired available in the Italian sign language LIS.
A number of shrines will link up with Rome to pray the Rosary together with the Pope: Notre-Dame de Boulogne in Nanterre (France), Unsere Liebe Frau von Schönstatt in Vallendar (Germany), Notre-Dame des Douleurs in Kibeho (Rwanda), the Santuario Nacional in Santiago (Chile), Nuestra Señora de Os Gozos in Ourense (Spain), the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes at Carfin ( Scotland), the Basílica Santuario Virgen de los Milagros de Caacupé (Paraguay), and the Chiesa Parrocchiale e Santuario di Nostra Signora della Salute in La Spezia (Italy).
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