World Meeting of Families

If we bring these problems to Mary in prayer, she patiently and steadily unties the knots so that grace can freely flow and joy be restored.

The first time we heard about this title of Mary was at the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia in 2015.

One of the local groups had constructed a temporary shrine outside the cathedral and was inviting visitors to write their knotty problems on ribbons and then tie them to the shrine.

By the time we got there, the shrine was a flutter with thousands of ribbons.

I'll tell a story.

Years ago, you'll remember this, Wendy, we were at the World Meeting of Families with Pope John Paul II in Rio de Janeiro in 1997.

You were pregnant with our first, and... women and men from around the world attended this conference, Catholics from around the world.

And it was very interesting that mothers from developed countries... who had their babies with them, would kind of go off into a corner when it was time to breastfeed.