Pope Francis: The Virgin Mary leads Christians to the mercy of God, who can untie “all knotted hearts” caused by sin. “These knots take away our peace and serenity,” he said, and he urged the faithful not to give up hope that God can untie these knots. Mary, he said, “takes us with the hand of a mother to the embrace of the Father, to the Father of mercy.”
I got myself in a knot in 2008. I had been serving on the formation staff at the seminary in Cheshire for a year when I was unexpectedly transferred back to Rome. I immediately thought, “I must have done a bad job!” Luckily in the seminary it’s not hard to find an image of Our Lady. In front of her statue in the courtyard, I shared the pain with my heavenly Mother. She gently untied the knot in my heart and I was at peace. Thanks, Mom!
About Fr Simon Devereux LC
FR SIMON was born on February 4, 1979, in Dunedin, New Zealand, the seventh son of Marie and Michael Devereux. He entered the novitiate of the Legionaries of Christ in Cheshire, Connecticut, on September 15, 1997. After his novitiate and year of humanities in Cheshire, he studied a bachelor’s in Philosophy at the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum in Rome from 2000 to 2002 and from 2005 to 2007, a licentiate in Philosophy. In between, he worked as a youth minister in Quebec, Canada, and he made his perpetual profession in Rome on October 4, 2005. In 2010 he completed a three-year bachelor’s degree in Theology and was ordained on Christmas Eve of the same year with 60 of his brother Legionaries by Card. Velasio di Paolis. Two of his brothers are also Legionary priests. Fr Simon is now based at the Legion of Christ seminary in Cheshire, Connecticut.
