I opened my e-mail and Charlie’s letter was the first one to pop out.
The SUBJECT heading read: “Untier of Nuts”
In the MESSAGE body he wrote a brief request: “Father, could you bless my stampita of our Lady, Untier of the nuts?”
Charlie was already in Grade 4 but maybe he still had trouble with spelling same-sounding words.
“Dear Charlie, I would be more than happy to bless your stampita of our Lady, Untier of the KNOTS.” I replied and hoped he would read how the word was spelled.
The next day, we met in school and he pulled out an already dog-eared image of our Lady.
“Wow, looks like you have really been putting Mama Mary’s picture to good use,” I said.
“Yes, Father. Mommy says she can help me a lot!” he excitedly explained.
“So what do you ask our Lady, Charlie?”
“To help me undo my nuts,” he smiled.
“Charlie, could you spell knots,” I asked him kindly.
“Sure, Father. It is: N-U-T-S.”
“I see. But don’t you mean more of: K-N-O-T-S?”
“Oh, Father, I know they sound the same, but I mean, N-U-T-S.”
“But why would you want our Lady to ‘undo nuts’? I mean, you open nuts and you undo knots.”
“Yes, Father. But I didn’t mean the food. I mean being foolish, like you know, S-T-U-P-I-D?”
“Oh, that NUTS!” I said.
“Yup!”
“But how did you come up with that play of words?” I asked.
“Every time I do something wrong or bad, my dad would say that I’m NUTS! And mom would just tell me to ask our Lady, to undo my being nutty.”
“You mean, naughty or nutty?”
“Both, Father,” Charlie said sincerely.
“So is it helping you not to be a nut?”
“Sometimes. But mommy would say that I have a very hard head.”
“Now, for that kind of a nut you don’t untie, but you crack open,” I tapped his head.
“I know, Father,” he giggled.
“So what happens when you’re a tough nut to crack, Charlie?”
“That’s when daddy would say the prayer with me kneeling down, before my stampita,” he confided.
“Really? And what do you both pray for?”
“Daddy does all the talking, really,” he said.
“And may I know what he prays?”
“He says something like: ‘Mama Mary, help us untie our knots, we who are nuts. So when you undo the knots, you can weave the thread into a lovely blanket to wrap Baby Jesus with.’”
“That’s a very lovely prayer, Charlie,” I was touched by the words.”
“So can you bless my stampita now, Father?”
“Of course, Charlie,” I took the image and blessed it and kissed it.
“Thanks, Father.”
“Oh, Charlie, I just wondered if dad and you won’t mind if I use your wonderful prayer?”
“I guess not, Father. Why?”
“It’s just so simple, touching and so profound.”
“Are you also a nut, Father?”
“Yup, and a tougher one than you, dude!”
“Then maybe you can pray it with dad and me, too,” he suggested.
“I would be glad to do so and perhaps we would have more threads undone that Mama Mary can weave into something more wonderful for Baby Jesus!”