Archbishop José H. Gomez.
By Archbishop José H. Gomez | New World of Faith
Jesus said that if we want to get to heaven, we need to become like little children.
That’s not an easy idea for us to accept. We like to be in control of our lives, we like to make our own decisions, we want to shape our own future.
If we had the choice, many of us probably wouldn’t want to go back to being little children again.
But Jesus insists: “Unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of heaven.”
The key word is “turn.”
Becoming little children is a journey, it’s a conversion of the heart. It will take a lifetime, so we have to begin again and again.
The beautiful truth of our lives is that we are children of God. This is the truth that Jesus came to teach us.
He was the Son of God and yet he humbled himself and became a little child, a child of Mary and a Son of Man.
And he is telling us that if we humble ourselves and become like children, then we can live here on earth as sons and daughters of God, and live forever with the Father in heaven.
He gives us the rosary to help us in our “turning,” in our conversion.
The rosary is a child’s prayer. That’s when many of us learn it, and it’s a wonderful prayer for children.
It appeals to the senses: with the touch of the beads, with its simple rhythms and the sound of the prayers on our lips that we repeat over and over. And in these repetitions, often there can be a sense of wonder.
As we get older, we become aware that the rosary is the prayer of the child of God, the prayer of every one of us who wants to live like Jesus.
The prayer is focused on the mysteries of Our Lord’s life because in those mysteries we are meant to discover the secret of our own lives.
The rosary contains the whole Gospel. The key is to pray as children, looking at the life of Jesus through the eyes of his mother, who is also our mother.
As we repeat the Hail Mary, the words spoken to Mary by the angel, we are drawn into the story of salvation that unfolds through her life.
We follow the child who is born from her womb through the joys of his family life, through his carrying out of his mission, bringing the light of life into the world, through the sorrows of his passion and death, and through the glories of his resurrection and his promise of heaven.
Contemplating these mysteries day by day, week by week, year in and year out, our lives begin to take on a new pattern; the mysteries of his life are becoming the mysteries of our life.
Almost without noticing it, our lives are becoming united with his, we are becoming more like him, more like the little children that he calls us to be.
This is the power of the rosary. This is the power that the saints know.
The rosary has been the daily prayer of the saints for centuries.
But I am struck by how many of the saints of our times were saints of the rosary. Holy men and women like St. Padre Pio, St. Mother Teresa, St. Frances Cabrini, St. Josemaría Escrivá; the Servants of God Dorothy Day and Catherine Doherty.
Younger witnesses, too, such as Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati and Blessed Chiara Badano, were apostles of the rosary.
It is said that there was a nanny in Blessed Carlo Acutis’ home when he was young. She was a young Hindu woman and Blessed Carlo taught her how to pray the rosary, and that inspired her conversion.
Blessed Carlo called the rosary “the shortest ladder to go up to heaven.” That’s true. And we should climb that ladder a few rungs every day.
Oct. 7 is the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary and the whole month is dedicated to the Holy Rosary.
Let’s use this month to deepen our devotion to this prayer of the children of God.
If you already pray the rosary, try to go deeper in your contemplation. Try to pause before each mystery and place yourself in the “scene.”
If you are not in the habit of praying the rosary, try to pray just one mystery every day.
However you pray, during this month choose your most urgent concern and pray your rosary for that intention. See what happens, especially to your heart.
Pray for me, and I will pray for you.
And may Our Lady of the Rosary help each of us to love her Son more and more and become the little children that we are made to be.
Most Rev. José H. Gomez is the archbishop of Los Angeles, the nation’s largest Catholic community. He served as president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops from 2019 to 2022.
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Photo by Isabella Fischer on Unsplash.
