The rosary helps me to be a child...

Ave Maria!  In October 1973, on the occasion of the 4th centenary of the Feast of the Rosary, the future Pope John Paul I, Albino Luciani, then Patriarch of Venice, gave a homily suited to the occasion. He concluded his homily with these words:

"When we speak of 'adult Christians' in prayer, at times we exaggerate. Personally when I speak tête-à-tête with God or with the Blessed Virgin Mary, more than an adult I prefer to think of myself as a child. The mitre, skullcap and ring disappear; I give a holiday to the adult and the bishop and also to heavy burdens, sober and pondered, and let myself go with the spontaneous tenderness of a child in front of his papá or mamma. To be – at least for half an hour – before God as I truly am with my wretchedness and also with the best of myself: to feel rising from the depths of my being the child of other days who wants to talk and chat with the Lord and love him and who sometimes feels the need to cry that he may be granted mercy, all this helps me to pray. The rosary, a simple and easy prayer, helps me to be at times a child again and of this I am not in the least ashamed.

"The rosary a prayer of repetition? Père de Foucauld used to say: 'Love is expressed in a few words, always the same, repeated time and time again.'"

Dearest Mary, Mother Most Wonderful, how good it is to be your child!