‘Listen
to Him’
A Column by the Most Rev. Ronald
M. Gilmore
Bishop of
I returned from
We had just celebrated the 100th
Anniversary of St. Raphael Parish, and the people chose to mark the occasion by
giving each participant a rosary. It was
a human and a very Catholic thing to do.
The Church’s devotion to the Blessed Virgin
is essential to Christian worship. We
must take our place in the line of all those generations who have called her
blessed. A Catholic who worships on a
Sunday without this special devotion to Mary is a person in borrowed
clothes. He is there,
she is there, dressed and ready. But the
dress seems more on a hanger than on a woman, and the jacket seems more on a
rack than on a man. The clothes do not
quite fit. They are not quite right.
This devotion is not the same as adoration,
of course. It differs essentially from the
adoration given to Jesus Christ, and equally to his Father, and equally to his
Holy Spirit. But the special devotion to
Mary greatly fosters this adoration. She
was an Adorer from beginning to end, and through and through. Better than any, she knows how it is done.
As the liturgical year unfolds, the feasts
dedicated to the Mother of God, and Marian prayer, such as the rosary, an
epitome of the whole Gospel, express this devotion to the Virgin Mary. Indeed, some months are dedicated especially
to her, like the one we are now in.
We might use this October to re-visit the
rosary. It is probably the most fruitful
development achieved by the inventive genius of medieval piety in the
Use its slow reflection on the Mystery of
Christ and its stilling repetition of favored prayers to lead you toward those
summits. Consider it a gift from the
people of St. Raphael’s in
+ Most Rev. Ronald M. Gilmore
Bishop of