Prayer is the thread that binds us to Heaven

The Gospel reminds us to make ourselves little, to become children again. The Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, in Avezzano (central Italy), had a childlike idea, in the best possible sense.

If there’s one thing that children adore, it’s balloons … perhaps because they give us the impression that there may be a narrow thread that binds us to Heaven. These nuns from Abruzzo made a huge rosary out of balloons and flew it over the roof of their church. As a local news outlet, Torre Marsicane, reports:

From every part of the city of Avezzano, you can clearly see a giant rosary made of 70 colored balloons. Sixty blue balloons make up the main beads, and another 10 make up the cross and the beads of the Our Father, for a total length of 23 yards … Sister Carla Venditti explains: “The people of the city, the people around us, had made us understand during these days of isolation that they needed a gesture of hope. So with the Sisters we made an enormous rosary, which is our prayer to Mary to ask her for her help in this moment of difficulty.”

The famous gospel song tells us to “Go tell it on the mountain,” because we must announce good news from high places so that everyone can hear it. In times of quarantine, mountains are out of the question, but not rooftops…

“But the rosary on the rooftops of Avezzano isn’t just a sign or gesture of a simple request for help,” Sister Carla tells Terre Marsicane. “Above all, it’s an invitation to unite ourselves in the Lord. We transmit the recitation of the Rosary every day on Facebook to hundreds of people… not necessarily from the city, but from every part of Italy and the world, and they pray with us thanks to this important digital medium. We also transmit adoration, as well as the Mass, from our main institute in Rome,” she concludes.

Sister Carla is well known in Abruzzo for being committed to fighting prostitution on the streets. Now, her mission takes her back inside the walls of the convent—yet even if you stay closed in, you can go far. Like diligent sentinels, the nuns didn’t want to provide mere entertainment from the roof, but to show a visible sign to everyone of what’s happening inside the church, and can happen inside any house. Prayer is the thread that binds us to Heaven, and the prayer that patiently prays one Hail Mary after another is almost an umbilical cord with which our Heavenly Mother keeps us alive here and now.

Adapted from: Aleteia