Beads, Not Battles: A Family’s Guide to Spiritual Activism

In the West today, the signs of unrest in our young people are growing louder than ever. Teens are marching, shouting, posting, protesting—ultimately searching for meaning, identity, and purpose in their lives. Through all the activism and beneath all the noise, there is a restlessness that is not calmed, anger that is not resolved, anxiety that does not lift, and turmoil that seems only to grow and never subside.

We are raising a generation of young people who are ready to take on the world in protest, but we have not taken the time to teach them how to find solitude. What if the answer to the unrest and angst in young people isn’t to echo their volume, but, rather, to counter it with the peace of whispered prayer? Perhaps it isn’t placards or bullhorns that will bring about the desired outcome of a restless generation, but 59 little beads held together by a thin chain with a crucifix at the end of it.

Spiritual Activism Means More

The truth of the matter is that teens want to fight for something meaningful. There is an inherent desire in the hearts and souls of teenagers today to be part of social movements that employ activism for the greater good of a segment of society, or society itself writ large. While this is a wholly noble desire, the problems that arise from desire without focus can lead to internal restlessness, anger, and confusion.

Parents can address the desire for meaning through activism by, first and foremost, pointing out that true activism begins in the soul and is not only an external exercise. Introspection and honest analysis, coupled with a fervent beseeching of the guidance of the Holy Spirit, have to be the first steps undertaken by anyone who feels a calling to become “involved.” If these steps are taken, the action of simply jumping onto the coattails of a social fad becomes more a reality than a possibility.

While cultural activism is enticing to a young person looking to make their mark in the world, spiritual activism is the most solid means by which they can bring about positive change in their communities. This fact must be illustrated to them by the people with whom they are the closest, namely, parents and adult family members.

Why Teens Need the Rosary

Enter: the Rosary. This spiritual weapon at our disposal has an almost unimaginable divine power. Our Lady, the terror of demons and the cure for noise, anger, and angst, has given us a tool for turning internal strife into meaningful activism. Families can teach their teens to pray the Rosary as a means to bring about important change in the world by getting the divine involved through the intercession of the woman to whom Our Lord would deny nothing.

The Rosary replaces chaos with order and repetition. It quiets noise by introducing the beauty of prayer. It centers the heart of the believer and puts them into the gentle embrace of Our Lady’s love and guidance. The Rosary brings us into a closer relationship with Christ by bringing us into a living relationship with His mother. As St. Maximilian Kolbe said, “Never be afraid of loving the Blessed Virgin too much. You can never love her more than Jesus did.”

The pushback from some teens is, unfortunately, natural, considering the dynamic nature of their lives. With the pace at which teens consume media and information, the art of practicing patience seems to be fading faster and faster. The most common protest against the daily or regular prayer of the Rosary is that it is too repetitive and therefore boring.

I myself have come up against this argument in my home and in my classroom. I find that the best way to combat this is by pointing out the importance and efficacy of regular training and practice in sports and the arts. No one has ever gone from picking up a glove once to playing in the MLB, and no one has ever opened a watercolor set and then had their very first artistic effort immediately placed in the Louvre.

Frankly, repetition is how we, as a species, get good at doing things. It is how we learn languages, mathematics, and any number of other disciplines that require effort from the individual in pursuit of proficiency. By presenting this truth to teens, we are showing them that anything, including being socially aware and engaged, requires practice. When we center this in the Rosary, we are then able to expand the colors and introduce the idea of performing analysis along with prayerful discernment of what we are interested in and engaged in, and our motivation for that engagement.

Teaching teens to be authentic to themselves through their faith in Christ rather than to a social movement is essential. The Rosary offers the prayer and meditations needed to not only teach authenticity, but to offer a solid, proven means by which to exercise introspection. The transcendence of God’s love for His people and the inspirational faith of Our Lady are wonderfully laid out in the mysteries of the Rosary. Repetition of the Rosary introduces a beauty and peace that no amount of walk-outs, sit-ins, or marches can ever provide.

How to Implement the Rosary

If there is one thing that I have found to be true in my career as a teacher and life as a father, it is that kids will not embrace teachings that they do not see their teachers or parents living by. Parents and families must not impose the praying of the Rosary on their children, but invite them to undertake the spiritual exercise, and this must happen first by modeling the prayer and behavior that we want our kids to take on. We need to faithfully pray the Rosary as often as we are able to, and we should make a point to do it in the home, where we are visible and confident in our prayer.

Next, we should start small. If our teens have not prayed the Rosary before, or if it has been quite some time since they have, starting small with single decades, or days in between praying the Rosary in its entirety should be considered. Expecting teens to jump into Rosary devotion headfirst and automatically embracing it is only going to lead to frustration. We should take whatever steps are necessary and talk to our kids about how the family is going to approach the Rosary in terms of a schedule.

Lastly, pointing to the Rosary as a form of quiet, prayerful activism can be a powerful way to get teens to engage with it. I have told my students that when we gather in the chapel at school to recite the Rosary, we are getting together to demonstrate against anger, stress, confusion, and anxiety. If we frame prayer as a powerful tool in our arsenal as socially conscious citizens, we are introducing the reality that we are, first and foremost, prayerful men and women of Christ who are called to point to Him in a restless and violent world.

The fact of the matter is that if we want quiet children, we need to raise praying families. The domestic Church is the first line of defense against the lure of secularism and the rejection of the divine in our kids. The Rosary offers mysteries, not marches. Scripture offers truth, not slogans. Prayer offers conversation with the divine and a call to conversion, not ostracization and dehumanization. For as much as we rely on our wits and God-given abilities and talents, we should rely even more on the intercession of our Blessed Mother and the powerful spiritual armor she has bestowed upon us in her Rosary.

Photo by Katie Rodriguez on Unsplash