Leading Our Children to the Gate of Heaven

Our 2026 Full of Grace Youth Journal theme is “Marian Titles.” We celebrate Mary throughout the year by reflecting on the many names that honor her love, protection, and intercession. March’s title is Gate of Heaven & Our Lady of Grace. May is the Month of Mary.

From earliest times, Mary has been called the treasury of grace, the throne of grace, the ladder and the gate of Heaven, and the hope of the children of Eve. These expressions are not used to describe any other saint. They express that the Author of grace came down from Heaven through her so that human beings might be led to Heaven through her.

— Matthias Joseph Scheeben, Handbook of Catholic Dogmatics

Jesus passed from Heaven to earth through Mary, who we honor each day, but especially during the month of May. Her cooperation with God built the threshold that we ourselves pass through from earth to Heaven. When we celebrate the Ascension on May 14, the feast on which Jesus’ mission to open Heaven to us was completed, we also celebrate this gate’s place in God’s grand architectural design.

As parents, we stand at the threshold between our children and the world, doing our best to monitor and choose what comes in and what doesn’t, what they are being formed by and what they must be shielded from. Their sleep, their screens, their friendships, their fears—we can watch guard over all of this, deciding when to open the gate and when to lock it tight. How do we decide where to lead them—and from what to shield them?

This month’s Marian title reminds us that a gate exists for others, pointing beyond itself to what lies ahead and allowing them entrance. It is the way in. When we think of God breaking into history, we might expect the roar of thunder or the cresting waves of a parting sea. But He came quietly, through a girl in Nazareth. The Incarnation passed through the yes of a young woman who called herself His handmaid and so became the gate. When we teach our children this title, we are teaching them that ordinary people in ordinary places can be the means through which God moves. This is important to remember not only about themselves, but about the ordinary people around them, as well. We are all vessels for the Holy Spirit—God loves us as such, and we should treat each other accordingly.

A Model of Receptivity

If Mary is the Gate of Heaven, then what does that mean for how we pray with her? Ask your children. Where does she lead us? What qualities allow her to be a “gate,” anyway?

Mary did not fill herself so completely with her own will that there was no room for God. She was filled, instead, with grace—with holy participation that gave her an openness to God’s will. And yet, Mary was not passive. She was thoughtful, curious, a free agent in the world, shining outward toward both God and those He placed among her and remaining with Him until the very, very end. Teaching our children facts about Mary is good, but helping them fall in love with her as an active participant in the salvation of the world—and the personal salvation of individuals—so that they want to be like her is the true key.

Illuminating the Gate in Your Home

The Litany of Loreto is a beautiful prayer that honors Mary’s many titles and brings all of her unmatchable qualities to the forefront. This prayer functions as an education on her character for our youngest children, and a profoundly meditative experience for those a bit older. Sitting with her titles one by one together as a family, you can let it be simply prayer time or ask your children to think about what each title means together. Pick a few every day and examine what ways you can emulate it. When you reach the Gate of Heaven together, consider:

What gates have you walked through in your life that led somewhere unexpected and positive?
Where do you sense God is opening a door for you right now?
Can you think of a time when saying yes to something hard turned out to be a beginning rather than an ending?
In what ways can you open the door for others to holiness? How can we lead others to God through our own behavior?

The Yes Journal

Mary’s story is not so distant from our children’s. Young and uncertain. she said yes anyway. Give your child a small notebook and invite them to write down one yes they said to God that day, however small.

I was patient with my baby sister. I told the truth even though it was embarrassing. I helped with chores even though I didn’t feel like it. Over time, the journal becomes a record of their own fiat, quiet and accumulating. This is in contrast to the effective but perhaps less inspiring practice of recording all the times they said no. Like breeds like—as our children begin to see themselves as people who say yes, they will say it more and more often, inspiring others to do the same. This is how families are reoriented toward holiness, through individual actions coming together as a whole.

Take it a step further for older children. Ask them to think of the times when they said yes by honoring God’s image within their peers, making room for God’s will, or resisting some kind of temptation. Remind them that all of these behaviors—these daily yeses—help lead others to the gate, whether we see it or not in the moment. God wants us to not only love one another, but to make saints of one another. Remind them that Mary herself seeks to make saints of them, too.

Choosing Humility 

This title has a humbling grace for parents. As much as we can be that previously mentioned threshold between our children and the world, we are not the true gate—and we never will be. We can (and should!) pour ourselves into forming our children’s faith, but their ultimate passage into heaven does not depend on us getting everything right. That gate predates us by thousands of years. We ourselves might benefit from the journal of small, daily fiats, moments in which we pointed our beloved children toward that gate explicitly or implicitly.

Mary is not a detour on the way to Jesus—she is the way He chose to come to us, and the way He continues to draw us home. May our homes be full of her presence, and may our children know her voice.

Mary, Gate of Heaven, hold us close as we keep our eyes on your Son.