When searching Fruit of the Wood On social networks, you can quickly see that this is a Catholic music group from Colombia, with a strong devotion to the Virgin Mary. However, it is enough to look at their testimony to discover that behind the melodies there is much more: a true love story founded on the Holy Rosary, which translates into numerous activities.
Currently, and with a group of approximately 30 young people—most of them professionals who respond to the call to “be in the world without being of the world”—the community of Fruit of the WoodIn addition to offering concerts, it organizes weekly rosaries, adorations, retreats, mission days, vigils, workshops and even cycles of preparation for the sacrament of Confirmation.
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These are, precisely, the “fruits”, but it could be said that the one who laid the seed was the Virgin Mary when, more than ten years ago, she entered the life of Tomás Romero.
Tomás was a teenager whose parents took him weekly to pray the Rosary, an activity that, in his own words, he did out of obligation. These meetings were organized by Felipe Gómez, a Catholic singer-songwriter and father, and each week they focused on a topic.
On one occasion a topic caught Tomás’ attention: they were going to talk about the third secret of Fatima. “We went, I remember there was a little store, I bought a rosary, without knowing much more. I confessed, and when Felipe began to pray, I began to feel something in my heart that I had never experienced, like a readiness. More than something mystical, it was a desire to be present at that meeting,” the young man details to ACI Prensa.
Recognize the Virgin as Mother
“Between mystery and mystery, he sang and talked about Fatima, and I was falling in love with her. At the end, he said that the Little Virgin had a message for us. I knelt down, closed my eyes, and he began to give that very simple message.”
“Out of nowhere, I felt like her voice changed, I started hearing the voice of a super tender woman, and I said: I’m going crazy. I closed my eyes and saw a silhouette of the Virgin, and I saw myself as if I were being born again. Then I said: it’s my mom. That for me was crucial. It was recognizing the Virgin, not as a picture, not as an idea, not as a statue. But as what she is: a flesh and blood mother,” she says.
From there, a longing began in him to open his heart and know the Rosary, “and the Little Virgin began to act in an impressive way,” he acknowledges. So much so that at the same time, an acquaintance of his family gave Tomás a message that he claims had been revealed to him before the Blessed Sacrament: “You have to start a group of young people to pray the Rosary.”
The Rosary: support, pillar, base and spine
Without knowing how to pray it, much less lead it—Tomás admits—he organized the first Rosary with some people in his house, with music from a speaker because at that time he did not sing or play instruments. However, after that meeting, “the following Wednesday, no one came”, a situation that was repeated for almost a year, in which week after week only he and his girlfriend prayed, and although they insisted to their friends, no one showed up.
“Nowadays I understand why: It was the Little Virgin teaching me her wisdom,” says the young man. For this reason, “when I began to fall more in love with the Rosary, I remember that we were both in a little room with the image of the Guadalupana, people began to arrive…”.
“Because of the Rosary I began to go to Mass daily. Through the Rosary I went to the Blessed Sacrament. Through the Rosary, I began to understand that the history of the saints is the most complete catechesis of all, it is even the way to heal wounds in a more efficient way.”
“The Rosary for me has been a support, a pillar, a base,” he insists. “And something that has also been very nice is how through the Rosary many other people have come closer and have found this prayer as a backbone, from which other things come.”
Music as a language of prayer
One of those things is music, which came later. First, with the help of his friend Nicolás Vargas, who began to play on the rosaries, between mystery and mystery, to replace the speaker, but always keeping in mind that music is only a help “to prepare the heart,” Tomás clarifies.
The other step towards music was through his special concern for persecuted Christians. This is how he met María Inés Espinoza, director in Colombia of the pontifical foundation Help the Church in Need (ACN), which in 2015 invited him to testify in an international report on religious persecution.
It was then that Tomás had the idea of composing the anthem for the event and framing it in a concert. “I had never composed and even less for God. And in front of the Blessed Sacrament I wrote it,” he recalls. That was his first song: Nazarenos.
Accompanied by his friend Nicolás, his cousin Sofía, and another friend, Andrea, they prepared that concert, but with no intention of continuing making music. However, the idea to continue naturally arose.
Beyond the melodies
Music began to take on a certain role in the group: “It’s ironic. The music sounds more, and then they see you as a music band,” he said. “But we, beyond a musical band, are a community that is learning, that is just beginning, that is discovering its charisma.” In that framework, “it has been very nice how God has shown us what He wants,” he says.
“We are young people with a habit of jeans and t-shirts”; says Tomás, ensuring that their purpose is for people to see in them someone close to them. “We are learning to love, we are learning that it does not depend on us and that we cannot love with our hearts, but we have to love with the Heart of Jesus,” he maintains.
In this framework, the main activity is praying the Rosary every Thursday. “They are super simple rosaries, where we sing between mystery and mystery,” he explains. To the people who join in praying, they advise “not to depend on the music, that the decoration is done by the Virgin herself, that this space is simply like a gym, a workout.”
It is not a proposal only for young people, since people of all ages attend the rosaries: small children, others in school uniforms, families, grandparents, couples. And from the Rosary, he specifies, “many other activities have come about,” among which are concerts, some retreats, vigils of prayer and reparation, and missions during Holy Week.
“One of the most special activities that God has allowed us to do, and I believe that it has been one of the greatest achievements of the Little Virgin, has been to train people for Confirmation, which is a sacrament that is very little valued,” he considers. . In the first there were more than 60 people of all ages, and the fourth group is currently being prepared.
Image and likeness of “God the artist”
“Another very important thing that we have been discovering is how, through art, God shows us his closeness and helps us pray,” he points out.
Within the community “there are many people with different artistic talents: dancing, painting, writing, poetry, music, where God demonstrates once again that, as He is an artist and we are the image and likeness of Him; We are also, and we do not have to limit ourselves to one way of praying.” This sparked their interest in holding creative prayer workshops. “We are working on it, we are praying,” he anticipates.
Meanwhile, they are preparing an end-of-year concert, which will take place on December 4 at 7:00 p.m. at the Santa Ana Auditorium in Bogotá, “to celebrate and thank God for this year he has made.” “immense things.”
For this occasion, they will have a special visitor: Father Luis Zazano, an Argentine priest known for being a reference in digital evangelization, with his close and simple meditations, which have been spread for years on WhatsApp and social networks.
And just a few hours ago, The video clip was released on YouTube of his new song, “Tu Jardín”, dedicated to the Virgin of Fátima.
To finish, Tomás repeats the message that appears on the Instagram profile of Fruit of the Wood: “No one loves what they don’t know, no one follows what they don’t love.” That is why he advises: “Let us love the rosary, let us know that the rosary is the wisdom of the mother, which is not everything, but which takes us to everything.”
More information about Fruit of the Wood in Instagram, YouTube y Spotify.
Juliet Villar
I am a journalist, with a degree in communication from the National University of La Matanza in Argentina. I have work experience in non-governmental organizations. Since 2016 I have been dedicated to Catholic journalism, first at the Argentine Catholic Information Agency (AICA) and, since 2022, as ACI Prensa correspondent for Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Bolivia.