The Rosary in a Year (with Fr. Mark-Mary Ames) - Bonus: Preparing for the Rosary in a Year

Episode Date: December 17, 2024

What is the Rosary in a Year Podcast? Fr. Mark-Mary is joined by Fr. Mike Schmitz to discuss The Rosary in a Year Podcast and share their personal experiences with the Rosary. Fr. Mike and Fr. Mark-Mary explore the relationships between Rosary in a Year, Bible in a Year, and Catechism in a Year, and share their thoughts on cultivating a relationship with God through prayer. For the complete prayer plan, visit https://ascensionpress.com/riy.

Hey, I'm Fr. Mark Mary with the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, and this is the Rosary in a Year podcast. Welcome, everybody. For those of you meeting me for the very first time, it's very nice to meet you. I look forward to meeting you as well as we continue this journey together and together get to know and to grow in love with our Lord and Our Lady and the mysteries of our faith. But first, before we get started, I'd invite you to visit ascensionpress.com forward slash rosary in a year, where you can get the rosary in a year prayer guide, which can give the layout of the journey that we're about to undertake. And I am joined by Father Mike Schmitz.

Jinx. Hey, Father. Good to finally collab with you and something like this i you know it's funny they even that's the term that's what the kids are saying these days if this is our collab their first one our first one and so yeah i'm grateful to be with you and what we're doing today is essentially introducing kind of the next in a year series with ascension building upon what you did with essentially with the bible the Bible in the Year podcast and the Catechism in the Year podcast. It feels to me like a very kind of organic movement and development. And I'd love to hear your thoughts on it. The two images that come to mind for me

are, the first one is of a garden and the second one is of a basilica. In a lot of ways, what we did with Bible in the Year podcast first is, if you will, found the land, got the land, tilled it, created the garden, planted some seeds, et cetera. And that catechism in the year, essentially like as future gardeners, we kind of were educated in how to take care of this garden and the different seeds we have, the different plants, the different vegetables, what they need. And then the rosary in the year is this ongoing certainly maintaining cultivating of this garden but also the enjoyment of its fruits yeah and that's kind of the envision and it seems like there's an actual natural progression to it does that resonate with you yeah well it makes so much

sense yeah it does when people say i finished this or you know i finished the bible in a year i finished the catechism in a year and i say, we'll go back and go through it again because there's so much depth there. But really, ultimately, there's a piece of prayer being so essential. Whenever we have our students on campus who are then going off into the world, and I think about like, what is it that I really want them to be able to do? One of the things is I want them to be able to be the kind of people who can pray in any season, because we have no idea what kind of seasons we're going to experience in our lives. And so to become the kind of person who can pray in any season of life is, okay, you're going to be set. I mean, yes, the storms will come, the winds will blow, the rains will buffet the house. But if you're on rock,

that ability to pray. So this is, yeah, actually that image you have of here's the garden, here's how to do this, but now you have to actually let that relationship be the relationship you have. That's a brilliant image. I mean, I appreciate that. And I'm not a church historian, but I feel like what you did with the team at Ascension with Bible in the Year and Catechism in the Year in the format it took, I don't know of it happening in the past. With the Rosary in the Year and Catechism in the Year in the format it took, I don't know of it happening in the past. With the Rosary in the Year, maybe it felt like we were creating something new, but actually this is something

that has been part of our tradition and preaching for centuries and centuries and centuries of people, including some great saints, like really calling people to prayer, particularly through the Rosary. And the Rosary, right, as part of our Catholic spirituality and patrimony has been this tried and true and tested way in which people of all different states of

life are learning and actually praying in season and out of season in the church in the chapel in the nyc subway right you see catholics going to the rosary yeah and that's so that's a good point i mean we we do have you know great saints for for the whole history of the church pointing back to scripture reading. Absolutely. And pointing back to staying faithful to the church's teachings. But as you say, I mean, there have been movements in the church that basically these renewals in the church's life that have surrounded the praying of the rosary. I mean, really, really critical moments in the life of the church, seasons and epochs in life of the church that have been shaped and yeah, by that powerful renewal of the discovery or

rediscovery of the rosary. As I've had some conversations with folks about the Rosary in the Year podcast, their first response is a little bit quizzical. It's like, okay, like, wait, what does that mean? You're just going to pray the rosary really slowly. I had some friends did the math for me and they're like, if you just are going to spend the whole year to pray the rosary, that's going to be 36 words a day. You know, I was like, well, okay. To use maybe another image is I love the idea of think of like building a basilica. We'll think of building like St. Peter's Basilica. With the Bible in the year and going back to scripture, it's laying the foundation, it's building the dome, it's creating this building that in an intellectual sense and prayerful sense with like the catechism in the year

and there's this unpacking or to use the image, this sort of like this beautifying, this filling the space, filling it with art, with statues, all of the sort of beautiful things that filled the basilica. And then the rosary in the year is just gonna be this prayerful like movement through this basilica. right like there's there's a very beginning clear like beginning and end if you will to building the structure to beautifying it it's not like a linear movement it's just this ongoing movement like a visiting again and praying and if you will enjoying the

fruits of what has been passed down yeah like living like living in it. I mean, that sense of like, once the basilica is built and it's decked out, it's here for a purpose. And that purpose is to return to this place again and again, to live out the relationship you have with the Lord, to act in the way that this building was built for. It was oriented so you could have a relationship, a living relationship with the Lord. And so that makes sense that the rosary in a year

would be that exact kind of thing, that next step of saying, okay, this is not just a thing like, oh, I did that one thing once, which again, I go back to the Bible or the catechism and say, I think it's good to have done it once. I think it's the kind of thing that a person, I should live there. But as you're describing this, the rosary is the kind of prayer that we should live in on a regular basis. It's not like, oh, I did that once. It is, that's where I go. Like, just like mass on a Sunday or on a daily mass. No, that's where I go.

That's where I go because this is where I live out the relationship. And so there's something about here's the scripture and tradition that have been given to us. And okay, now how do I embody that? And that's, I think one of these ways is this rosary in the air. And I guess to go even maybe more concrete, I think probably the basilica image, hopefully it makes a little bit of sense, but even to go more concrete with it, like you're making a pilgrimage to Rome. They're like, okay, you have 15 minutes to take it all in and then we're going to the next spot. And certainly you can prayerfully go through the Basilica,

go through St. Peter's in 15 minutes and it's gonna be a beautiful, powerful experience. But if you are trying to take in all of it every time, I think at certain point, there's gonna be this natural desire to like, okay, actually I don't wanna see the whole Basilica today. I'm just gonna spend 15 minutes with the Pieta. I'm just gonna go to this place. And that's a little bit of the format of the rosary in the year. Because I

feel like sometimes praying the rosary, because there's the start, there's finish, it's sort of like we have 15 minutes, but there's so much. It's obviously super fruitful, but there's also a benefit to like, hey, let's actually just slow down a little bit and be a little bit focused. And just today, we're just gonna be at one place and we're really gonna take it in. And actually, we're gonna go back again and again to this place and kind of keep coming deeper with it. Does that kind of resonate with your own sort of experience

of praying the rosary? Yes, I actually, I had never thought of it like that, but that is exactly when it comes to pilgrimage. So yeah, I have been able to go on a number of pilgrimages, particularly to the Holy Land. And that's a place where it's like trying to drink out of a fire hydrant to try to take it all in. And I remember my very first time ever in Israel. And I remember thinking, I can't possibly really truly appreciate or take it all in. And it was when I resolved, maybe halfway through the pilgrimage, okay, this is not going to be my last time here. This is only my first time here. Then I was able to relax

and kind of just, okay, let me take in what I can, and I don't have to worry about what I can't take in. And so now when I go back every morning, when I'm in Jerusalem, I'll always get up early and lead a group of people down to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, right, where there's Golgotha and the tomb. And just like you said, I'll go back to the same spot. I'll go up to the stairs to Golgotha and that's where I'll make my holy hour. And virtually every morning that I'm in Jerusalem, that's exactly what, and I could walk around, I could take in all the whole church. But just like you said, there's something about like, no, I'm just going to park here knowing that there's something about mining the depths and not worrying about the crumbs I'm missing because like, no, I'm coming back here. And I think there's something powerful about the

rosary too, like look in the Bible, trying to drink from a fire hydrant, but I'm coming back. No worries. Same with the catechism. And I think here with the rosary, these mysteries of Jesus's life, I don't have to panic. Like, no, it's okay. I'm going to return. And this is going to be a place where I know what the cracks in the ground look like. Like, I know what it smells like. I know what it is to be back here at the mystery of the ascension. I know what it's like to be back here at the nativity. Like, there's something about what you described that just really actually strikes me as it resonates a lot with what you just described. Yeah. And I love that. And I think that we can come back to it, but I think that's sort of the goal is like,

I want to know what the cracks in the ground look like at the nativity. You know, I want to know what animals are there. I want this to be something that I have actually owned and assimilated because I've been there and spent so much time there. Like I get it, I get it from within. And here's what the phases look like. Here's what you can come to expect. The first phase is called forming the relationship. And here we'll really be focused on praying with and entering into the relationships with the most holy Trinity, with Jesus,

and then with our lady. And what you'll see with each phase, there's gonna be building up with the prayers, the prayers that are foundational and typical to the rosary. So in this first phase, we're gonna say one, our father, three, Hail Marys, and the glory be. The second phase is called the biblical roots of the mysteries and of the prayers. And that kind of is what it sounds like. We're really going to be focusing on the scripture verses that are associated with each of the mysteries, but also the ways in which

the different prayers that we say, the Hail Mary, the Our Father, the Creed, even the Salve Regina, the Hail Holy Queen, the ways in which we can find them also rooted in scripture. And at this point, we're going to be continuing with the same prayers that we were saying in phase one. I still will be at One Our Father, Three Hail Marys, and then a Glory Be. The third phase, which is the longest of the phases, Hail Marys, and then a Glory Bee. The third phase, which is the longest of the phases, is called Meditating on the Mysteries. And here is going to be, we're going to begin with some Lectio Divina. We're just going to quietly sit with and pray with the scripture verses that are associated with the mysteries. Next, we're going to introduce a number of reflections or essays, writings of different saints, right? The great experts in prayer,

both theological and as men and women of prayer. And so we're going to have two sets of reading from saints on each of the mysteries. And then finally, we're going to have what we call like Visio Divina. We're going to have some sacred artwork, some really classical, beautiful, sacred artwork by which these artists in their own way are able to emphasize and bring out some of the beauty and the depths of these different mysteries. At phase three, we're going to be increasing to praying one decade. The fourth phase is called finding focus. And in the fourth phase, it can be an opportunity for the listener to really put into practice what they have received. So there's going to be 10 minutes of just praying with the mystery. And at this point, we're all going to be praying together one decade. And again, it's just building up the muscle of prayer

and really having some focused time of prayer and meditation just on one mystery at a time. The fifth phase is called building up the decades. We're going to start to increase from what we've been doing of one decade at a time to now praying together two decades. And we'll go ahead and work that muscle and really focus on doing two decades well, and then three, four, and then ultimately phase five is going to end with us praying five decades all together. The sixth and the final phase is called praying together. And here we're

going to be praying the whole rosary together each day for this final phase and this is how we're going to bring the rosary in a year podcast in for landing praying the entire rosary together again pulling from all of the graces all the points of meditation the reflection that we've received throughout the year yeah i mean even that very first phase that people will start with at the beginning is it it sounds a lot like when I went on an Ignatian retreat, a silent 30-day retreat. And the first phase of that was just meditating on the love of God for me. And it was one of those situations where I'm like, okay, that's one day. It's supposed to be one day in the 30-day silent retreat. And ultimately, the retreat director had

me there for a week because it's like, no, no, you need to stay here. And ultimately, the retreat director had me there for a week because it's like, no, no, you need to stay here. And so even what you're describing is like, these are basics, these are fundamentals. But even someone who's been praying for a really, really long time, we have to go through those fundamentals of the practice of the presence of God and just what is it to enter into God's presence? Because I know for myself as a prayer, I reread about a year ago a book. It was like an introduction to prayer book. And I was like, okay, just pick it up again. It's good to have. And I realized how often I failed to do the most fundamental thing of what you're doing in phase one, which is, okay, how conscious

am I of entering into God's presence? So, okay, Lord, I don't know how to pray. Help me to pray as I ought. And I'm just, yeah, this incredible that I imagine anyone, like you said, the professional rosary prayers to the person who's like, okay, I'll try it. We all need that. So that's fantastic. And building over the course of the year sounds like such a great idea. And, you know, I think, you know, we can get into this in a later conversation, maybe like there's a lot of, hey, you need to pray the rosary. And there's not a lot of like, right, what do I do? How do I do it? And so certainly I had the experience of, you know, being 18 years old and really trying to like take serious. I want to pray a daily rosary,

but maybe focusing too much on getting it done and not doing it well. And so one of the difficulties of that is it became kind of like a burden, a doing it well. And so one of the difficulties of that is it became kind of like a burden, a task. And the hope and one of the desires of Rosary in the Year is that people fall in love. First and foremost, that they fall in love again and again and again with our Lord, with the Most Holy Trinity, with Our Lady. And they experience their love reciprocated, but also that we're able to fall in love for the first time or again with the rosary. It's that beautiful doorway that opens us up into relationship with Our Lord and Our Lady in a beautiful way. And so again, the goal is not

just to say as many rosaries as possible. The goal is to fall in love. Yeah, that's so good. It goes back to the heart of what prayer ultimately is, is that relationship. And yeah, I think probably most of us have experienced what it feels like to say, okay, I'm just going to get it done. That's one of the reasons I think that most all of us could really benefit from this Rosary in the Year because of the fact that I think we all have the same temptations and we all have the same need. I keep going back to the book of Revelation where Jesus is talking to the church at Ephesus. We're doing all the right things, but they've lost their first love. And there's something about if you've been praying the rosary for years and years, maybe this would be that thing

that the Lord is presenting to you, inviting a person to do, not because you've never done it, not because you don't know how to pray the not because you've never done it, not because you don't know how to pray the rosary, but because maybe it's just become the, yeah, it's the thing I do when I go for a walk, or it's the thing I do when I'm driving my car. It's the thing that I do as part of my whatever, my prayer practice. And to really fall in love, that's a great goal. Amen. Amen. And I can just attest to, again, as you know, in your own work with Bible in the

Air, Catechism in the Air, I'm a little bit ahead. I've already been doing this a little bit and it's been, again, extremely fruitful for me. So I'm grateful for my own growth to be a part of it. And so Father Mike, it looks like one clap up, one clap down. We did all right. One up, one down. There it is. All right. So thank you so much to all of our listeners for joining us. And I look forward to praying with you with the rosary in the year. And Father Mike, thanks so much for joining me today. Absolutely. God bless.