The Rosary in a Year (with Fr. Mark-Mary Ames) - Day 129: A Disposition of Reverence

Episode Date: May 9, 2025

Fr. Mark-Mary begins our visio divina episodes with a meditation on The Annunciation by Fra Angelico. We contemplate the reverence and solemnity depicted in Mary and the Angel, and consider the parallels to Genesis shown in the mystery of the Annunciation. Today’s focus is the mystery of the Annunciation and we will be praying one decade of the Rosary. All of the Sacred Art we’ll be meditating with can be found in the Rosary in a Year Prayer Guide, for free linked in the complete prayer plan, or for free in the Ascension App. For the complete prayer plan, visit https://ascensionpress.com/riy.

I'm Father Mark Mary with Franciscan Friars with Renewal and this is the Rosary in a Year podcast where through prayer and meditation, the rosary brings us deeper into relationship with Jesus and Mary and becomes a source of grace for the whole world. The Rosary in a Year is brought to you by Ascension. This is day 129. To download the prayer plan for Rosary in a Year, visit ascensionpress.com forward slash rosary in a year or text R-I-Y to 33777. You'll get an outline of how we're going to pray each month and it's a great way to track

your progress. The best place to listen to the podcast is in the Ascension app. There are special features built just for this podcast and also recordings of the full rosary with myself and other friars. I encourage you to pick up a copy of the Rosary in a Year prayer guide, a book published by Ascension that was designed to compliment this podcast. You'll find all the daily readings from scripture, saint reflections, and beautiful images of the sacred art we'll be reflecting on. Today we will be meditating upon and praying with the first joyful mystery, the Annunciation, with help from a painting by Fra Angelico entitled

The Annunciation. All right, friends, so here we are. We're beginning a new phase within the phase. We continue to be in the broader phase, what we're calling phase three, meditating on the mysteries, but we're transitioning from meditating on the mysteries with help from the writings from the writings from saints to a variety of masterpieces of sacred art. And a little bit like entering into what we could call a Vizio Divina, which is kind of praying with images, praying with sacred art, and allowing

the art, allowing the medium of art, the emphasis of the artist, the insight of the artist, the medium of art, the emphasis of the artist, the insight of the artist, to help us in our prayer. And so we're going to come before these various pieces of artwork, sit before them, and reflect on what the artists themselves are trying to communicate, or what the painting is speaking to us. Kind of like with Lectio Divina, our time of praying with scriptures, my role is going to be to facilitate this in a way which is helpful for us in the podcast medium, but the greatest encouragement is for you to be able to carve out some space so you yourself can actually just spend some time with the painting so that it can speak to you directly, but also so that the imagery of it can enter into your mind

and be something that you can pull from for your ongoing meditation in the future. Each of our episodes are going to follow a similar structure insofar as that I'm going to begin with a brief kind of historical introduction to the author, to the artwork, and offer a visual description. All of the sacred art we'll be reflecting on can be found in the Rosary in a Year Prayer Guide and for free linked in the Rosary in a Year Reading Plan or the Ascension App. You can also find more reflection questions in the Rosary in a Year reading plan or the Ascension app. You can also find more reflection questions in the Rosary in a Year prayer guide or the Ascension app for your own personal meditation. And then I'm going to offer us a point of prayer and meditation and we'll close again with one decade of the Rosary.

So today's artist is the Blessed. Blessed Fra Angelico, who was a Dominican friar, beatified by Pope St. John Paul II in 1982. Giorgio Vasari, the author of the well-known work, Lives of the Artist, wrote that, It is impossible to bestow too much praise on this Holy Father, who was so humble and modest in all that he did and said, and whose pictures were painted with such facility. In Piety, Frangelico lived from the years 1395 to 1455. So the painting today, the Annunciation, was painted by Frangelico in the mid-1430s as an altarpiece for his side altar in the church of the convent where he lived as a friar. And it remained in this convent for a little under 200

years before it was sold to the King of Spain, and eventually it made its way to the Prado Museum where it is currently on display. Okay, now a little visual description of the painting. In Frangiankos the Annunciation, we have two round archways of a medieval covered porch frame. In the right portal sits the Virgin Mary, and she's wrapped with a vibrant blue robe seated on a golden chair with a small book opened and balanced on her knee. In the left archway an angel with golden wings bows to Mary, with arms folded pointing one foot

directly at her and the other foot fixed on the edge of the stone porch. To the left of the dual arches in the distance, two figures emerge from trees. These figures are Adam and Eve and they are wearing wool-covered garments wrapped in leaves, ushered by another angel with fallen fruit at their feet. Above them in the top left corner of the sun emits light and from a pair of hands in the sun one particularly golden beam makes a straight diagonal line across the garden through an archway and it passes above the genuflecting angel the garden through an archway and it passes above the genuflecting angel and carries the dove directly to the Virgin Mary whose arms are folded against her chest and who makes a partial bow towards both

the angel and the beam. Now while it's not going to be the focus of our meditation today, I think it's really important just to take a moment and recognize the connection Frangelco's making between Adam and Eve and the angel in the garden and the angel Gabriel's appearance to Mary at the Annunciation, right? As a consequence of sin, namely, the sin of disobedience of Adam and Eve, they were driven from the garden by God and then God placed an angel with a flaming sword in the garden, and this angel was tasked with guarding the tree of life. So we have Adam, Eve, and we have the angel, right? In contrast to the Annunciation, an angel is sent from God to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

And through her fiat, through Mary's yes, through her obedience, the disobedience of Eve is undone and the new Adam, Jesus Christ, takes flesh. Jesus, the new Adam who had come to restore what was lost through the sin of the original Adam. Certainly, this is really important to our artists, blessed Frangelco, so I offer it to you just as a point of reflection for your ongoing prayer. Personally, however, what I was most captured by in Frangelco's painting, The Annunciation,

is the disposition of the angel and our lady. I feel like it gives me a new insight into the tone, the disposition of the angel Gabriel and our lady at the Annunciation. And particularly, I'm so struck and fascinated by the reverent bow or genuflection of the angel Gabriel. And there's a moment, right, where the angel received the message, the task from God, but before the announcement has been made,

where the angel knows something about Mary that she doesn't even know about herself. The angel Gabriel appears and the angel, he knows that Mary has been preserved by grace. She is the Immaculate Conception. She is also chosen by God to become the Mother of the Messiah, the Mother of the Word Incarnate. And though she is humble, lowly, handmaid, the archangel Gabriel bows before her. He bows in reverence to her,

and also in reverence to this exact moment in salvation history. And it's from this place, with this disposition, that the angel speaks these words, hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you. And in the painting, Mary returns the gesture. She bows before the angel. She bows before the message of the angel.

And in the painting, Mary returns the gesture. She bows to the messenger, to the angel, and she bows humbly before the message, before the words spoken. And like the angel Gabriel, she also reverently lowers her head. She bows before God and his work in this moment and his election of her. And it is this place of reverence, of humility before the angel Gabriel and before God

that she speaks her response, behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord, be it done unto me according to your word. This whole scene is filled with solemnity and awareness of the gravitas of what is happening and profound reverence, profound reverence. Today as we'll pray, I'm going to invite you to focus on the tone of this moment as portrayed by Fra Angelico. It's a moment of greatest respect and reverence between an angel and a lowly handmaid. Both with gestures of reverence towards one another, but both bowing their heads before God and His election of them and His choice of them to be part of this most

sublime of moments in salvation history, when the Word would become flesh. As you observe this disposition of the angel and Mary to one another and to God, I'm going to ask you to consider what your disposition to God is. How can you grow more in reverence towards Him and His plan for you? Modeling it after Mary's reverence. And now together, let us enter into the reverence, the solemnity of this moment. As with Mary, we pray in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the

fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus. Holy Mary mother of God pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death amen. Hail Mary full of grace the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of Thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace.

The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Hail Mary full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour

of our death. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art Thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of Thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Alright, thanks so much for joining me and praying with me today.

I look forward to continuing this journey with you again tomorrow. Poco Poco, friends. God bless y'all.