The Rosary in a Year (with Fr. Mark-Mary Ames) - Day 137: Medium Reveals Meaning

Episode Date: May 17, 2025

Jesus is the light of the world, shown so clearly through the mystery of the Transfiguration. Fr. Mark-Mary draws on the symbolism found in today’s art medium, stained glass, to meditate on Jesus who illuminates the world for us. Today’s focus is the mystery of the Transfiguration 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.

Father Mark Murray with Franciscan Friars The 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 137. To download the prayer plan for Rosary in a Year, visit AscensionPress.com forward slash rosaryinayear 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 podcasts 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. On behalf of myself and the whole team here at Ascension, we wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has helped support this podcast financially. Your generosity is so appreciated and helps us to reach as many people as possible. And if you haven't already, please consider supporting us at ascensionpress.com forward

slash support. Today we'll be meditating upon and praying with the fourth Luminous Mystery, the Transfiguration. With help from a stained glass window of the Transfiguration, which is located in a church in Vienna, Austria, the name of the church in English is the Votive Church. All right, brief introduction to our artwork. The artist is unknown. The stained glass window, it's housed in, it's called the Votive Kirche in Vienna, which means the votive church, which is a neo-Gothic cathedral designed by Heinrich von Furstel.

And it was completed in the year 1879. So it's a stained glass window in a neo-gothic style. Now a description of our piece of artwork today. It's a three panel stained glass window. In the center, Jesus stands elevated emanating a dazzling light. His figures wrapped by a glowing, ethereal aura that is white and gold and wrapped in an oval rainbow. His clothes are white with shimmering gold trimmings

on either side of Jesus, the figures of Moses and Elijah appear. Their faces turn towards him with reverence. Above them are three angelic faces with wings and below the apostles Peter, James and John on the grassy peak of a mountain, shown falling over in awe, their expressions a mixture of astonishment and fear. All of the details are rendered in deep colors and vibrant tones, except for Jesus, who stands out as a bright, pure light in the center. Jesus is the light of the world.

Jesus is the light of the world. And the fourth luminous mystery, right, the transfiguration, it is the mystery of light par excellence. It is here that Jesus, the light of the world, for a brief moment in time, he suspends the veiling of His divine luminosity through His sacred humanity. It is here that Jesus, the light of the world, for a brief moment in time, suspends the veiling of His divine luminosity done through His sacred humanity, and He is transfigured before His chosen apostles.

His light breaks through, proclaiming that He is the light of the world. He is the light that fulfills the law and the prophets. He is the light who illumines our minds with the fullness of truth about God and all of creation and ourselves. He is the source and He is the summit of all lights. Our artwork today, which depicts the transfiguration, which depicts this mystery of light par excellence, does so in a medium, which is founded

on this theological reality, the symbolism or the spirituality, perhaps we could say, of stained glass, it points to God being the light of the world. And as the sun is the light which passes through the glass, illuminating and revealing its meaning, in a sense, like you could say, maybe like it gives birth to their scenes and their beauty and meaning. So is God himself himself who is the light by which we see all other light.

The light of God, his being, his beauty, his truth, it is revealed in creation and you and me. He is the light in which all other lights share. He is the source and the summit of all lights. In our depiction of the stained glass window that we're looking at today, we see the light passing through Moses and Elijah. And as a newly rising sun,

it already illuminates the stained glass, but it doesn't do so yet with the full warmth or full vibrancy. So too, we already see in the law and the prophets, the light of Christ shining through, but it's like a daybreak. It will not be until Christ that the light of the noon day sun is going to radiate the fullness of its light. It's not until Christ the fullness of the light is revealed, right, and the fullness of its warmth and its vibrancy.

So as a rising sun, yes, it reveals already like it's the noonday sun. It's in the noonday sun. It's in Christ that the fullness of light and worth and beauty shine through all of creation. And to sit before this light, to sit before Christ, it's like sitting before an image or window of stained glass on a warm and sunny day. Like we are bathed in its light.

We are warmed by His light. And it's light, it doesn't just allow us to see. His light makes everything it passes beautiful, meaningful. It allows it to fulfill the end for which it was crafted, created. It is fulfilled and glorified. In his light and as we like Peter, James and John today, like place ourselves before our transfigured Lord. Let us be bathed in his light

and let us hear him speak this promise to us. As the sun beautifies and glorifies stained glass, so will I beautify and glorify you by giving you a share in my own divine life. As we experience today, the frailty, perhaps the coldness we call maybe the darkness of our frail humanity. Let us place that before his light.

And before the light of Christ, let us find hope and confidence and light in His divinity. And now with Mary, let us 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. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. All right. 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 you all.