The Rosary in a Year (with Fr. Mark-Mary Ames) - Day 142: Truly the Son of God

Episode Date: May 22, 2025

Pieter Bruegel’s painting, The Procession to Calvary, is distinctly filled with Roman soldiers. Fr. Mark-Mary leads us in a meditation focusing on the Roman soldiers observing the carrying of the cross, and relates it to his modern day experience of different reactions to Jesus in New York. Today’s focus is the mystery of the Carrying of the Cross 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 Fr. 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 142. 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 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. No matter what app you're listening in, remember to tap follow or subscribe for your daily notifications. Today we will be meditating upon and praying with the fourth sorrowful mystery, the carrying of the cross with help from a painting by Peter Bruchel

entitled The Procession to Calvary. Now a brief introduction into our artist and our artwork. His name is Peter Bruchel the Elder, born around the year 1525 to 1530. He died in the year 1569 and he lived in Antwerp and Brussels. This painting was done in the year 1564 and its style is the style of the Northern Renaissance which was a period of cultural and artistic flourishing in Europe from the mid 15th century to the 16th century and it was a time of renewed interest in classical learning, humanism, and individualism. Now a description of our painting. A vista of Rocky Hills is densely populated with clusters of people who are all busy. There are groups walking and fighting and in rapt discussion. The scene is filled with soldiers on horseback, children, animals, wagons, thieves, and people

waving flags. A group highlighted at the front gathers around a mourning woman, the Blessed Mother, who The blessed mother who is leaning over in sorrow as she clasps her hands, wearing what appears to be a habit and a veil. Around her a young man, St. John, reaches out to comfort her, and a young woman, St. Mary Magdalene, kneels concerned at her side, and another buries her head in weeping. Black birds dot the sky and an animal skull is perched on the hillside. And now on to our reflection. I think certainly a clear characteristic of Ruchel's painting. Ruchel, I believe, is the correct pronunciation. I'm asking you

characteristic of Broughal's painting. Broughal, I believe, is the correct pronunciation. I'm asking you two for help with some of these names, trying not to embarrass myself and frustrate you art historians out there. So a key characteristic of Broughal's painting here that we have the procession to Calvary is the time period it's set in, right? The clothing, the windmill, the details, the wagon, they all place Jesus carrying the cross in Brachos' own time. And I think a second detail of note to me as I look at this is the sheer quantity of soldiers, right? In reality, these are Roman soldiers, but in the painting, these are soldiers

who are wearing hats and red jackets proper to soldiers of the artist's own time. And what these two details make me think of, like immediately, is the way of the cross that my own community does every Good Friday. My own community referring to my religious order, the Franciscan friars of the renewal. And every Good Friday, so a large number of friars, there might be 50, 60, 70 friars, and a large number of religious sisters,

maybe 20 or 30 of them, and another 100 or so lay people, we all joined together at a friary in Harlem. And then we process, led by a large cross, which the friars take turns carrying, through the streets of Harlem into the South Bronx, to our friary in the South Bronx, with the help of a large contingent of NYPD officers. And the officers, they escort us and they guide traffic

as we make our about two mile sort of modern day way of the cross to commemorate and to pray on Good Friday. And as we process, our group prays the stations of the cross, and we pray the rosary, and we pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet. And as we're going and as we're praying, some members of our group talk to people along the way, and they pray with, and they hand out religious cards or rosaries to, you know, it really is like the hundreds, maybe even more than that,

people that we encounter as we make our way through these busy New York streets. And it is, it's always interesting to note the wide variety of responses. There's a lot of people of great faith, and they come out and they just say that they love Jesus, and thank you Jesus, and they shout it unabashedly. Some of them, like this year, even like coming to tears, as this just evokes their love of Jesus and what He did for them. Many folks these days, like, don't really engage the meaning of what we're doing. They don't really ask any questions of it.

They simply document it, right, as they pull out their phones and take a video. Some do ask questions, some offer challenges, particularly those who are not Catholic. And then some just kind of shout insults for a variety of reasons. Some just frustrated because we're holding up traffic. But the people who we pass, they typically, you know, as they're on the sidewalk or on the corner seeing us go, they only encounter our public devotion for maybe a minute or two at the most. But the outsiders who will, those who aren't part of, you know, the Friar's Sisters, the lay people here of devotion, who are with us for the entirety of the walk, however, are our police escorts. And we've been doing this for like, I don't know, 20 years now. And the NYPD officers who are with us, they always have a very wide variety of responses from, you know, like professionally,

just doing their jobs to actually praying with us. Right. Some get it. Some receive the gift being offered. Some don't. Some remain distant and aloof, kind of making small talk with one another, sort of pretending like what's happening next to them isn't happening at all, distancing themselves from it. Some don't really show any signs of how it's impacting them, but you can tell like they're taking it in, thinking about what it means,

wrestling with the questions it asks. Again, some, I particularly hopefully moved by our own kindness towards them and gratitude towards them and the sincerity of our devotion and even our obedience to them as needs be, they get drawn in, even to the point of towards the end you see some of them themselves carrying rosaries that we gave them, like praying along with us.

Like some of them do, in fact, like receive the gift being offered. And this all now brings me back to our painting and what reminds us about the passion of our Lord. Throughout his passion, right, from his arrest, to his trial, to his scourging, to his crowning of thorns, to hear the carrying of the cross to Calvary, and finally his crucifixion. There were Roman guards. There were the Roman guard witnesses. And what I'm going to ask you to do is to imagine yourself in the place of a Roman guard.

Someone who's maybe only just heard some stories about Jesus, isn't familiar with the prophecies about the Messiah, isn't familiar with Jewish devotion, never met this man or anybody he has grew up with, grew up with a very radically different worldview. We've heard the story of the passion of Jesus, the crucifixion of Jesus so many times. Perhaps we've prayed the stations of the cross

or the fourth sorrowful mystery so many times that we just get used to it. And my hope today, like my invitation today is that by putting yourself in the place of the Roman soldiers who journey with Jesus in his passion, you can try with Mary's help to reflect upon it all and to see it all as if it's the very first time. Again, if you didn't already know the end of the story,

if you didn't already know who Jesus was, if you'd never heard Jesus preached. As you're taking this all in, in some ways a scene that you've seen many times unfold with different people, but here happening in a unique way, in a different way, particularly the response of the condemned man, the devotion of his mother. Like what do you experience? What do you think? Are you sort of hardening your heart in shame? Are you disinterested?

Or would you like the centurion in Matthew 27 verse 54, be a witness of all that unfolds and be brought to faith, saying truly, this was the Son of God. 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 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 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 again today. I look forward to continuing this journey with you again tomorrow. Alright, Poco Poco friends. God bless you all.