The Rosary in a Year (with Fr. Mark-Mary Ames) - Day 144: Done in Secret

Episode Date: May 24, 2025

Repeatedly in the Gospels, Jesus goes off alone to pray to the Father, telling us, “pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” While meditating on today’s painting, The Resurrection of Christ by Annibale Carracci, Fr. Mark-Mary draws out the hidden nature of the Resurrection. Today’s focus is the mystery of the Resurrection 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 of 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 144. 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 complement 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 glorious mystery, the resurrection. With help from the painting, the resurrection of Christ by the artist Anovalde Carracci. And a brief introduction to our artist, the artist Anovalde Carracci, born in the year 1560, died in the year 1609, and he was a prominent Italian painter who played a crucial role in the transition from Mannerism to Baroque art. The painting we're going to be looking at, The Resurrection of Christ, which is in the Louvre, was done in the year 1593.

The style of our painting today, it's early Baroque, showcasing key elements of the emerging Baroque aesthetic, dynamic composition with figures arranged on diagonals to create a sense of movement and tension, and strong use of chiaroscuro for dramatic effect and naturalistic representation combined with idealized forms. And now the visual description. description. In this domed painting, Jesus emerges at the top of the painting, bright and emitting a yellow aura. His right arm is raised and his left hand grasps a pole with a cross, his eyes looking towards the heavens. He is wearing a single cloth around his waist that weightlessly floats along with him. He is surrounded by thick clouds and a cluster of angels. Below him is a dark scene.

Littered with soldiers, some shielded themselves reflexively from the glory side of Jesus. One sleeps soundly atop a sealed sarcophagus. The vanishing point shows a glimpse of the first light of dawn. As I've been praying here with our painting of the resurrection of Christ, what I want us to reflect upon and focus on today is the sealed tomb and the eyes of Jesus. It makes me think of Jesus's words from his sermon on the Mount in Matthew, Chapter six, when he's teaching his disciples, specifically teaching them how to pray.

What does he say? He says, Go into your inner room, shut the door and pray to the Father. And he who sees what is done in secret will reward you. And in a certain sense, I see this being done perfectly by Jesus here, right? Throughout his life, he remained with his eyes and his heart and his will fixed on the father. Right, how often he would go off early in the morning to pray to his father before calling the 12, he went off and he prayed to the father

before the tomb of his dear friend Lazarus. He spoke to the father saying, you hear me, I know you always hear me. And if you recall, as we noted in the garden during his agony, he prayed like three times, My Father, My Father, My Father. Then we find him on the cross where he remains in dialogue in prayer and trust the Father as she shared his sorrow. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? As he prays, Father, forgive them into your hands.

I commend my spirit. We could see like his eyes always raised to his father. And then he breathed his last. And what happens? His body was taken down from the cross and placed in an inner room, right? He was taken down from the cross and placed in an inner room. Right. He was taken to the tomb and the tomb was sealed. The door was shut.

And then the father, like in secret, rewarded him. He raised him from the dead. About this act, the catechism in paragraph 648, it describes this by saying like the father's power raised up Christ, his son. The resurrection, it was done in secret between father, son and Holy Spirit. And I understand like the resurrected body, like Jesus was made known, the resurrected Christ was made known, but the resurrection itself took place in

secret behind the closed door of the sealed tomb. And what we can say happened there is the Father who sees what is done in secret, the Father who sees The Father who sees what is done in secret, the Father who sees, rewarded the Son. The Father was faithful. The Son was always faithful and trusting, even trusting unto death. And the Father was faithful in keeping His promise in the resurrection. A promise fulfilled in a sealed tomb. And that's why I want to highlight the eyes of Jesus in our sealed tomb. And that's why I want to highlight

the eyes of Jesus in our painting today, this painting of the resurrection. Notice his eyes remain looking up. Like focused, locked with the father. And the son during his earthly life, he didn't have to look at himself. And by that I mean, like he didn't have to try and take care of Himself. He kept His eyes always on the Father and He always said and lived,

Father, Thy will be done. And Jesus doesn't trust the Father in vain. He is risen. He is victorious. I would say the spirit of the exhortations on the Sermon of the Mount, like to do these things in secret, to pray in secret, to give in secret, like they're an invitation to trust in the Father that He sees you, that He hears you, and that He's got you.

You will receive your reward, maybe not here now with like tangible worldly reward, but in the gift of grace, through a deeper receptivity of the gift of the Holy Spirit, God's own life in us, and in the resurrection. The father who sees what is done in secret, the father who sees the suffering in secret, he will reward you. And his ultimate reward is the share in the resurrection of the son. This is our inheritance. This is your inheritance.

So let us too, with Jesus, let us too, like Mary, just keep our eyes focused on Him. Focused on the Father, our hope focused, totally given over to the Father and our wills in union with His. We don't need to look around and see what everyone else is doing, this thing or that thing, or like we stay focused, trusting on the Father and that if we are faithful, if we do His will,

He will reward us by raising us in the Son. 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 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. All right. Thank you so much for joining me and praying with me today. I look forward to continuing this journey with you again tomorrow. Poco a poco, friends. God bless you all.