The Rosary in a Year (with Fr. Mark-Mary Ames) - Day 191: Unworthy Yet Welcomed

Episode Date: July 10, 2025

Fr. Mark-Mary reflects on the Nativity, emphasizing the overwhelming joy and sense of unworthiness that can accompany encountering the gift of Jesus. We are invited to contemplate the transformative love offered through the birth of Christ. Using Scripture, sacred imagery, and prayer, we are drawn into an intimate encounter with Jesus, who offers not only salvation but also warmth and affection. Today’s focus is the mystery of the Nativity and we will be praying one decade of the Rosary. 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 191. 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 on behalf of myself and the whole team here at Ascension. We wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone who's helped support this podcast financially. Your support 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 will be meditating upon and praying with the third joyful mystery, the Nativity.

So again, today we will begin with a bit of review calling to mind some of what we've covered up to this point. Now if you call one of our meditations, our early meditations on the Nativity, where we're looking at Luke chapter 2 verses 1 through 20. I shared the story of the man named Fitz. Fitz, who had come to the homeless shelter, just getting out of prison after a number of years. And it's the evening that we are having our Christmas party. And he comes in that night and he joins us and slowly but surely, he kind of sees everything happening.

And then it's his opportunity to go and to get a couple of gifts. And he comes back and the brothers work in the shelter. They find him with his head in his palms, like in tears. And as the brother goes up and say, Hey Fitz, are you okay? He says, it's just too much. It's just too much. It's just too much. And we saw our brother there, our brother Fitz overwhelmed with joy, overwhelmed by the heaviness

of the gift. So aware of his unworthiness, but experiencing so deeply the gift and how right this response is before the nativity. Where we encounter, where we receive the gift, par excellence, the gift of Jesus. My brothers and sisters, it's a joyful gift, but it is a heavy gift. And I can't help but think that Fitz's response to what he received is right and just for us. It is a fitting response before the gift of God, before our Savior Jesus, born in Bethlehem. And in some ways consistent with this theme is the writing, specifically from St. Leo the Great, where he wrote,

Our Savior, dearly beloved, was born today. Let us be glad, for there is no proper place for sadness when we keep the birthday of the life which destroys the fear of mortality and brings us the joy of promised eternity. And I do believe there is this invitation to great joy, joy on behalf of all of history, of all of history, of all of humanity, but also joy for you and me. It is an invitation to a personal joy. And to each of us, St. Leo says these words, there's no proper place for sadness before the nativity. But also we recognize we're all here on a journey.

And that's the place, that's the invitation, that's where we're headed. Perhaps today we don't experience that joy. But can we receive the invitation to be drawn deeper and deeper into this joy of who Jesus is, of what He has come to do, and the joyful news of who He is, of what He has come to do. And that this is truly a cause and source of joy for all of us. And then particularly with our artwork, we took a moment to kind of look at the eyes, to look at the people present. And we saw, for example, in the painting of the Nativity by the artist Pellegrini,

we saw Joseph and Mary and their eyes on Jesus. And the ways in which for Joseph and Mary to Jesus, there is worship, there is adoration. They see before them in the manger their God, their Savior, but also their son, Joseph as foster father, Mary as mother. And then the Nativity. There's this beautiful union before worship and warmth. And that the one they worship, the one who is their God as He grows, Jesus,

He will receive their worship, but He will also offer them not just salvation, but also warmth, that He will deeply and dearly love them both. Love their voices. Love spending time with them. And that is Christians, like here and now particularly in prayer, were offered the opportunity to enter into this place, the scene at the Nativity, to sit at the table in Nazareth, to worship Jesus, to receive his salvation, but also to love God, to love Jesus with warmth and affection, and to receive his love, his affection

for us. Now we're going to slow down. We're going to take a moment resting here. And now I'll invite you to first of all, from what we've reviewed today or anything from your own personal prayer. Today at this moment, what is the truth of God?

What of the heart of God is being revealed that you are being invited to receive. How is God calling need to request? And then rejoice, give thanks for this moment of prayer, for the truth revealed, and the grace communicated, and the share in Jesus' own life that is offered. 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, and thy kingdom come, and 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. 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, 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. and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Okay, so thanks 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.