The Rosary in a Year (with Fr. Mark-Mary Ames) - Day 209: Praying With the Father

Episode Date: July 28, 2026

Today we begin Phase 5: Building Up the Decades. We begin to deepen not only the quantity but especially the quality of our prayer. This next phase is all about growing our capacity for contemplative, relational prayer, poco a poco, little by little. We pray two decades of the Joyful Mysteries, with a special focus on our relationship with God the Father who has made himself known to us, not through a visible face, but through his heart: the one who sees in secret, who hears us, delights in us, and is always with us. Today’s focus is the mysteries of the Annunciation and Visitation and we will be praying two decades 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 the 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 the Year is brought to you by Ascension. This is day 209. To download the prayer plan for Rosary in a year, visit ascensionpress.com forward slash Rosary in a year or text, R-I-Y-2-777. You'll get an outline of how we're going to pray each month,

great way to track your progress. The best place to listen to the podcast is in the Ascension app. Their 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. All right, everybody, welcome back. We have just

completed phase four. Congratulations, everybody who's made it this far. Thank you again for persevering in this journey with me. Now we are going to be beginning phase five, building up the decades. And so what we'll be doing here is slowly but surely, poco, poco, poco, if you will, like, just practicing, like, prayer, practicing meditation, and applying to prayer, like what we have discussed and covered up to this point while building up our capacity. So we're going to start again small and focused at the service of depth. But little by little, as we go through phase five and then into phase six, we're going to be building up the amount of decades.

We're going to be praying at each time. How we're going to begin, though, phase five is going to be like somewhat of a callback all the way back to the very beginning of our journey. If you recall, in our introduction to the rosary, I pulled from what I had been taught by one of our founders, Father Andrew Apostley, in his class and his encouragement with the rosary, he was reminding us and teaching us that we want to be focused on one of or a collection of these three things in prayer, the one to whom we are speaking, the words which we are saying, and the mystery that we are meditating upon with, I would say the foundational one is like the relational part, that we're not just

you know, talking on a phone that's not plugged into the wall or doesn't have any service. Like, our prayer is heard and our prayers in relationship. We're not alone in our prayer. And then with that, like, we can focus on, you know, the words and or the mysteries. And so what I'm going to be, how we're going to begin is this is really, really just practicing the relational components of our prayer and really, really focusing on the fact that we're not in it alone. And so for this first 10 episodes of the building up the decades, we're going to be praying two decades together.

But what we're going to be doing is focusing on particular relationships. So today we're going to focus on being in a relationship with the father. Tomorrow, the son, the next day, the Holy Spirit, the next day, the entire Trinity. And then lastly, being in a relationship with Mary. And we'll repeat this twice and then we'll move on to the words and then bringing in a all together. So for today, we're going to really focus these two decades on our relationship with the father. What hasn't been revealed, you could say, is like the physical face of God the father. Certainly, we have a lot of artwork we can pull from if that's helpful. But what we do

have very clear access to is the heart of our father, which has been revealed to us, particularly through his son. And who do we know the father to be? One who sees in secret, when who sees us. one who is with us, one who loves to give his children good gifts, one who loves to hear our voice, one who delights in us, and one who always hears us. And we know this, right, because we have access to the father, like in the sun. We have the same relationship with him. So I'm going to invite you to find your space. This could be the beach.

this could be the lake, this could be your favorite prayer spot or chapel, dinner table. And to really what we could say, not just imagine that the father is there with you, but no, he is. Not create a reality, but pierce the reality. So you become aware of the reality. So no, right now the father sees you. He hears you. He rejoices in you. He knows your heart.

and he is with you. And the remaining and resting here, let us bring to him our hearts, bring to him our adoration, bring to him our needs as we pray with Mary. In the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. The first joyful mystery is the enunciation,

our Father, who art in heaven, howlode 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 are 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 are 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, of God. 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 are 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 sun and to the Holy Spirit,

as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end, amen. O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, bring all souls to heaven, especially those in most need of thy mercy. Before the second mystery, we'll refocus, ask for the Lord's grace

to remain just in the presence of our Lord's grace, to remain just in the presence of our father and aware of his presence. The second joyful mystery is the visitation. 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, 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 first of the first.

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 are 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 are 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 are 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 are 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 are 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 are 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 are 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. O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, and lead all souls to heaven, especially those in most need of thy mercy. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. All right, thanks everybody for joining me, for praying with me. Today, I look forward to continuing this journey with you again tomorrow. Poca, poco, poco, friends.

God bless y'all.