The Rosary in a Year (with Fr. Mark-Mary Ames) - Day 240: The Nativity and the Presentation

Episode Date: August 28, 2025

We dive back into the joyful mysteries of the Nativity and the Presentation, drawing upon our mental archive and praying with Fr. Mark-Mary. Fr. Mark-Mary also explores distraction in prayer and how we can handle distractions while praying the rosary. With simplicity and encouragement, we return to the basics: surrendering, refocusing, and letting the repetition of prayer shape us from the inside out. Today’s focus is the mysteries of the Nativity and the Presentation 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 Renewal, and this is the Rosary in a Year podcast. We're 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 240. 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 33-777. 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 recording to the full rosary with myself and other friars. I encourage you to pick up a copy of the Rosary in the Year prayer guide, a book published by Ascension that was designed to compliment this podcast. You'll find all the daily readings for scripture, saint reflections, and beautiful images of the sacred art we'll be reflecting on. today we'll be praying with the third and the fourth at joyful mysteries and the nativity and the presentation of jesus in the temple so for those of you particularly fall along with the rosary your prayer guide at this as we enter into phase five here you have been promised a little bit of guidance and maybe some mentorship in prayer and so throughout these episodes we're going to go ahead

and just answer some basic questions that come up about prayer particularly more longer form meditative prayer like the rosary So a common question is, like, how do I combat distraction while I'm praying the rosary? Distraction is praying the rosary. It's really going to be kind of the same type of distraction that we come across with other distraction and prayer. But whenever we're trying to pay attention to something for an extended period of time, especially nowadays, but it probably wasn't much different back in the day. Here and there, we're going to be distracted. So first we can just kind of distinguish against kind of what we call like willed distraction versus kind of the natural human. and distraction. Kind of willed distraction would be like, okay, I'm, you know, made some dedication to pray the rosary, but I'm going to do it while watching a football game or TV. It's like,

okay, well, did you even try not to be distracted when you had, you know, the 49ers on in the background? Maybe not. So that would be kind of like what we call like a willed distraction. Most of the distractions can be happening in prayers. Like, you're there, you're quiet, you're walking, you're in your car and you're trying to pray, but here or there, different things come up. So the response to that is not to overreact, not to allow the distraction to become a distraction, which can happen as we focus on it, but just like, okay, here it is. Lord, sorry about that. I'm going to refocus. So you just kind of surrender it, let it go, don't beat yourself up for it. Don't dwell on it too much. And then get back to prayer and just continue where you are.

And trust that that's like pleasing to the Lord. And again, my encouragement as we go through the mysteries today is to maybe think back. from your own prayer, your own reading, study, reflection, or something that we've covered up to this point in the rosary in the year journey. And just called to mind a particular focus or emphasis component of the mystery that you haven't focused on in prayer before. And then we'll go ahead and pray with that today. So if you'll take a second to call that to mind. And then we can pray in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. amen the third joyful mystery is the nativity 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

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 God. 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 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 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. O my Jesus, forgive us our sins and save us from the fires of hell and lead all souls to heaven especially those in most need of thy mercy. The fourth, joyful mystery is the presentation of Jesus in the temple.

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 breath. 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 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 woman, 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 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 you. 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, everybody, thanks for much for joining me and praying with me again today. I look forward to continuing this journey with you again tomorrow. Poco, Poca, Poca, friends. God bless y'all. Thank you.