The Rosary in a Year (with Fr. Mark-Mary Ames) - Day 27: The Spirit Prepares Us

Episode Date: January 27, 2025

Fr. Mark-Mary shares his personal testimony on the Holy Spirit’s influence in his life and encourages us to look for the Holy Spirit’s presence in our own lives. He explains how meditating on the words of the Creed and the mysteries of the Rosary can lead us to greater understanding and faith as the Holy Spirit works through us. Today’s focus is “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints,” and we will be praying one Our Father, three Hail Marys, and one Glory Be. 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 27. To download the prayer plan for Rosary in the Year, visit ascensionpress.com forward slash rosary in the 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. 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 compliment this podcast. You'll find all the daily readings from scripture, Saint reflections, and beautiful full page

images of the sacred art we'll be reflecting on. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints. As we've grown accustomed at this point, we'll root our reflection on these articles of the Creed with a reading from scripture. So this is John chapter 14 verse 25. by name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid." You know, it's been about 15 years now, over 15 years,

that I've been trying to follow the Lord as the Franciscan friar of the renewal. And one of the works of grace, one of the big works of grace over this time is a greater awareness and clarity about what specifically the Holy Spirit has been doing in my life. The Holy Spirit in so many ways was working, but kind of working undercover. The big beginning of the Holy Spirit's work in my life, of course, happened at baptism. At baptism, you know, the Most Holy Trinity comes to dwell in my soul and I receive sanctifying grace

and I am washed from original sin and receive the gift of faith. This is the work of the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit, particularly acting through faith, has continued to be at work in my life in so many ways. And one of the works of the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit allows us to see deeper than our eyes can just see

or deeper than just our senses and to understand with a greater understanding than we can achieve by human reason alone. You know, for example, I believe that the Scriptures are the Word of God. When I look at them with my senses and reflect on them just with human understanding, it looks like a lot of other books. But I believe, I believe to the core of my being that this is in fact like the revealed

Word of God and that the wisdom it contains, it's more than just the best efforts of smart and wise human beings. Like over and over and over again, as I have heard someone preach the Word of God or read the Word of God or if I prayed with the Word of God and I have experienced God, something of the life of God has been communicated to me and has changed the trajectory of my life, has transformed me, has brought me to a greater repentance, has allowed me to me and has changed the trajectory of my life, has transformed me, has brought me to a greater repentance, has allowed me to really experience the living God. This ability to see deeper and to know with a greater understanding, like to know with

faith, like this is a work of the Holy Spirit. So there's so many people, right, who had a great experience with the Bible in your podcast like this, coming to this and experiencing it as the word of God, coming hungry and thirsting for grace. This, my brothers and sisters, this is a work of the Holy Spirit in you. This is what the Catechism says, kind of touching on that. This is paragraph 737.

The Spirit manifests the risen Lord to them, recalls His word to them and opens their minds to the understanding of his death and resurrection. He makes present the mystery of Christ, supremely in the Eucharist. This is the Holy Spirit fulfilling the promise that Jesus made back in the Gospel of John chapter 14, that he will send the Holy Spirit and that the Holy Spirit will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

And look at this language about remembrance and how it connects to the Most Holy Eucharist. Do this in remembrance of me. And personally, the transformative love, the love that has changed the trajectory of my whole life. Is my love of the Most Holy Eucharist. When I look at the Eucharist just with my human eyes, I see what everybody sees, a very, very, very humble piece of bread.

But through the Holy Spirit at work in me, I know that is Jesus. Again and again and again, I've experienced this in my reception of the Most Holy Eucharist or in my time of Eucharistic adoration. The Holy Spirit at work in me allows me to come and to receive and to be transformed by this sacrament. In paragraph 737, the catechism also says this, the Spirit prepares men and goes out to them with His grace in order to draw them to Christ. Back when I was 18 years old and I was going to college, for the first time I was kind of really

starting to lose my way. And one evening, during my first semester there, I started to have a conversation with a young adult woman who said she was an atheist, who said she didn't believe. And I started to defend the faith and defend the word of God. And my brothers and sisters, like a lightning bolt, I was struck to the heart. I was struck to the heart and the lights went on.

And when the Lord spoke to me, he's like, I just knew, I believe. I believe and it needs to affect my whole life. This one conversation at a dorm party literally changed the whole trajectory of my life. This is what the Holy Spirit at work in my life has looked like. A few months later, there was a speaker just kind of in passing mentioning something about Mother Teresa.

And again, I was struck to the heart and with tears. I just received the beginning of my vocation and I had this deep, deep, deep conviction that I was made to give my life to the poorest of the poor and nothing else would satisfy this. My brothers and sisters is the work of the Holy Spirit. This is the Holy Spirit preparing men and going out to them with His grace and drawing them to Christ. I received so many of these graces and again and again and again,

I failed to be a good steward of them. Like the prodigal son, I took my inheritance, the inheritance even of my faith, and squandered it. And again and again and again, I have returned to the Father and it was the grace of the Holy Spirit giving me hope to return to the Lord, particularly to the sacrament of reconciliation. And the priest spoke these words over me as I went to confession, I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

And under this and in the sacrament and all this whole movement, it was the Holy Spirit remind me that I have a Father who is good and merciful, who brought me back to the Father. And so this is part of how the Lord gives us a peace greater than the world can give. So my brothers and sisters, as we are struggling, perhaps with faith,

as you come to the word of God and maybe you don't have understanding or there's doubts, if your heart has perhaps grown cold in prayer or before the most holy Eucharist. If you're tempted to despair discouragement under the weight of your sin or under the weight of a variety of human sufferings. Our prayer is this. Come Holy Spirit, come Holy Spirit, come Holy Spirit. Renew us, teach us, inflame us with love, grant us peace, grant us hope. Come, Holy Spirit. Come, Holy Spirit, in inviting the Holy Spirit to all areas of our lives, 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.

Glory be to the Father, and to 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. All right, everybody, thanks so much for joining me and praying with me again today. Look forward to continuing this journey with you again tomorrow. Poco a P poco, friends. All right. God bless you all.