The Rosary in a Year (with Fr. Mark-Mary Ames) - Day 3: Heart of Jesus

Episode Date: January 3, 2025

What do you feel when you are in the presence of Jesus? Freedom and comfort, or is there some apprehension or anxiety? Today, we journey with Fr. Mark-Mary to Jesus’ workshop, practicing imaginative meditation to use when we pray the Rosary. Today’s focus is “Heart of Jesus, patient and full of mercy,” 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 Fr. Mark Mary with Franciscan Friars with 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 three. 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. Today, we're going to continue practicing connecting to Jesus in prayer. We want our prayer, whatever kind of prayer it is, to be an experience and an expression of relationship. I'm not just talking to myself or a statue, right, that doesn't see me or hear me or, most importantly, love me. That's just not prayer. Prayer is an encounter with the living God. Yesterday, we visited Jesus the King in his throne room and emphasized the truth that Jesus knows your name. He sees you and he loves to hear your voice.

With the grace of the Holy Spirit, we want this to be our starting point when we pray. Jesus is looking at me. He hears me and he loves me. The Catechism describes meditation as a quest. And today's meditation continues our quest to find and receive the fullness of the answer to these questions. Jesus, who are you? Jesus, what is your heart like? And Jesus, what is your heart like for me? And our starting point for this ongoing contemplation of the face of Jesus,

which is one way to understand this quest of understanding who he is, the ongoing contemplation of the face of Jesus. We're going to start like we did yesterday using the litany of the sacred heart. Name with the invocation, heart of Jesus, patient and full of mercy. Instead of returning to the throne room of the victorious king today, I'd invite you to go with me to the workshop where Joseph taught Jesus his own trade. The details of this workshop you can create with your own imagination. this first century workshop in Nazareth to have the floors and the walls made of a variety of dirt and stone and wood. Each of the walls has windows

that are wide open and the sunlight is flowing in with the breeze. So just go ahead and take a moment to picture it to feel the breeze. So just go ahead and take a moment to picture it to feel the breeze. And around the room are a variety of tools. There's wood carving scattered across the floor and their aroma fills the room. Now you're in the workshop because Jesus invited you to join him to make some wood candlesticks for Mary.

He said, do you want to make some candlesticks for mom? Yeah, let's do it. As we begin, take a moment to picture the face of Jesus. To do this, you can use your own imagination or you can maybe find a favorite image of yours, the face of Jesus. But picture his face. And as he begins getting the materials and the tools ready, notice his hands, the dirt under his fingernails, the calluses. These are the hands of a working man.

So at this point, I'm going to enter into the meditation in like the first person, and I'll invite you to do the same, to place yourself in the scene as Jesus is getting things ready. I mentioned to him, Jesus is like, all right, I'm here to help make candlesticks with you, but I don't know what I'm doing, right?

Especially not with first century tools. And I see Jesus simply smile. It's a knowing smile. And he says, I know, I know. I'm going to teach you and I'm not going anywhere. We'll do it together. And as we're working, we both have matching pieces of wood and tools, maybe a chisel, a hammer. At the beginning, he teaches and he models to me the right technique. And then we both begin working away, chiseling at our individual wood pieces. And each of Jesus's swings with his hammer are masterful. He knows exactly what he's doing, confident, sure. Mine, on the other hand, each of my swings is awkward you know it's lacking both confidence and experience and I imagine us working this way in quiet for maybe a number of hours and I'm

really focused on what I'm doing but also like keenly aware that I'm not alone like that he's with me that he's overseeing my work and we'll step out of the scene for a moment. And I'm just going to ask you to reflect on how your heart would feel in this setting. Like emotionally, what are you feeling as you're there working, trying something new in Jesus's presence? You're in Jesus's presence. Do you feel pressure to get it right? Is there a stress, is there a need to keep pace with Jesus? Are you looking at how he's doing and trying to keep up? As you miss it with your own hammer and chisel, do you look to see if he saw it, hoping he didn't?

If you make a mistake and scar the piece of wood, do you try and quickly cover it up, hiding it from him? Because your heart, experiencing anxiety, stress. Or in the presence of Jesus, working away at something new, do you experience peace and freedom? The peace of not being in a hurry, the peace of not being in a hurry,

the peace of having the freedom to make mistakes. As Jesus watches you, do you experience his gaze upon you as critical and accusatory? Or patient and full of mercy? The objective reality is the heart of Jesus is patient and full of mercy. Are you in his presence and touch and living in this reality? As I'm reflecting on this, I think to some of my own experiences of working around other people.

I experience this sometimes when I'm driving in the car too, like a stress. I don't want to make a mistake. And I'm like more focused on not making a mistake. And so sometimes it makes me like hurry and make a mistake. And that's just, I know, I know that's not what Jesus wants me to experience around him. And so as I'm in the tool shop with Jesus, I feel, at least like I want to feel, at least in this time of meditation, I feel peace and freedom.

Like Jesus just is not in a hurry. He knows this is new to me. He doesn't expect me to figure it out right away. I'm not his first student either. And perhaps I experience some impatience while I'm chiseling away the piece of my wood. And perhaps I'm like, I'm swinging it and I break it in half, right? He sees it. And I noticed how, how just gently and patiently and tenderly he asked him, okay. And he goes to get another piece. As he gets me a new piece of wood, I'm struck that

he grabs himself a new piece. We both start over like together. As I'm there, you know, working away at some point, I'm just like, hey, Jesus, hey, I know I'm slowing you down. If you want to make these yourself, I can step out. I totally get it. I understand.

I'm holding you back. And, you know, I see Jesus just looking at me with his merciful and his understanding eyes. And he says, hey, I'm in no hurry. I love spending time with you. And I love that you're spending time with me. And Jesus says, hey, can I let you in on a little secret? I said, yeah, of course.

And he says, referring to Mary, you know, like mom wants us to spend time together more than she wants these new candlesticks. In fact, us just spending time together is the greatest gift that we can give to her as well. This is the heart of Jesus patient and full of mercy. Not in a hurry, not put off by our mistakes, Just with us. Jesus with us, teaching us. And he's here to journey with us as long as it takes for us to learn. Now, my friends, my hope is that you've been able to enter into this meditation. Even to the point of experiencing, maybe from within, the emotions of your heart.

How would you actually feel? How would you respond to learning something new in the presence of Jesus? Can you feel peace? Can you feel freedom to learn at your own pace, to make mistakes? He's just with you on the journey as long as it takes. you on the journey as long as it takes? Can you experience in his presence his patience and his heart full of mercy? Do you see that the project is secondary?

What's primary is us being in relationship with him. I realize that for some of us because of us be in relationship with him. I realize that for some of us, because of our life experience, like that just might not be the reality. So start there. Tell him about that.

Be in the woodshop. If you're stressed, if you're anxious, if you're uncomfortable, if you want him to leave so you can sort of figure it out by yourself, tell him that. Now, if I can get a little bit more specific, my hope is that we can experience this freedom and bring it to our prayer always,

particularly in this context when we're praying the rosary. As Jesus isn't worried about the perfection of the candlesticks, he's not worried about the perfection of the form of your prayer. It's okay if we get distracted sometimes or lose count, struggle to meditate, maybe even fall asleep sometimes. Our prayer in general and our praying of the rosary, it's just not something that we need to execute with perfect form and concentration. We don't just have to get it right. But we want to pray. We want to pray the rosary certainly as well as possible, but most importantly, like with a perfect love and trust.

We have permission to be beginners. We have time to learn. Jesus is patient. It's okay if we make mistakes. Jesus is full of mercy. But it's not okay just to give up, right? It's not okay just to stop praying. We need to remain with him.

So that's my hope as we begin our journey of praying the rosary, if we can have that experience of learning to pray or going deeper in prayer as we might working with Jesus in the woodshop. We're so close to him. We're so aware of his presence. He sees us, but he looks upon us and he looks upon our prayer and receives it with a heart that is patient and a heart full of mercy.

So as we close today with our Father and our Hail Marys and our Glory Be, I just really So as we close today with our Father and our Hail Marys and our Glory Be, I just really, I mean, invite you to kind of lock in on this experience, to continue to focus, to pray with it, to reflect on it. So that as we come to prayer again and again and again, particularly, you know, each day during this Rosary in a Year podcast, that as we are praying, we are doing so in the presence of Jesus. Aware of him, he knows us, he loves us,

and he looks upon us with a heart full of patience and mercy. Asking to remain in this reality, to be able to remember this reality every time we pray. Let us pray today. 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. 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. All right. Thanks for joining me and praying with me today. I look forward to continuing this journey with you again tomorrow. All right. Poker, poker, friends. God bless y'all.