The Rosary in a Year (with Fr. Mark-Mary Ames) - Day 52: My Eyes Have Seen Salvation

Episode Date: February 21, 2025

Simeon’s words at the Presentation of the Lord, “Now let your servant depart in peace according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation,” are said around the world every day by religious and lay people alike in Compline, also known as Night Prayer. Fr. Mark-Mary shares the story of a blind man who truly knew what it meant to see his savior with the eyes of faith, inviting us to pray our Rosary for true sight like Simeon. Today’s focus is the mystery of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple 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 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 52. 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's 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 want 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. The fourth joyful mystery is the presentation of Jesus in the temple.

Luke chapter 2 verses 22 through 39. And when the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, as it is written in the law of the Lord, every male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord, and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtle-doves or two young pigeons. Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon,

and this man was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And inspired by the Spirit, he came into the temple. And when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him according to the custom of the law, it took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, Lord, now let your servant depart in peace according to your word. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to

your people Israel." And his father and mother marveled at what was said about him, and Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is spoken against, and a sword will pierce through your own soul also, that thoughts out of many hearts may be revealed. And there was a prophetess Anna, the daughter of Phanuel of the tribe of Asher. She was of great age, having lived with her husband seven years from her virginity, and

as a widow till she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. And coming up at that very hour she gave thanks to God and spoke of Him to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem. And when they had performed everything according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee to their own city, Nazareth. And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom, and the favor of God was upon him. All right. So what we have here is we call the presentation of Jesus in the temple.

And Mary and Joseph, his faithful Jewish parents, are bringing their firstborn son to the temple to present him to the Lord with an offering. And also what we have highlighted is this encounter that Simeon has and Anna has with a Savior for whom they were waiting. And this Canticle of Simeon, which is what Simeon prays after he meets the Christ as he meet Jesus, which in the scripture here says, now let your servant depart in peace. It always takes me back to our homeless shelter in the Bronx, St. Anthony's Shelter. I served there for a couple of years throughout seminary and then as a priest. And the Canical of Simeon is a prayer that is prayed with night prayer with Copeland,

the prayer that we pray every night. And in the homeless shelter, we have kind of a chapel. We have a custom of inviting guys, let them know. It's always open. They can always pray there. And there's one of the men there, we'll call him Ray. When Ray came into the shelter, he was a little bit older than most of the guys who come to us.

He was in his early seventies, late sixties. He was a very, very devout and faithful Baptist. And he was blind. And one of the things I learned through my time with Ray, I guess, is just that not all blindness is the same. And so, like, he couldn't really see faces, he couldn't see street signs, like, he got around just through kind of memorizing. But it wasn't, like, totally nothing. And one of the things that Ray grew to love was praying complin with whoever the brother was on duty.

And so he'd come and he joined the brother and Ray ended up being with us for a long time. And as time went on, what the brothers did is they made him like a personal night prayer binder. And so they had the words of Compline like printed out super, super large, like maybe you could fit like one maybe even half of a sentence on a page. And he'd get out the binder and he'd hold it like right under his nose, as close as it can get.

And every night, every night, one of my very, very favorite things about working at the shelter was every night praying compilin, praying night prayer with Ray. And hearing this homeless but devout blind man say these words at the end of the day, Lord, now let your servant depart in peace according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation. I just found it so beautiful, again, that this elderly, homeless, blind man prayed these

words with absolute faith and conviction. Ray would be with us for a while. Eventually, the grace of God would continue to work in his heart, and he would request to go through RCIA and to join the church, eventually being receiving confirmation, First Holy Communion and being received fully into full communion with the Catholic Church. And later on, I would ask Ray, you know, like, what's your favorite type of prayer? What's your favorite thing sort of in Catholic, you know, spirituality of the life? And he would say, my favorite is the Mass. I love receiving communion.

Ray knew what Simeon knew. He knew what it meant to long for and to actually encounter his savior. You know, Simeon remained elderly. He would pass away probably soon after this. Ray, at least for the time, remained blind and homeless. Meeting the Savior and knowing he had found his Savior didn't change all of the externals of his reality. But they changed the internal and the internal changed his experience of all of the external realities.

He knew what it meant to have the hope and the promise of a Savior and to know his Savior. He knew what it meant to have the joy and the hope of eternal life and the salvation from sins. He knew what it meant to have a Savior who would fulfill all that he longed for and who would save him ultimately from this valley of tears in which he found himself. And again, I'm just recounting it. I'm taken back to that small chapel

with this blind man who just knew what it meant to see his savior with the eyes of faith. As we pray this mystery, like Simeon, Mary and Joseph, let us ask them to present to us the savior. And like Simeon and like Ray, let us ask for the grace of faith that we may see and understand and be moved by knowing that we have found him,

that we have seen him, that he is here for us. Let us ask, let us beg for the grace to experience this internal transformation that will change our experience of all of our externals. 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 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. All right. Thanks, everybody. Thanks for joining me. Thanks for praying with me again today. I look forward to continuing this journey with you again tomorrow. Poco a P poko friends.