The Rosary in a Year (with Fr. Mark-Mary Ames) - Day 55: Water Into Wine

Episode Date: February 24, 2025

In the Wedding Feast at Cana, we see Mary taking a new role: that of the initiator, asking Jesus to perform his first miracle. Fr. Mark-Mary unpacks this mystery, revealing the depth of Mary’s actions. By initiating Jesus’ public ministry, Mary is freely giving her son away, out of her great love for all of us. Today’s focus is the mystery of the Wedding Feast at Cana 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 55. 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 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. The second Luminous Mystery is the wedding feast at Cana, John chapter two, verses one through 12. On the third day, there was a marriage at Cana in Galilee,

and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the marriage with his disciples. When the wine failed, the mother of Jesus said to him, They have no wine. And Jesus said to her, A woman, what have you to do with me? My hour has not yet come. His mother said to the servants, Do whatever he tells you. Now six stone jars were standing there for the Jewish rites of

purification, each holding 20 or 30 gallons. Jesus said to them, Fill the jars with water. And they filled them up to the brim. He said to them, Now draw some out and take it to the steward of the feast. So they took it. When the steward of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew, the steward of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him,

Every man serves the good wine first, and when men have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now." This is the first of his signs Jesus did at Cana in Galilee and manifested his glory, and his disciples believed in him. After this, he went down to Capernaum with his mother and his brethren and his disciples, and there they stayed for a few days. And there they stayed for a few days. With today's meditation, I'm going to offer this same invitation to you that I believe the Lord has offered to me. And we're just going to take the invitation today to just stay with Mary for a moment. And to experience and to explore and to pray with this gospel account, the Second Luminous Mystery, with a real focus on the experience of Mary.

The first truth that I'd like to highlight is the Mary that we experience in John chapter 2, the Second Luminous Mystery, the wedding feast of Cana, is in a very different time of her life than when we last spent some time with her during the Joyful Mysteries. These events are about 30 years after the Annunciation and the Visitation, and about 18 years after the finding of the 12 year old child Jesus in the temple. And let's take a moment, just remember where we left Mary

back in Luke's gospel with the finding of the child Jesus in the temple. They find Jesus, they share their anxiety, their question like, where were you? He says, essentially, didn't you know I had to be about my father's house? And it says they didn't understand. But they went back to Nazareth, Jesus was obedient to them,

and Mary continued to keep these things, pondering them in her heart. We left Mary, you know, still experiencing a lot of this in a way that was very, very new. Often perhaps perplexing, leaving her with still perfect faith, perfect fidelity, but imperfect understanding. She continued to pray, she continued to watch, she continued to experience everything that was happening with the Lord, unsealing it all with her fiat, be it done unto me according to your word. And from that time in the temple to here at this wedding feast, again, Mary has been doing this for about 18 years in Nazareth. And just

what we can see is that there's this growing in understanding. There's a growing in confidence. And why do I say this? Right? Look at the difference how Mary becomes the protagonist, if you will, the instigator in the wedding feast at Cana. She notices that they're out of wine. And so she takes the initiative and goes to Jesus and says, you know, they're out of wine. They have their dialogue. And then she says to the stewards there, the workers there,

do whatever he tells you. Mary, it seems like her understanding is catching up with her faith. Her faith has always been perfect. Now she understands with a greater clarity, like, who Jesus is, the person of Jesus, the power of Jesus, the power of her son and his mission. And so Mary is no longer going to be in this place of kind of this radical receptivity to being surprised by the miracle or the manifestation of the glory of God

radiating through the person of Jesus. Now she's going to initiate it. Like Jesus, it's time for you to work your first public sign. It's time for you to work a miracle. It's time for you to turn water into wine. It's mysterious, this exchange between Jesus and Mary, where Mary says, they have no wine. It's mysterious, this exchange between Jesus and Mary, where Mary says, they have no wine and Jesus says, Oh, woman, what have you to do with me? My hour has not yet come.

And then Mary says to the servants, do whatever he tells you. What's going on here? One possibility, one insight, I believe, is this. Is Jesus and Mary both understand what this first public sign is going to imply, what it's going to lead to? Once Jesus does this, His public ministry is going to begin in full.

And the particular intimacy, the particular space that Mary and Jesus had together, it will be no more. And in my own prayer, what I see is this locking of the eyes and this implicit communication, like, you know what this means. Are you sure? And Mary looking at her son, right? And I believe this actually is going to cause a great wound to her heart as she gives her son away.

But she knows it's time. And we hear later on Jesus use these words like, No one takes my life, I lay it down freely. And I believe here Mary is saying something similar. No one is taking my son. I give him away freely. And if we can even harken back to the reflection on the visitation, this idea of Jesus coming to life of Mary and turning her prose into poetry and song.

And I believe it's like, it's what you have done for me. It's time for you to do for them. And as you've turned my prose into poetry and song, it's time for you to turn this water into the best of wines. And to go about doing this throughout the world, it's time to reveal yourself. It's time to proclaim and to establish the kingdom. So my brothers and sisters, we'll have an opportunity to come back and to revisit this mystery a number of times. It's just so rich. But today, let's stay with Mary. Mary was always faithful and faith, always obedient.

Mary was always faithful and faith, always obedient. And the Father also has been faithful to her in giving to her understanding as she continued to pray and to ponder. There's a new level of understanding and this new confidence in what the Lord is doing and who He is and His mission and His power. Secondly, again, Mary is the perfect disciple. What she has received freely, she gives freely. The gift of her son. And she's freely saying, it is time. As she's freely given to the world, her beloved son is, she's freely given to you and to me, her beloved son. And personally, I'm just moved with this affection,

this tenderness, this love for Mary and her love for me. So first of all, let us just reverence the offering that she makes. That she gives us her son here at the wedding feast of Cana as he begins his public ministry. But let us also ask Mary's intercession that we may reflect upon in our own lives. The great and the many gifts that we have received, our talents, our time, our treasure.

Let us ask for the grace to imitate Mary in freely giving what we have freely received, even if it hurts, even if it's a sacrifice, even if to us it comes at great cost. So asking for Mary's intercession to follow her example, 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 Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning

of the world. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen 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. Alright friends, thanks for joining me and praying with me again today. I look forward to continuing the journey again with you tomorrow.

Poco a poco, friends.