The Rosary in a Year (with Fr. Mark-Mary Ames) - Day 58: Creativity of Love

Episode Date: February 27, 2025

When you love someone, you create a way to be with them. Fr. Mark-Mary tells us that if you love Jesus, you’ll create time to be with him. However, our love for God is a response to God’s love for us. This beautiful reciprocity means the creator of the universe has found a creative way to remain with us in all times and places, revealed through the fifth Luminous mystery, the Institution of the Eucharist. Today’s focus is the mystery of the Institution of the Eucharist 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 58. To download the prayer plan for Rosary in a Year, visit ascensionpress.com forward slash rosaryinayear 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 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 fifth Luminous Mystery is the Institution of the Most Holy Eucharist, Luke chapter 22,

verses 14 through 23. fulfilled in the kingdom of God. And he took a chalice, and when he had given thanks, he said, Take this and divide it among yourselves. For I tell you that from now on I shall not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes. And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.

And likewise the chalice after supper, saying, This chalice which is poured out for you, is the new covenant in my blood. But behold, the hand of him who betrays me is with me on the table. For the Son of Man goes as it has been determined, but woe to that man by whom he is betrayed. And they began to question one another which of them it was that would do this." Now the friars, we have a tradition, or it's part of our rule that every year we take a like a week long solitude retreat. And so a brother, maybe two brothers will go to a monastery, a place of prayer, and

they have their own little rooms or hermitages, etc. And we make a retreat. My very, very first solitude, I went to this place called Livingston Manor, which is kind of north of the city in New York and myself and at the time, Brother Isaiah, we went and we had our little hermitages. And there's a chance at the end of your time of retreat, if you'd like to, you can ask for essentially an audience with the Mother Superior of this sort of women's monastery. So we took that opportunity and Father Isaiah, again Brother Isaiah at the time, asked the Superior this question. He said, basically, hey Mother, you know, out here, like in the wilderness, in the woods, it's just super easy to pray. But we're about to go back to the South Bronx,

you know, our next door neighbor is the fire station and it's just loud and noisy and active. Like, how do we pray down there like we did up here? And she said, brother, it is the creativity of love. When you love someone, you create a way to be with them. If you love Jesus, you want to spend time with him, you need to be creative with your schedule and create space and ways to be with him in prayer. But my brothers and sisters, the Christian life, it's a response relationship.

So the creativity of our love is in response to the creativity of God's own love. And I believe the fifth luminous mystery is the high point. It is the creativity of love par excellence as Jesus gives himself in the form of bread and wine. gives himself in the form of bread and wine to be with us, body, blood, soul and divinity. And not that the Lord was asking for my feedback or my evaluation, but the form, the way in which he remained with us and says, do this, remember to me, it is absolutely perfect. By instituting the most holy Eucharist using such humble and accessible matter,

bread and wine, Jesus is able to get to the ones he loves like anywhere and everywhere. anywhere and everywhere, the kingdom of God throughout history has continued to break into basically everywhere through the most holy mass and the most holy Eucharist. For example, I'm thinking of what I've seen with my own eyes, right? I've been to prisons and Honduras where we come in, we bring a priest, we celebrate mass. And Jesus can give himself to his sons or his daughters who are in prison. The kingdom of God breaks into and is truly present sacramentally through the institution of the Most Holy Eucharist. This is the creativity of love that Jesus wants to give himself and be with those he loves. And I've seen this creativity of love in action in Jesus giving to himself in the Most Holy Eucharist, to the homebound in the projects of the South Bronx.

And we look to some of these broader events of history, like Holy Mass was celebrated in concentration camps. The kingdom of God was able to break in there in palaces and prisons. Throughout the 2000 years of Christianity, the kingdom God has been that the creativity of God was able to break in there and palaces and prisons throughout the 2000 years of Christianity, the kingdom of God has been there. The creativity of love has been manifested by Jesus coming there because he remained with us and comes to us in a form so humble and small and accessible.

And one of my very, very favorite lines comes from Pope Francis' first encyclical, Lumen Fidei, and he says this in paragraph 57, "'To those who suffer, God does not provide arguments which explain everything. Rather, His response is that of an accompanying presence, a history of goodness which touches every story of suffering and opens up a ray of light.'"

One of my very favorite stories, I lived in Honduras for a couple of years and one of the things we would do there is we'd bring communion to the home mound. And there's one of our neighbors who was in her last moments, was getting ready to go and she'd called and a priest was coming to offer her the anointing of the sick and viaticum. And as he got there, there was a number of evangelicals there praying with this woman who was on her deathbed.

And he heard them saying through the window, Ven, Señor Jesus, Ven, Señor Jesus, come Lord Jesus, come Lord Jesus. And the priest responded, Yavu, Yavu, Yavu, like, I'm coming, I'm coming, I'm coming. The priest, right, they were asking for Jesus to come and Jesus was coming. The kingdom of God was going to break through. The creativity of love was going to be realized because this priest,

this humble lowly priest was able to bring to carry the Most Holy Eucharist into this small, lowly home where a woman was on her deathbed. So my brothers and sisters, like, what do we do with this? How do we pray with this today? I think the first movement is just to contemplate the awesome beauty and humility of the creativity of love in Jesus instituting the Most Holy Eucharist, in Emmanuel God being present to us and close to us in the most holy Eucharist, in all of the ways the kingdom of God has

and continues to break into the world, into our own lives. And the second is the response. Are we responding to the creativity of his love with the creativity of our own love? Are we coming to him? Are we spending to the creativity of His love with the creativity of our own love? Are we coming to Him? Are we spending time particularly with Jesus in the most blessed sacrament? Are we cultivating Eucharistic devotion? Jesus is here.

The kingdom of God is at hand. What a gift it is that He remains with us, Emmanuel, God with us. So humble, so lowly, so creative, so accessible, and so good. So my present sisters, 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 the Son, and to 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. Alright everybody thank you for joining me and praying with me again today. I look forward to continuing this journey with you again tomorrow, Poco a Poco, friends. All right, God bless y'all.