The Rosary in a Year (with Fr. Mark-Mary Ames) - Day 66: Wait and Pray

Episode Date: March 7, 2025

What were the Apostles feeling as they waited in the upper room? Despite their trepidation, the Apostles waited and prayed with confidence, and the Holy Spirit transformed them. Fr. Mark-Mary shares a story of transformative prayer, teaching us how we can call upon the Holy Spirit. Today’s focus is the mystery of the Descent of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost 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 with 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 66. 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. 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 complement 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. The third glorious mystery is the descent of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. Acts chapter 2, verses 1 through 13. where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them. And they were all filled with the

Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together. And they were bewildered because each one heard them speaking in his own language. And they were amazed and wondered, saying, Are not all these who are speaking Gaelians? And how is it that we hear each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytites, Cretans and Arabians,

we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God. And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, What does this mean? But others mocking said, They are filled with new wine. Honestly, I felt like I needed a Pentecost to get all those names right, not only just speak their languages, but say them right. I think I did okay. I think I did okay. That was one take. One take wonder over here.

Hopefully I did okay on some of those names. Anyway, you know, one of the gifts of being a friar is that like when you enter, you have classmates and your classmates become your friends, become your brothers, and eventually they become your heroes. And one of these guys, one of these brothers in my life is Father Innocent. And I'm gonna share a story that he shares often publicly

and it's kind of like a story of his second conversion. He entered the friars and for the first few years he was just a total champ, like total super friar. He talked about like, yeah, I just made it look good. You know, I was praying and I was generous and I was working with the poor and I was doing all of the things. And still when he was early on in his friars, he was just beginning his 30 year vows, so about four and a half years in,

he was having some back pain. So he ended up having to go in for like what they call like a routine back surgery. It's like the bread and butter of back surgeries. You know, as a young man, he goes into surgery and he starts to come out of the anesthesia in the hospital room. He notices like the doctors and the nurses

starting to visit with an increasing frequency. and at first they're not really communicating what's happening. And eventually the doctor comes in and says, Father Innocent, we don't know what happened. As of right now, you don't have movement or feeling in the lower half of your body and you should. So, Father, it looks like at this moment, you're paralyzed from the waist down. The worst case scenario is we don't know if movement and the feeling is going to come back again in the lower half of your body. And of course, this is shocking

to the young father innocent. You know, a lot happens and his mother's already in town because of the surgery, but eventually it gets towards the end of visiting hours. He's there all alone in the hospital room. You know, it's totally dark and totally silent except for the little movements of light

and beeps from the medical devices. And here's this young man who had excelled in really everything in his life including being a friar, like a young super friar. He's paralyzed from the waist down. He has no answers. He has no way to do anything to try and solve the problem. And he's alone without his brothers, without his family, without the tabernacle. He doesn't even have his habit. And he shares that he was in this moment, like absolutely, and totally poor.

And so he just cried out from this place of poverty to the Lord. And my brothers and sisters, the Holy Spirit came. The Holy Spirit descended upon him, and Jesus came to him. And my brothers and sisters in that little lonely, dark hospital room, something happened. And this young man, Father Innocent, was changed forever.

He experienced unconditional love and a radical and new freedom because he knew he was loved unconditionally and didn't have to perform and achieve and earn anymore. Eventually over a very very slow and long process, over nine months, he would receive feeling back in his toes and then his feet and his legs and eventually through extended periods of physical therapy, he would learn how to walk again. And at this point, he's, you know, kind of a fully functioning normal friar, but he lives different.

He does all of the things and he's still a super friar, but he's not doing it from this place of poverty and need and insecurity, but he's doing it from a place of freedom. He's living as a son who knows he's loved. And it's really powerful and beautiful to see him live this way. But also what's a profound grace from this moment is the way in which he prays

and the ways in which he teaches other people to pray. Father Innocent has that experience of being totally in need and totally poor and praying and God coming and answering the prayer, and that being the answer. And so when he needs something or when people come to him and bring to him their poverty and their need, that experience of like, the thing I need the most, I can't give myself, I need God, with radical faith and confidence and hope, he says, pray. My brothers and sisters, the day of Pentecost after the Lord's ascension, the disciples are gathered with our lady in the upper room.

And they're in a place of real dependence and real poverty. That which they need the most, they can't give themselves. They need God, they need the gift of the Holy Spirit and they can't earn it and they can't manufacture it and they can't make it happen. Jesus says to them, I will send my father and I will send the promise of the father, but like wait and pray.

And so for about those nine days after the Lord's ascension, I just imagine our lady being with them and them feeling all of the things that we feel when we're told, you just got to pray, you got to ask God, the discouragement, the impatience, perhaps the distrust, the frustration. And I just imagine Our Lady like going to them and calling to mind and reminding them of what she experienced at the Annunciation as she, as the birth of the Savior was foretold and she says to the angel, Gabriel, how can this be because I don't know man? And the angel says to her, Mary, the Holy Spirit will come.

He will overshadow you because nothing will be impossible for God. So how many times Our Lady who experienced this and knew it to be true, like Father Innocent who experienced it and knows it to be true said to them like pray nothing will be impossible for God. The Holy Spirit will come And my brothers and sisters, what did they do? They waited and they prayed and what happened? The Holy Spirit came and they were transformed the Holy Spirit came and they were transformed. Their hearts were set on fire and they went forth with a new boldness and a new power and a new confidence to proclaim the gospel.

My brothers and sisters, again and again and again, we experience in our lives this poverty, this need. We might experience a variety of pains and sufferings. And we're told of the good news of God. We're told He's a good Father. And we might say, like, how can this be? Because I don't have my health, because I don't have the vocation I'm looking for. How can this be? How can this be? And with Our Lady, like God says, like, wait and pray.

The Holy Spirit will come. The promise of the Father will come. And my brothers and sisters, I deeply believe and have seen again and again and again. We see it in the life of our Lady. We see it in the life of Father. And I've experienced it in my own life. When Jesus says the Holy Spirit will come, I will send the promise of the Father.

Like, He means it. We have a God who keeps His promises. Wait and pray and ask our lady's prayers. Ask her to encourage you. Nothing will be impossible for God. The Holy Spirit will come. And so we bring our own hearts, our own needs, our families, and we bring our church and we bring our world. We need more of the Holy Spirit. Come Lord. Come Holy Spirit. My brothers and sisters, the Holy Spirit. Come Lord, come Holy Spirit. My brothers and sisters, the Holy Spirit will come.

With this confidence and hope, 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 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, friends, thanks for joining me and praying with me again today. I look forward to continuing this journey with you again tomorrow. All right. Poco a poco. God bless y'all.