The Rosary in a Year (with Fr. Mark-Mary Ames) - Day 69: Nothing is Impossible

Episode Date: March 10, 2025

Congratulations! You have made it to Phase 3 of the Rosary in a Year: Meditating on the Mysteries. We begin lectio divina with Fr. Mark-Mary, meditating on Mary’s yes to a person, not a plan. We’re reminded that even if we don’t understand God’s plan, we can fully trust in his goodness. Today’s focus is the mystery of the Annunciation and we will be praying one decade of the Rosary. For the complete prayer plan, visit https://ascensionpress.com/riy.

Hey, 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 69. 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 preach month and it's a great way to track your progress. The best place to listen to podcasts 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 arts we'll be reflecting on. All right, everybody, congratulations and welcome to phase three. You've made it. Thanks for journeying with me and praying with me over these first two phases. Why don't you give yourself a little hand? Well done everybody. So with phase three, what we're going to begin with is a time of Lexio Divina on the scripture passages associated with each of the mysteries.

So for the next 20 episodes, we're going to be doing a guided Lexio Divina. Lexio Divina is basically a spiritual reading of the scriptures. And we're going to be following the traditional Lexio structure, but in a way that's slightly adapted for the podcast medium. So the traditional Lexio structure is Lexio Meditatio Orazio Contemplatio. So Lexio means reading. So we're going to read and prayerfully read the scriptures. And the flow of it is going to be, we're going to read the entire passage in its entirety.

And then I'm going to focus on a particular maybe paragraph or sentence. And so we'll read that again, kind of prayerfully sit with it and have one third reading, which might be that same small section or even a smaller section getting down to a word or a couple of words. And in our Alexio, we certainly want to be prayerful. We want to be receptive to the word of God, starting with the literal sense, starting with what is objectively being communicated.

Like what's the actual point? What's the most important truth or reality that's being communicated here? And then secondly, we can also just pay attention to like what am I being drawn to? What's my subjective response or experience of what I'm reading? Secondly is the meditatsio, and this is meditation.

This is the engaging with the scripture. And we would engage with the scripture in general with study, with asking questions, with making connections, particularly in scripture, and then also engaging it with our imagination, really trying to inflesh with our imagination the scripture passage, the events, what's happening here. And so I'm going to go ahead and guide this in our time of prayer here. Third, Lies oratio, which is prayer. And for clarity and consistency, we're going to follow a particular structure, which is called four Rs.. The four R's that we'll be following are receive, respond, request,

rejoice. So, receive the good news. Receive what God is revealing about Himself. Receive God. Receive who communicates Himself and gives Himself to us as we read and sit with sacred scriptures. So, receive what is given. That's where we begin. Secondly is our respond. What's the movement of our heart? Where is the invitation to a deeper conversion? And we really want this response to begin with adoration and praise, and then we move to where else God is inviting us, where else we're being drawn and moved

and guided by the Holy Spirit. The third R is going to be request. So we're asking, we're petitioning God for the grace to respond as we have felt moved and to persevere in our response to be request. So we're asking, we're petitioning God for the grace to respond as we have felt moved and to persevere in our response to request. And then lastly, rejoice. We want to always close our time of prayer in giving thanks to God in general for his revelation, for his goodness, for speaking to us.

But more particularly, we want to rejoice for whatever has happened in our time of prayer. And even if it's drive, we want to rejoice in that. And lastly, we'll end our time of Lexio Divina with contemplatio, or contemplation. Contemplation is receiving deeply the truth, the grace just prayed with. It's resting in God, His word, it's savoring His presence and His activity.

Now we know prayer in general is first and foremost a work of God. Contemplation, particularly in its highest form, is a gift given to us by God. And as we are having our time of contemplation, it's okay if you don't feel anything. It's okay if lights aren't going on, if things are clicking in a new, fresh way. It doesn't mean that God isn't writing these truths on our hearts, isn't transforming us from within with the grace that we have just prayed with and asked to receive. In our time of contemplation, Kunda Pata, it's going to happen as we're praying one decade of the Rosary, which is how we're going to end each of the episodes here in phase three.

Today we're going to be praying with the first joyful mystery, which is the Annunciation, Luke chapter 1 verses 26 through 38, with a particular attention to Mary's yes to a person and not a plan. In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you. But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and considered in her mind what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name

Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end. And Mary said to the angel, How can this be, since I have no husband? And the angel said to her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be called Holy, the Son of God.

And behold, your kinswoman Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For with God nothing will be impossible. So let's go ahead and identify the major themes, the major themes that we need to know about the Lord. So let's go ahead and identify the major themes that we need to know about the Lord. So let's go ahead and identify the major themes that we need to know about the Lord. So let's go ahead and identify the major themes that we need to know about the Lord. And the angel departed from her. So let's go ahead and identify the major themes, the major truths being revealed.

Beginning with the revelation of the coming of the Messiah in Jesus. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the son of the Most High." We notice Mary being troubled. She doesn't understand fully what's happening. Mary says, how will this be? And what is God's response?

It's not the plan, it's the promise of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. The Holy Spirit will come upon you. And the power of the Most High will overshadow you. The Holy Spirit will do it. Of course, we have Mary's fiat. She says, yes, not to a great, well laid out and articulated plan, but yes to God, yes to the Holy Spirit. The angel says, with God nothing will be impossible.

And Mary says, behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word. So we have the annunciation, the engagement, the means, which is the Holy Spirit. And then Mary's yes to God. Let it be done to me according to your word. Also worth noticing in this time of Alexio, I think there's something really beautiful to the name of Mary being written here in verse 27. It's God knows Mary by name. He knows her.

And now we're going to sit with Mary's fiat again on these last words of the angel Gabriel. Starting at verse 37, for with God nothing will be impossible. And Mary said, Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word. Sit with us a moment, let it sink in. With God, nothing will be impossible. With God, nothing will be impossible. In Mary's response, let it be to me according to your Now one last time.

With God, nothing will be impossible. And Mary said, Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word. Now let's move to our time of oratio, our time of prayer. First receive. What do we want to receive? The good news of the Savior. What do we want to receive? The good news of the Savior. What do we want to receive? I would say Mary's solidarity with us. That Mary too is troubled. What we want to receive as well is Mary's example, her model, as she engages the Lord, but with faith and openness.

What's happening here? I don't understand. I'm troubled by it. She brings it to God through the angel. How can this be? Here God says essentially, I will do it so the Holy Spirit will come upon you. Let's receive this truth. With God, nothing will be impossible.

Now let's receive the beautiful fiat, the beautiful yes of Mary, the model of discipleship. She says yes to God, again not to a plan. She says yes to God because with God nothing will be impossible. Let it be to me according to your word. Now pay attention to your response. Beginning with praise and adoration, begin by just praising God for coming to save us. Begin by praising God for coming as the Messiah, for fulfilling His promises. Give praise to God for this truth, like we adore Him, we offer Him praise in our trust because

with Him nothing will be impossible. And let's praise God for the great gift He has given us in the Blessed Mother, in this example in her fiat. And now is there another more subjective, particular invitation? For us today, as I've proposed, can we say yes again to God? Even though life may be mysterious, we may be troubled by particulars in our experience. We may not know where everything's leading. It may not all make sense. Can we say yes to God? Can we say yes to God? Can we place our trust in God? Can we find our peace in God? Can we find our peace in God?

And then echo and imitate Mary's response. Can we give a total our total fiat again to Him? Lord, I say yes to you in all things. I trust you in all things. I praise you in all things. And now let's move to the third hour request. Let's ask for God's help. Lord, help me believe. Help me to trust. Help me to keep you as my primary hope, Lord, when I am tempted

to find my confidence, my hope and plans and things working out in which I can see, let me come back to you, Lord, as Mary does, and say yes to you and place all my hope and all of my trust in you. God, give me this grace. May the Holy Spirit who did this beautiful work in Mary, may the Holy Spirit come upon me as well and do this work in me. And Mary, may you pray for us. May you pray for all of us that we may receive the grace to say yes to God,

even when we're troubled to say yes to God and to trust Him, even when life remains a mystery. Come, Holy Spirit, and pray for us, O Holy Mother of God. And finally, let us rejoice. Thank you, Lord, for your goodness. Thank you for your revelation. Thank you for your grace. Thank you for your word.

Thank you for your ongoing invitation. Thank you for the plan you have for us. Thank you for the grace that you give us. Thank you for the grace that you give us, the share in your divine life which allows us to persevere in fidelity to you and trusting you as Mary did. Thank you, Lord, for this time of prayer. Thank you for your word and for speaking to us. Now as we end this episode with our time of contemplation, I'm going to invite you to do a combination of one of two things. To focus on the one who invites you to say yes to Him, namely God. And also to ask for the grace to be poured deeply into your heart, to be able to imitate Mary's yes to a person not

a plan, that like Mary, we may place all of our hope, all of our confidence in God himself. 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. 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. 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. 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. Alright, thank you for joining me and praying with me again today. I look forward to continuing this journey with you again tomorrow, friends. Poco a poco. Bye now.