The Rosary in a Year (with Fr. Mark-Mary Ames) - Day 93: Look Like You Love Him

Episode Date: April 3, 2025

When Mary and Joseph realized that Jesus was missing, they searched everywhere, stopping at nothing to find him. This is how love searches, Fr. Mark-Mary tells us, drawing from a reading by St. Augustine. When we feel as though Jesus is missing, we can be like Mary and Joseph, looking for him like we love him. Today’s focus is the mystery of the Finding in the Temple and we will be praying one decade of the Rosary. For the complete prayer plan, visit https://ascensionpress.com/riy.

I am 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 93. To download the prayer plan for Rosary in a Year, visit essentialpress.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 praise the month and it's a great way to track your progress. The best place to listen to this podcast is in the Ascension app. There are

special features built just for this podcast and also recordings of the full Rosary. I encourage you to pick up a copy of the Rosary in a Year prayer guide book published by Ascension that was designed to complement this podcast. You'll find all the daily readings from Scripture, St. Reflections, and beautiful full-page images of the sacred art we'll be reflecting on. Today we'll be meditating upon and praying with the fifth joyful mystery, the finding of Jesus in the temple, enriched with an excerpt from a writing from Saint Augustine from the work Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament, Sermon 1.

The emphasis for our prayer and reflection is going to be, look for Him like you love Him. A little background on Saint Augustine. Saint Augustine was born in the year 354 and he died in the year 430. St. Augustine, without a doubt, is one of the most important saints, philosophers, and theologians of the Church's history. To be honest, his intellectual contribution and significance is really too vast.

Even to begin to expound upon in this brief introduction, what I'd like to focus on for our particular context is this. St. Augustine attributes his conversion and the reception of the grace of salvation to the insistent prayers and tears of his mother, St. Monica. In his work, Confessions, he wrote, For by the light of faith and spirit which she received from you,

She saw that I was dead. And you did hear her, O Lord, You did hear her and despised not her tears, When, pouring down, they watered the earth, Under her eyes and every place where she prayed. You did truly hear her." St. Augustine is also a doctor of the Church and he is known as the Doctor of Grace. And now our reading from our great saint.

His parents who are returning from, sought him among their company, among those, that is, who were journeying with them. And when they found him not, they returned in trouble to Jerusalem and found him disputing in the temple with the elders, when he was, as I said, twelve years old. But what wonder! The word of God is never silent, though it is not always heard. He is found then in the temple, and his mother says to him, Why have you thus dealt with us? Your father and I have sought you sorrowing.

And he said, Did you not know that I must be about my father's service? This he said, for that the Son of God was in the temple of God, for that temple was not Joseph's, but God's." The end of the reading. Thanks be to God. So let's take a look at the events of the mystery of the finding of Jesus in the temple, as outlined by St. Augustine, his parents who were returning from Jerusalem sought him among their company. Among those, that is, who were journeying with them, right?

So they're looking for Jesus where they normally find him. When they didn't find him, what? Did Mary and Joseph do? Mary and Joseph did the most predictable thing in the world. They went in search of him, right? Like, why is this obvious? This is obvious because they loved him. The most unreasonable and sad of events

would have been for Mary and Joseph to look for Jesus a bit amongst their companions, not find him and throw up their hands and say, oh well, we give up. No, what they do, what they do, which is so predictable and obvious because they love him, is they go back to Jerusalem in search of Jesus, right, and they find Him in the temple. It's here in this setting, in this context, that Jesus reveals something even more deep about His identity and His mission to them. I must be in my Father's house, right? There's a deeper revelation of Jesus. So what I'd like to propose is this,

is that Jesus' absence and His accompanying silence was no real silence at all, but an invitation. Come in search of me. St. Augustine writes these beautiful words, which I've already quoted. The word of God is never silent, though it is not always heard. Jesus is always speaking. God is always speaking. But sometimes we're going to have to search for it. Sometimes we're going to have to hunt.

Sometimes we're going to have to work. There's going to involve patience, stillness, perseverance to receive the word, to hear the word. Praying with the fifth joy of ministry, the finding of the child Jesus in the temple, and reflecting on Saint Augustine's words. Can we think about this truth? Modern man, for the most part, we have forgotten the art of hunting. Most of us, if we want food, what do we do? Like we go to the grocery store.

Maybe you go to a restaurant. Maybe you get out your phone and place an order and they go to pick it up and they bring it to your house. Like there's a certain degree of gathering, but not like hunting, not working for it. Because hunting, it requires knowledge. It takes skill, it takes work, it takes sacrifice, it takes patience, there's stillness, there's waiting, right?

All of this you need to do if you want to receive, to obtain the food that you need. And I think that what we can pull and gleam from this reflection from St. Augustine is a reminder that sometimes we're going to have to, if you will, hunt for the Lord. Sometimes we're going to have to work for our daily bread, and it's going to require patience and sacrifice and hard work. The word of God is never silent, though it is not always heard. How often do we come to prayer and feel like nothing's happening? Maybe we're doing the normal prayers, we're looking amongst where we normally find the Lord, hear His voice, and we can feel like he's not there and that he's being silent. And at this moment, right, it's so easy to quickly give into discouragement.

We've looked for him a little bit, we didn't find him, we didn't experience his presence, we didn't hear his voice. So we throw up our hands and say, well, this is hard, so I give up. And we can leave it at that. But my brothers and sisters, I encourage you to listen deeper. Though you may have the subjective experience of an absence or a silence from God, my proposal is this, that the Lord is speaking to you in the silence. And what he is saying is this, he asks you, do you love me? Do you love me? Are you willing to search for the Lord? Are you willing to sacrifice for the Lord? Are

you willing to wait, allow time past to remain in stillness and to persevere in longing until we find Him. And our response is, yes Lord, you know I love you. And Jesus says, then come and seek me like you love me. It's time to go deeper. I'm doing something new. Now, as we conclude praying one decade of the most holy rosary, I'm gonna ask you to prayerfully look at your heart

and to have this conversation with the Lord. Do you love me? Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. And hear the Lord say to you, then seek me like you love me. And now together with Mary, 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. 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 ever shall be, world without end. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Thanks so much for joining me and praying with me today. I look forward to continuing this journey with you again tomorrow. Poco Poco friends. God bless y'all.