Day 102: Carried with Love
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Hey, I am Fr. 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 to 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 102.

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. Also, I'd love to 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 and

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. Today we'll be meditating upon and praying with the fourth sorrowful mystery, the carrying of the cross enriched by meditation from Saint Jose Maria Escriva and his writing Second Station, Jesus takes up his cross in his work, The Way of the Cross. The specific point of our reflection is going to be through love,

the cross becomes a throne. So, quick background on our author today, St. Josemaría Escrivá is our most modern author up to this point. He was born in the year 1902, he died in the year 1975, and he was canonized in the year 2002 by Pope John Paul II. He is known very well for founding the movement Opus Dei. And Opus Dei

Aids and encourages its members to live faithful and holy Christian lives in the midst of their chosen professions and ordinary duties. By the time of his passing, there was more than 60,000 members in 80 countries. Personally, my own reflection on St. Josemaría Escrivá, his work, his focus, the timing,

I think he's a really modern champion of both modeling and promoting the universal call to holiness. That everyone, not just priests and nuns are called to be saints, right? All of us, all of us who are listening here are called to holiness. It's a universal call. And one of my favorite quotes of his is, do everything for love. Thus, there will be no little things. Everything will be big. Perseverance and little things for love is heroicism.

St. Josemaria Escriva is not currently a doctor of the church, not yet anyway. Maybe he will be one day of the universal call to holiness, but time will tell. And now an excerpt from the writing by St. Josemaria. Offering no resistance, Jesus gives himself up to the execution of the sentence. He is to be spared nothing, and upon his shoulders falls the weight of the ignominious cross. But through love,

The cross is to become the throne from which he reigns. The end of the reading. Thanks be to God. Praying with this reading from St. Josemaria Escriva just reminds me that the same day that Jesus carries this cross to Calvary where he's crucified, it wasn't the only cross carried, right? There's actually three crosses carried that same day to the same place in many ways towards the same end.

But, right, there's only one cross that we ever look at, that we ever think about, that we honor. There's only one, you know, in quotes, carrying of the cross that we pray as a form of devotion. So what is it that makes this cross, the cross that we choose, the cross that we focus on, what makes this cross unique? Well, let's take a moment to look at the other two crosses, right? The other two crosses, they were carried by criminals. They were being carried by condemned men who were

as far as we know, are in fact 100% guilty of a crime. The crosses that they were carried were, from end to end, were forced upon them. They were heavy and they were begrudgingly dragged up the hill to their final resting place. Just looking at it a little bit, like there's nothing immediately particularly redeeming, glorious, beautiful, triumphant at all about those two crosses. The third cross, however,

The foundation of our meditation today, of course, was not carried by a guilty man, but an innocent victim. This victim is the innocent Lamb of God. And what happens with the cross of Jesus is that it's not just carried begrudgingly with nothing but the bitter tastes of justice wrath, but rather it is carried freely, embraced with love, and sweetened with mercy's ultimate victory.

It is the love by which this cross is carried and the lover who carries it that makes this particular cross our only boast. As St. Josemaria Scrivazzi writes, through love, it's through love that the cross has become the throne from which he reigns. There's only one cross that would become a throne and it was the cross carried by the king of love. Again, you have three crosses carried

As we pray today, let's go ahead and reflect on how these crosses carried were physically, technically the same.

But the one carried with love and the one carried by Jesus in obedience to the Father's will becomes a cause of glory and salvation. Can we ask for the grace, you and I, can we ask for the grace to not just carry our own daily crosses begrudgingly, but can we ask for the grace to embrace them freely, to carry them with love, confidence,

that our crosses, our own crosses, if they are carried with love and they are carried with Jesus, can become a means not only for us to suffer with him and to die with him, but in fact to reign with him forever. So now as we pray with Mary, let us ask for the grace of freedom to accept the cross. Can we ask for the love of Jesus to live in us that we may carry the cross with his same love and the hope that these crosses carried with love

will become for us a means to reign with him. And now 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. 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, thanks so much for joining me and praying with me today. I look forward to continuing this journey with you again tomorrow. Alright, Poco a Poco friends. God bless y'all.