Day 105: Love Draws Us Up
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I'm 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 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 105.

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. 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, St. Reflections, and

and beautiful full-page images of the sacred art we'll be reflecting on. Today we will be meditating upon and praying with the second glorious mystery, the Ascension, with help from a writing from St. Thomas Aquinas. And now our reading from the great angelic doctor, St. Thomas Aquinas on the Ascension. Thirdly, in order to direct the fervor of our charity to heavenly things,

Hence the apostle says, "Seek the things that are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. Mind the things that are above, not the things that are upon the earth. For as it is said, 'Where thy treasure is, there thy heart also.'" And since the Holy Spirit is love drawing us up to heavenly things, therefore our Lord said to his disciples, "It is expedient to you that I go."

For if I go not, the paraclete will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. On which words Augustine says, You cannot receive the Holy Spirit as long as you persist in knowing Christ according to the flesh. But when Christ withdrew in body, not only the Holy Spirit, but both Father and Son were present with them spiritually. The end of the reading. Thanks be to God.

As we've discussed previously, the ascension, it's a theological truth. The ascension means that Jesus is now present to us in an all-new way, which provides for an even greater access to Him through the power of the Holy Spirit. I do believe that the glorious mysteries, they need to be more to us than just theological truths. They are theological truths, but can they be more than that?

the glorious mysteries. They are particularly glorious, efficacious, and moving when we ponder them filled with charity. That is profound, like deep, real love for Jesus and Mary. Yes, they are theological truths. Yes, Jesus

Risen from the dead means that death is conquered and heaven is opened. And as Pope Benedict XVI mentioned, all of creation experiences in quotes like the ontological leap. All of that is true, but also this, Jesus, the one we love, was dead and is now alive. I think about the movement of the heart of a parent towards their child that they thought they were going to lose.

But as the child suddenly regains its health, it regains its breath, it regains its heartbeat, there's this surging of love and a heart-wrenching joy. Why? Because of love. The child they love is alive. Also, Jesus, the one we love, he's returned to the right hand of the Father. And while we, in fact, have access to him now, and the possibility of profound intimacy with him here and now in this world,

Something far greater awaits us in heaven, something that eye has not seen and ear has not heard. So when we love Jesus, when we are filled with fervor and charity towards heavenly things, as St. Thomas Aquinas talks about, but the heavenly thing, par excellence being God, we seek heaven and the different foretastes of heaven possible in this life through prayer, scripture, sacrament, like with a greater zeal and totality.

Like when we love Jesus, it bears fruits in our lives with a longing for heaven and naturally like a healthy detachment from the things of this world and its anxieties. I think most priests who have just a couple of years of priesthood under their belt, they'll experience something like this when walking with a person of faith who's lost a loved one.

I just remember so clearly and on multiple occasions, you know, speaking to a grandmother who lost her husband, who she'd been married to for 60 plus years. And after the passing of her husband, like her zeal for heaven, it takes on a new depth. Yeah, she wants to go to heaven. She wants to be with Jesus. No, she's not in a great hurry to leave behind her remaining family on earth. But in the midst of all this, like she deeply desires to be united again with the husband she lost.

It gave this love and the belief and the hope of her lost husband being with the Lord in heaven. It gave an increased focus or zeal for heaven. This increased zeal, what we should call like a fire, it comes from love. Or on multiple occasions, I've walked with a parent who suffered the tragedy of losing a child. And when the temptation to despair and abandoning of faith was the strongest, the desire to be with their child again in heaven, like,

It kept them going in life and it kept them in the faith. So as we pray today, we're going to ask the Holy Spirit, who St. Thomas Aquinas refers to as love drawing us up to heavenly things, to increase here and now our longing for heaven by increasing our love for Jesus. May heaven be more than just a theological reality for us.

May Jesus ascended to heaven be more than a theological reality for us, but may it be a truth that we come to with profound love. We desire to be with heaven because we love God who awaits us there. We rejoice in the ascension because the one we love has returned to the right hand of the Father and has prepared a place for us. And we here and now are on this journey to Him.

to the fullest experience of union and communion with Him, the One that we love above all other things. May the Holy Spirit increase our charity for heavenly things. May the Holy Spirit help us today to love Jesus even more. 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. All right. Thanks so much for joining me and praying with me today. I look forward to continuing this journey with you again tomorrow. Poco a poco. All right. God bless y'all.