Day 108: Heights of Holiness
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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 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 the 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.

Today we will be meditating upon and praying with the fifth glorious mystery, the coronation of Mary as Queen in heaven and earth, with help from a writing from St. John Damascene and his work, Sermon 1 on the Assumption. All right, first a little introduction to our author, St. John Damascene, born in the year 676, died in the year 749.

Some items of note about St. John Damascene. He did a lot of work fighting what are called the iconoclasts. Iconoclasts are those who are opposed to the veneration of images. And the iconoclasts were up in high places. One of the iconoclasts that he was up against was the Byzantine emperor, Leo III. And they have that name because they would literally...

go into churches and try and destroy the sacred images which they thought were idols. St. John Damascene's defense was really twofold. One, that we're not actually worshiping the images, but they help us ultimately to worship God. And also they honor the memory of the saints. And secondly, he argued that because of the incarnation of Jesus, like Jesus taking flesh,

All Christians had permission to also depict our Lord, to depict Jesus in images. He is a doctor of the church, particularly because of his works in defense of sacred art and fighting against the iconoclasts. I've seen him referred to as the doctor of Christian art and the doctor of the assumption. The focus of our prayer meditation today is going to be Mary and God's will. And now our reading from St. John Damascene. We too approach thee today, O Queen,

And again I say, O Queen, O Virgin Mother of God, stain our souls with our trust in Thee, as with a strong anchor, lifting up mind, soul, and body, and all ourselves to Thee, rejoicing in psalms and hymns and spiritual canticles we reach through One who is beyond our reach on account of His majesty. If, as the divine Word made flesh taught us, honor shown to servants is honor shown to our common Lord,

How can honor shown to thee, his mother, be slighted? How is it not most desirable? Art thou not honored as the very breath of life? Thus shall we best show our service to our Lord himself. What do I say to our Lord? It is sufficient that those who think of thee should recall the memory of thy most precious gift as the cause of our lasting joy. How it fills us with gladness. How the mind that dwells on this holy treasury of thy grace enriches itself.

This is our thank offering to thee, the first fruits of our discourses, the best homage of my poor mind, whilst I am moved by desire of thee and full of my own misery. But do thou graciously receive my desire, knowing that it exceeds my power. Watch over us, O Queen, the dwelling place of our Lord. Lead and govern all our ways as thou wilt. Save us from our sins. Lead us into the calm harbor of the divine will.

Make us worthy of future happiness through the sweet and face-to-face vision of the Word made flesh through Thee. With Him, glory, praise, power, and majesty be to the Father and to the Holy and life-giving Spirit, now and forever. Amen. The end of the reading. Thanks be to God. Again, our focus here is going to be on Mary and God's will. If we could call it, like, what was Mary's great boast?

was her great accomplishment. Mary's great boast was this, that she was preserved in grace through God's will and that she persevered in grace through doing God's will. Her great achievement, if we can call it that, is simply this, doing the Father's will. As Queen of Heaven and Earth, her greatest desire

and where her great intercession is directed, is first and foremost here in helping us do the Father's will. The greatest aid she can be to us is that simple. She helps us say yes to God. She helps us to echo her fiat. In other words, she helps us persevere in doing the Father's will. We often think of a queen as someone who is set apart or distant.

And Mary, in a certain sense, is set apart, both in her Immaculate Conception and in her role as Queen of Heaven and Earth. However, we know that Mary is both Queen and Mother. And while Queen is set apart, a Mother draws close. St. John Damascene is approaching Mary as a Queen, with the respect to her, but equally imploring her as a Mother with the confidence that she will respond and assist him. Mary is set apart as Queen so that she can draw us closer to her in holiness and closer to her Son.

like the best of mothers. St. John Damascene, he writes this beautiful prayer to the Queen, "Lead us into the calm harbor of the divine will." In other words, help us, oh Queen, like you, to abide in, to remain in doing the Father's will. This, my friends, this is what we are aiming for. But also we recognize our limitations.

Which I guess is why we come to Mary as our Queen and our Mother and say, "Help us, help us, oh Queen, help us to do the Father's will." What we don't do is, "Hey, Mom, watch. Watch us do the Father's will. We're about to be doing it perfectly." No, it's help us. It's help us. Why? Because we need help. St. John Damascene puts this in his own words, "But do thou graciously receive my desire, knowing that it exceeds my power and what is our desire?"

persevered in God's will in good times and in bad and sickness and health, right? But we recognize our limitations in our needs that this desire to be perfect in doing the father's will, it actually just exceeds our power. We encounter and we are faced with our frailty, but we just don't get discouraged and we don't give up when we encounter our frailty, when we encounter our

a limit in our power and our capacity before our desire to do God's will. What do we do? We come to our queen. We come to our mother with confidence and we say, Mary, help us. We say, Mary, when I am too little to reach the heights of holiness, may you mother lift me up. As we pray today, let's ask for that grace to reorder us.

and refocus our priorities. Like let's focus on the main thing. The main thing being doing God's will. And so in this includes right, avoiding sin, worshiping the triune God, loving our neighbor. There's so many things we can bring to our lady and ask for her, but first and foremost, let's bring this to her. Help us to do God's will in our lives. And now in prayer, we come to our queen mother with confidence, asking for the grace that our power may match our desire to

to persevere in saying yes, to echoing her fiat, and to doing, and persevering in doing the Father's will. 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. Well, thank you so much for joining me and praying with me today. I look forward to continuing this journey with you again tomorrow. Poco a poco, friends. God bless you all.