Day 87: It’s All True
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I am Father Mark Mary with Franciscan Friars with Renewal and this is the Rosary in a Year podcast. We're 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 87. 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 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. For today's Lectio Divina, we'll be praying with the fourth glorious mystery, the Assumption of Mary.

Luke chapter 1 verses 46 through 56. And our point of emphasis is going to be, it's all true. It's all true. And for our Alexio. And Mary said, My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. For he has regarded the lowest state of his handmaiden. For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed.

For he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. And his mercy is on those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm. He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He has put down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of low degree. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent empty away.

He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his posterity forever. And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her home. So now let's go ahead and engage our gospel passage here for our meditatsu.

So we're going to connect a couple of themes or a couple of threads. We're coming to the Magnificat, right, in the context of meditating on Mary and Mary's Assumption. A reminder of Mary's Assumption. It's Mary being assumed, body and soul, into heaven. She goes to heaven. She's united with her son in a beautiful way, as well as the Father and the Holy Spirit. It's the fulfillment, right, of the promises made to Mary.

and God's goodness and love and care for her. And so what we have here, the church gives us, or what we often go to as the gospel passage to reflect on the assumption of Mary is Mary's Magnificat. The time of the Magnificat, it happens right as she is still pregnant with Jesus. So it's early on in her life here.

it's really broken up into the two parts. It's Mary rejoicing about what God has done and will do in her life. And it's a movement to what God has done and will do for all of the people of Israel and for all of us, right? And so Mary says like, "My soul magnifies the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God, my savior." And this is really important for us. We come to this remembering that as we come to Mary and engage her and allow her to be a mother to us, like the Lord is not minimized, but magnified.

And Mary has this disposition of rejoicing. Why? God has regarded the lowest state of his handmaiden. Is that true? Yes, that's true. Behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed. Is it true that all generations call her blessed? Yes, that is true. Right? And in a particular way, we celebrate her blessedness and her assumption at this moment. For he who is mighty has done great things for me. Is that true? Yes. Holy is his name. True? Yes.

He has mercy on those who fear him. True? Yes. He's shown strength of his arm. True? Yes. He scattered the proud. True? Yes. Put down mighty from their thrones. True? Yes. Exalted those of low degree. Yes. Filled the hungry. Yes. The rich he sent empty away. Yes. Remembered his promise of mercy. Yes. So the point of meditation, one of the gifts of Mary's assumption is that, is this, I think we go back to the words of Elizabeth just a little bit before this.

Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord. And so, blessed are we who believe that what was true for Mary will be true for us if, like Mary, we are faithful. If, like Mary, we say yes to the Lord, we offer our ongoing fiat, let it be done unto me according to your word. A last little point of meditation, right? Like, there's a lot of commotion and discussion of like some of the relics of St. Paul, of St. Peter, some of these early apostles.

But there's none of this right for Mary, right? There's no one claiming to have Mary's body. Like Mary is truly body and soul assumed into heaven. And so the assumption is this reminder of how God keeps his promises, how he does it firstly in Mary in a most beautiful and privileged of way, but that it is going to be true for us as well. So we're going to come with you. It's all true. It's all true. The father is faithful. So let us like Mary trust. Let us like Mary offer our fiat.

And so we'll go to Alexia one more time. "Behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed, for He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name." We here participate and give witness to that this is real, that this is true. As we come, you know, thousands of years after the life of Our Lady, still calling Her Blessed, the Blessed Mother. "He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name."

And we too are invited, like Mary, to share in the blessedness of those who share in Jesus' resurrection in heaven for all eternity. We too are heirs of the mighty works of God. So we're going to really ask for this to increase our hope, our confidence in the Lord and His faithfulness and increase our capacity again for this total yes, this imitation of Mary's fiat. One more time for Alexio. For behold, henceforth...

All generations will call me blessed, for He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name." Okay, we're going to transition now to our oratsu, our prayer following, our template: receive, respond, request, rejoice, receive. What is the good news being offered? What is God revealing about Himself? Like His fidelity, His faithfulness. God has kept His promises.

We've seen it again and again in Salvation History. We celebrate it in a particular here in the Assumption of Mary. And so we have confidence that He will continue to keep His promises. What's the invitation? What's the response? Let's begin with adoration and praise and our own magnifying of the Lord. Lord, we just love You. We bless You. We trust You. We thank You for Your goodness. We thank You for Your particular care and love for the Blessed Mother. We thank You, Lord, for fulfilling Your promises made to her.

And we rejoice in her assumption, Lord, her share in your resurrection. And Lord, we just praise you for your fidelity. We praise you for your faithfulness. We praise you, Lord, for being a father who always keeps his promises. And so then what's the next level of response? How about imitation? So as we celebrate here what Mary has experienced, as we celebrate here the Lord's fidelity in her life, let us also experience the invitation to imitate God.

her yes, to imitate her fiat. And now we're going to ask for this grace. Lord, we're just going to ask for the continued grace of the Holy Spirit to be poured into our hearts through the prayers and the intercession of the Blessed Mother. That like Mary, we may have total trust in you and your fidelity, Father. That like Mary, we may share in the riches of the beatific vision, the riches of being with you in eternity for all the great wealth

of being with you, of praising you, of adoring you, of magnifying you for all eternity in heaven with all the angels and the saints. May this be the source of the good news. May this be the source of our trust and our confidence and bear fruit in a deeper surrender, in a deeper yes, a deeper imitation of Mary's fiat. Now we rejoice. Thank you, Jesus, for this time of prayer. Thank you for the gift of the most holy gospel. Thank you for Mary's magnificat. Thank you for this time of prayer, of encouragement.

an opportunity to rejoice in the good things you've done in the life of Mary. May this give us hope, authentic theological sure hope in the good things and the mighty works you desire to do in our lives as well. Now we'll conclude our time of Lectio by our contemplatio, praying one decade of the Most Holy Rosary

Really asking to receive just this grace of rejoicing, of confidence that it's all true. It's all true in a particular way. We see it true in Mary's life. It was true for Mary. It will be true for us as well. So we're going to ask to receive that grace as we pray with the Blessed Mother 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, that's going to conclude our time of praying Lectio Divina together. Certainly, you've been able to get to a place of prayer and conversation, rejoicing in the Lord. And if you're able to continue that, very much encourage you to do so. But that's going to end our time together. So thank you so much for joining me and praying with me today. I look forward to continuing this journey with you again tomorrow. All right, Poco a Poco friends. God bless y'all.