Day 88: The Road of Humility
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Hey, 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 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 88. 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, no matter what app you're listening in. Remember to tap follow or subscribe for your daily notifications. For today's Lectio Divina, we'll be praying with the fifth glorious mystery, the coronation of Mary as Queen of Heaven and Earth, Revelation 12, verses 1 through 5.

And the emphasis of our meditation is going to be: "Humility is the Royal Road." "Humility is the Royal Road." Now for our Lectio: "And a great sign appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was with child and she cried out in her pangs of birth in anguish for delivery.

And another sign appeared in heaven. Behold, a red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven diadems upon his head. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, that he might devour her child when she brought it forth. She brought forth a male child, one who was to rule all the nations with a rod of iron,

but her child was caught up to God and to his throne. Okay, now let's go ahead and engage our scripture for our time of meditatio. And of course, you know, what we can bring to our meditatio is our theological knowledge, our study.

So we are coming to the book of Revelation here in the context of praying and reflecting on the fifth glorious mystery, Mary's coronation as queen of heaven and earth. So we have here in Revelation chapter 12, a reminder of this, we understand off interpret the woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of 12 stars, that this is like a double symbol. So it does represent the church, but also Mary.

So here we have this twofold image, but we're going to focus on it as this image of Mary. And I just really want us to take time to reflect on the grandeur, the awesomeness of what is said about Mary here. A great sign appeared in heaven. A woman, Mary, clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of 12 stars. Like,

That there's the imagery of grandeur, of greatness, of royalty, a crown of 12 stars, of authority, the moon under her feet, of dignity, clothed with the sun. Like look how great the Lord has taken care of the Blessed Mother. And there's an intimacy, there's a beauty of clothing Mary, but clothing her with the sun.

like lifting her up as a father lifts up a daughter, but lifting her up all the way above the moon. And then if you picture, you know, a father placing a hat on his daughter, like here we have like the father, we have the Lord placing a crown on the head of Mary. And we think of this as like a beautiful, intimate moment. They're very close. Imagine them, you know, looking each other in the eye as this is happening, but the crown, uh,

is a crown of stars, right? Not just any crown, it's a crown of stars, the grandeur of it. And so there's this beauty combination of like, of the intimacy, but the grandeur, the royalty, the greatness of the dignity of Mary bestowed upon her by the Lord as she's made queen of heaven and earth. But like, how did she get here? The Lord has looked on the lowest state of her handmaiden. Behold, I'm the handmaiden of the Lord. Be it done unto me according to your will.

Mary chose humility. Mary remained in humility. The fruit of her humility being trust, obedience, surrender. So she just said yes, yes, yes. She remained humble. She remained docile. She remained receptive. All in confidence. All in confidence in the Lord and his goodness. And where did this lead her? To this place now where she is. She's been made queen of heaven and earth.

And we've seen this in the Lord's life. He chose to be humble, but he is the victorious king. We see this in Mary's life. She chose humility, but in choosing humility, she chose the royal road. And she now reigns forever in heaven and earth as queen. There's going to be a temptation to look down on the humble road. But our Lord and our Lady, they show us that humility is in fact the road of royalty. Let us return for our Alexio again.

A great sign appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. All of this Mary has received. And if you remember all the way back when we talked about "Thy will be done, Thy kingdom come," there's this invitation to becoming like a child who remains humble, dependable, but filled with confidence.

They don't have to take care of themselves because they expect to receive everything from the Father. Mary is expected to receive everything from the Father. And how much more than she ever expected does she receive being made Queen of Heaven and Earth. And one last time of Lectio, a woman clothed with the sun, with a moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.

We'll transition to our oratio, our time of prayer, following our template: receive, respond, request, rejoice. So what is the good news being offered for us to receive? What is God revealing about Himself? He's revealing that God is never going to be outdone in generosity, that He can be trusted, that He is faithful and He is powerful. But He's also tender, right? He sees us, He loves us, He cares about our hearts.

He come to us so humbly as we saw in Bethlehem. He remained so humble and meek as we saw during His Passion. Yet let's not forget who He is. He is the One who is powerful. He is the One who can clothe Our Lady with the sun, put the moon under her feet, and a crown of stars on her head. What's the response to this invitation? We begin by adoration and praise. We adore You, Lord.

for your grandeur, your power, your greatness, you who have created all things and hold all things in being. And now what's the response? I propose at least one response we can focus on is a renewed fondness, attraction for, surrender to, humility. Reminded that again, the road of humility is the royal road because it's the road that's been walked by our king and our queen.

So let's go ahead and we can reflect on those areas in our life where we feel, where we experience our littleness. We might experience being forgotten, being looked over. You might experience our own poverty towards the world, towards relationships, towards ourselves, our relationship with God. And we're going to move here to just an acceptance and a surrender. An acceptance of our own experiences of humility, of our own littleness, our own poverty, but surrendering it to the Lord like Our Lady did.

be it done unto me according to your word. Lord, we come to you with confidence, surrendering to you, asking you, Father, to provide for us, asking you, Father, to take care of us. So we're going to transition just formally now into our time of request. Lord, we just ask for this grace, for a new attraction, a new fondness, a new appreciation of humility. Lord, may you give us the grace of conversion of all the ways in which we are trying to create our own dignity, to create our own name in the world.

as opposed to receiving all things from you. And Blessed Mother, in this particular way, we're going to ask for your intercession here as we know and rejoice in you being the Queen of Heaven and Earth. That as Queen, you have real authority. May part of your work of magnifying the Lord, being magnifying His goodness, His grace in our own lives. And now we'll conclude with our time of rejoicing. We just thank you, Lord, again for the most holy word of God that we come to and we encounter. We thank you, Jesus, for the gift of Mary and

as Queen, and our Queen, the gift that our Mother is the Queen. We thank you, Jesus, for the gift of her own motherhood, truly effective still in our lives. And we thank you, Lord, for all the ways in which we are invited to imitate you and your humility, that as we follow your humility and the humility of Mary, may we do so again with just this confidence that we also will be lifted up, that we will be among the lowly that are lifted up. We love you, we bless you, we thank you.

All right, now we'll conclude our time of Lexi with our contemplatio by praying one decade of the Most Holy Rosary. And we're just going to reflect on this truth that humility is the royal road, the road that has been walked by our King and our Queen. We're going to ask for that grace, for a renewed zeal, a renewed acceptance, a renewed confidence as we ourselves experience the invitation to humility.

So with Our Lady, 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 friends, so that's going to conclude our time of doing Lectio Divina together. And certainly, you've been able to get to a place of prayer with the Lord. I encourage you to keep that going.

But thank you for joining me and praying with me today. I look forward to continuing this journey with you again tomorrow. All right, Poco Poco friends. God bless y'all.