Day 96: A New Love
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I'm Father Mark Mary with the Franciscan Friars of 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 96. 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 33-777-4222.

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, 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 third luminous mystery, the proclamation of the kingdom and the call to conversion with help from a reading from St. Augustine, from his work on the Sermon on the Mount. And the point of emphasis of our meditation is going to be a new law for a new kingdom because of a new love. And now our reading from St. Augustine on the Sermon on the Mount, St. Augustine who we've already introduced, known as the Doctor of Grace.

The beginning then of this sermon is introduced as follows: "And when he saw the great multitudes, he went up into a mountain; and when he was set, his disciples came unto him, and he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, 'If it is asked what the mountain means, it may well be understood as meaning the greater precepts of righteousness; for there were lesser ones which were given to the Jews. Yet it was one God who, through his holy prophets and servants, according to a thoroughly arranged distribution of times,

gave the lesser precepts to a people as yet required to be bound by fear, and who through his Son gave the greater ones to a people whom it had now become suitable to set free by love. Moreover, when the lesser are given to the lesser, and the greater to the greater, they are given by him who alone knows how to present to the human race the medicine suited to the occasion."

nor is it surprising that the greater precepts are given for the kingdom of heaven and the lesser for an earthly kingdom by that one and the same God who made heaven and earth. The end of the reading. Thanks be to God. All right, so let's go ahead and reflect on these words of St. Augustine in the context of praying with the proclamation of the kingdom, the call to conversion. Just a reminder, so as Jesus is proclaiming the kingdom, our way to understand this, right, is that

in the proclamation of the kingdom, which is being proclaimed, established by word and by deed, we have these realities happening. And we see this in all that Jesus is going to do and he's going to preach and teach during his public earthly ministry. The Savior is saving. The divine physician is healing. The teacher is teaching. Right?

And what we encounter particularly here at the Sermon on the Mount is the lawgiver of the new kingdom is giving the new law. Let's go ahead and pull a couple of lines here from St. Augustine, right? He says this, through his son,

"gave the greater ones to a people whom it had now become suitable to set free by love." There's this acknowledgement that as Jesus comes, he is giving a new law and a greater law. And this makes sense again, according to St. Augustine, his own words, "nor is it surprising that the greater precepts are given for the kingdom of heaven." Right? There's a new law for this new kingdom, the kingdom of heaven being given here.

by Jesus, and we counted this phrase in a number of times with the Lord. Like, "You have heard it said, but I say to you." "You have heard it said, but I say to you." And you've heard it said, when Jesus is doing this, like he's going to mention sort of the old law, but then he's saying this, "But I say to you," and he's raising the bar. He's giving us the new law.

And so, I think it's important to understand this. It's not just that Jesus is raising the stakes, raising the bar, calling us to something higher, but everything else is left untouched. What's actually happening is this, as Jesus comes, as he's establishing his kingdom, and he's able to give us this new law because he's giving us a new love. And to use a bit of analogy, I think we see this with

like new moms and dads all the time is that they lived a certain way, maybe sort of the bachelor, bachelorette lifestyle. And then they become a father or they become a mother.

And their whole life changes and their expectations of themselves change and their ability to live for another changes. And all of this actually happens organically and naturally. Like they love to a greater degree because this child, their own child has been introduced to their life and they know a love they had never known before. And so the action, the change of action, I know it's not perfect, but the change of action often happens organically and

Not from a just, I want to do better, but it comes naturally. Like I have this new love and I want to respond to this love with a greater care, a greater giving of myself, a greater generosity, a greater ability to sacrifice, right? What's happening here with Jesus and the Sermon on the Mount and many of his teachings as he's going to raise the bar, particularly in the area of mercy and forgiveness is

is this is made possible because he is giving us this new love. And yes, part of this new love includes this new revelation, the new manifestation of who God is that we encounter and is made visible in Jesus Christ. We see our savior. We see our God born in Bethlehem. We see Jesus on the cross. Certainly there's part of it like, okay, look at how he has loved us and let us respond by a greater love. But also, and even more importantly, we actually have this,

access to a new love, a new capacity through grace. And we've discussed it before, but particularly with the coming of the Holy Spirit, like the new law is written on our hearts by God himself, by this access we have to the Holy Spirit. And so the new measure, the new law of the new kingdom established by Jesus is to love like Jesus, to forgive like Jesus, to be faithful to the Father like Jesus,

But all of this through the power of the Holy Spirit. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we are brought into the new kingdom and able to live the new law of love of the new kingdom because of the power of the Holy Spirit at work in us. Now, as we conclude by praying our decade of the rosary together, what I'm going to invite you to in particular is a new invitation to hope.

As we see the teaching of the Lord, particularly sometimes in the areas dealing with mercy, dealing with care for the poor, forgiveness in general, right? It can feel challenging. It can feel really hard. What I'm going to invite you to in these areas is like, and maybe you already feel the Lord inviting you to some of these areas in different relationships, etc. And there can be an experience of discouragement, right? Like this is hard. That discouragement though, it's really coming from the sense of like, I have to do this alone.

The profound grace and the profound newness of the new kingdom that Jesus established is that we have this new access to God, to the Holy Spirit living and acting through us. That we ourselves can echo with St. Paul, it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. So what I'm going to ask you to do is to really, really beg for a new grace of the Holy Spirit here. Come Holy Spirit, come Holy Spirit, live your life in me.

Come Holy Spirit, write this new law on my heart. Fill me with this new experience of love so that I may be more perfectly conformed to Christ, that I may more perfectly love as Jesus himself loved. And now 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. All right, thanks so much for joining me and praying with me today. I look forward to continuing this journey with you again tomorrow. Poker Poke friends. God bless y'all.